Weighted Blanket

My youngest daughter has been diagnosed with Autism.  One of the major issues that parents of children with Autism face is sleep disruptions.  Adele has some issues going to sleep so after doing some research, I decided to try a weighted blanket.  However, these are very expensive online, with one in her size and appropriate weight starting at $80.  So, I found a tutorial on YouTube about making your own weighted blanket and I gave it a try.

For the fabric, I chose flannel because it is soft and it was on sale for $2.99 a yard at Jo-Ann.  I also bought three bags of Poly Pellets and a bag of Polyfill.  I looked around at the blankets for sale and decided on making a approx 36" x 50" blanket with 5 pounds of Poly Pellets and also stuffed lightly with Polyfil for extra comfort (Adele likes pillows).  The blanket has 6 columns and 8 rows for a total of 48 "pockets" so I put 1.6 ounces of pellets in each pocket (a kitchen food scale helps).  Overall, it cost me about $30 to make and took about 4 hours.

I am still judging its effectiveness.  She has been sleeping through the night while wearing it but I am still working on seeing if it makes a difference in getting her to go to sleep.  I also bought a remnant of My Little Pony fleece which I am planning to make into a weighted lap pad.  I just have to decide how many pounds I want to put into it.