Archive for March, 2011

April is Autism Awareness month and April 2 is World Autism Day. We hope everyone will wear blue and try and start conversations about Autism. At National Autism Resources we try our best to be encouraging because we believe all people can do great things and everyone deserves respect. However, raising a child on the spectrum is often a long and difficult journey.

20 years ago autism only affected 1 in 10,000 children. Now autism is affecting conservatively 1 in 110 children. Autism is now the most common childhood disability. Many professionals and teachers are not trained in how to support and work with these kids. The professionals that do have training can’t meet the demand. We need more resources for parents, teachers and researchers.

Let’s talk about the needs of our community and work together to raise awareness!

As an Occupational Therapist and co-owner of Sommerfly™, a therapeutic products company, I am very aware of the common misconception on the internet and elsewhere regarding what the appropriate weight is for a weighted blanket.  For a very long time there was no research done on weighted blankets.  In order to have some frame of reference, the research that was done on weighted vests and backpacks was misapplied to weighted blankets.  This is incorrect and unfortunate as weighted blankets are used in an entirely different way than weighted vests and backpacks are used.

The biggest difference is that an individual is not bearing the weight of the blanket while standing.  That is what the research on weighted vests and backpacks tested – weight bearing while standing. The useful weight for a Weighted Blanket is most commonly more than 10% of the person’s body weight. The Sommerfly Sleep Tight™ weighted blankets  follow the current, research-based recommendations of being heavy enough to be effective but light enough for the user to remove the blanket at will.

There is now finally some research on weighted blankets.  This research was conducted by Tina Champagne, an Occupational Therapist based in Massachusetts.  She also concluded that using the results of the weighted vest and backpack research to determine appropriate weights for weighted blankets was incorrect.  In fact, she found that people consistently sought out, and were comfortable with, weighted blankets that weighed well over 10% of their body weight.

I have determined Sommerfly’s™ weight recommendations for our Sleep Tight™ weighted blankets based on the many years of experience I have had trying different weights for the children I have worked with in my Occupational Therapy practice. The weights that I recommend are based on what we have found to be most commonly effective as reported by parents, the blanket users and my observations.  Some people crave more pressure and some people like less pressure but the guidelines that I have come up with work for most people, both children and adults.