weighted vest plans

[celticdragonfly]

Jamie had another session with the OT therapist today. We did some good work. Talked about a lot of his issues and what we can do about it.

We'd talked before about getting him a little backpack, since he liked wearing Maggie's with books in it - he needs lots of deep pressure for his sensory issues, and heavy stuff helps. We hadn't been able to find another suitable very-small-kid backpack here. So today I brought up weighted vests, that I've heard get used. They don't have any, but yes she thinks it would be a good idea. She suggested if I could find him a child's fishing vest, and put weights in the pockets and sew them closed, that would be good.

I found them. L.L. Bean has them. Amazingly, they have them down to TODDLER sizes. Starting at 3-6 months. Because hey, if your 3 month old is fascinated by fly fishing, you should encourage this, right?

Well, it serves my purposes anyway. They also have small children's backpacks! So we're ordering him one and having them put his name on it.

The vest isn't available until Aug. 24th, and the backpack not until Sept. 11th. I guess people have been doing back-to-school shopping. Well, his sensory issues aren't going to go away before then, that's for sure. I need to get him weighed anyway, and figure out from that what amount of weights I need to get for the vest. We may try to find some way to sew some weights into the back of it, too.

I really hope this will help him. We're doing a lot of work with him on OT, using the orange stretchy thing she left us, using the skin brush, doing massage, etc.

Comments

[jazz007.livejournal.com]

Brings whole new meaning to Thumper the Tank Baby!

AC +5

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, there's a REASON he got that nickname.

Heck, if they had Kevlar vests in his size, I'd be asking how much they weighed.

Karl says we're trying to get him up to heavy encumbrance.

[woobiewoobster.livejournal.com]

When you say sensory issues what exactly do you mean? How do you know he has them? (I guess what I'm saying is: what are the symptoms?) Why a weighted vest? I'm curious about this type of therapy.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Oh man. It's hard to explain. I am not an expert at this. The lady who IS the expert finds it hard to put it in words.

Some symptoms - he toe-walks like crazy. He does stimming, flapping his hands, tensing his legs and arms, tensing his face. He'll suck his thumb constantly (so ever constantly), chews on things, lots more than a typical kid his age. He'll overstuff his mouth with food. He'll repeatedly throw himself against things or people. He'll beg for heavy rough play - tossing, wrestling, etc - way more than most kids. He thumps into things. That's all the list I can think of just now. These are the ways that he's trying to provide himself with the type of stimulus he needs.

Think on how a little baby, when seeing something new or a person's face, will sometimes get all excited, stiffen up, wave his hands? Jamie does something a lot like that - his nervous system hasn't outgrown it.

What we're trying to give him is proprioceptive input. Proprioceptive has to do with deep muscle and joint pressure - the way it feels in your body when you're carrying something heavy, or how it feels in your legs when you jump up and down.

I am so not an expert at this. I'm just trying to learn how to give Jamie what he needs - and it does seem to help him, calms him, and we're hoping that if we help him through the sensory stuff enough, he can eventually catch up on his developmental delays and even eventually outgrow the sensory issues, or learn ways to self-stim that are unobtrusive and not a problem in society.

[salix-03.livejournal.com]

Kiddo loves sensory stuff. I use lateral deep pressure hugs to calm him down. Could you knit him a vest and put fishing sinkers on it like with beaded knitting? Then the weight would be everywhere you wanted it, not just in pockets.

Do you have a swing? Corey loves swinging, and the changing spacial up/down thing that he has to compensate for helps his balance. And wandering around barefoot on grass/sand/concrete...

No matter how bad Corey is stimming out in public because the lights are bright and the floor reflects them, I'd much rather that than him being over sensitive and only being able to wear egyptian cotton or something!

[salix-03.livejournal.com]

Can I reply to this and give you an alternate view point?

With my son, it's easy to tell he craves sensory input. He seeks it out constantly. Whether it's watching music videos with his nose pressed against the screen, or rolling around on a polished floor, most of what he does is seeking out 'extreme' sights/sounds/feelings/smells. He'll ask to be smacked/wrestled with, pinch himself, rub cold things on his stomach, eat the weirdest things because they taste strongly (like the sourest lemons I've ever tasted - he'll eat them like an orange?!?), spend hours with a texture book but be uninterested in a book with pictures...

A weighted vest feels 'funny' and that's pretty much why it works. It gives the wearer constant sensory input and that gives them the feedback they crave and calms them down. I'd try one on my son, but it's hard enough to keep clothes on him at the best of times ;)

sources for weights

[bkseiver.livejournal.com]

In addition to fishing sinkers, there are weight disks that are used to hold down hems of draperies. Be sure to secure the sinkers REALLY well if you use them - they are lead, I believe.

Also, if you have a reinactor friend who makes musket balls, you might be able to get them to pour a bar shape or similar mold that would work well as a weight. "No box around my thinking!"

Ooh, ooh - that outdoors shop with all the taxidermy animals you enjoyed --should have a big range of fishing gear. Might be able to get bigger weights in the deep-sea fishing gear, eh?

Re: sources for weights

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

We were figuring we'd go to a sporting goods store and look for the type of weights that people put into ankle and wrist weights and such. I'll remember the draperies weights. The nice thing about wrist weights is they'd be more spread out - harder for him to turn the vest into a swinging weapon!

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

No, we don't have a swing. We want one EVER so much. There is no appropriate sized tree for a swing. I'd like to have a swing set for the kids. But I disklike the cheap metal ones, I find them dangerous and annoying. The wooden ones I can do relatively cheaply are all going to be of lumber from the lumber stores that will have been treated with all sorts of nasty chemicals, arsenic and such, and frankly the design on most of those is bad.

What I WANT is a Cedarworks playset. http://www.cedarworks.com

Oh, I want one of these SO much. However, the ones I'd want to start with (these are the simpler ones, honestly) cost between $3700 and $4100.

[salix-03.livejournal.com]

We don't have a swing at home, but there's a park 15 minutes walk away, so we go there :)

$3700 is a lot of money! And those playsets are HUGE!

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

There's a park near here, too. But we don't go there much. Aside from the gawdawful heat - trying to keep two small kids, one of whom is Jamie with his issues, under control in an open unfenced park, yeeek. And it's on gravel, last time he was trying to eat it.

I wish I had some teenage relative nearby, to pay to send with them and chase after them there!

[salix-03.livejournal.com]

You say 'gawdawful heat' and I say 'regular summer temps' :D

Teenaged relatives would be lovely, huh. I don't have any either :(

[woobiewoobster.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. I know very little about developmental delays and only enough about some things to get myself in trouble *wink*. It's good that you are looking into help for him as you do want him to have the best start possible. Good for you, and him, that you are seeking the help he needs. I'll be interested to hear if the weighted vest helps.