Advice about weighted blankets

[Guest guest]

Hi all:

I am new to the group and was hoping for your help. I am a girl

scout leader and one of my troop members is thinking about

organizing a program to make weighted blankets. Her thoughts are

that she would seek out an autism organization that could help her

find needy families who need them but cannot afford them.

I do not have any close friends or family with autism or related

diagnoses. So I was hoping to get feedback from families who could

comment on some of the issues that we have already stumbled upon.

The girl will be doing the questioning on her own, but I wanted to

get a little background that could lead her in some direction.

Her fundamental idea is to work with sewing groups to make blankets

and then donate them to an organization(s) that could make sure that

people get them who were not able to afford them on their own.

Looking at the retail availability of the blankets, they seem very

expensive. We assume they are not covered by insurance since it

seems the sources are not medical companies. Hence the seed of an

idea for a service project.

The information that she has found seems to focus on younger

children, but implied that older kids and adults benefited from the

weighted blankets as well.

Some of the questions for the families are:

1. Are weighted blankets really something that would be a beneficial

item? Can you tell us how they help if they do. Maybe some examples.

2. Are there agencies that would help distribute them to needy

children? Adolescents? Adults?

3. Since she would be organizing a " production line of sorts " they

will not be custom to the individual children. Are there a couple of

standard weights that would work or do they need to be custom to be

of value? What sizes and weights would be good if she does this as a

project?

4 Is there anything else that you think she should consider if she

pursues this project.

Thanks for reading this.

Cheryl