#//put dried bean or something similar in a long sock and microwave it

[bubbles-and-sparks]

pyro i’m having excruciating period cramps that medicine does not affect, could you set my lower half on fire im hoping the heat will help and also i am desperate to feel anything but my uterus imploding

oh no!! 😱😱

i dont think fire will help you much 😓😓

do you have a heating pad you could use?

[stimtoybox]

I really wanted a Scentsy Buddy (a plush with a zipper for scent packs)... but they have a plush supporting Autism speaks. :( My favorite sensory thing is plush things and smells... any ideas?

As far as I’m aware, only sales of that plush contribute towards A$. However, if you don’t want to touch a company that has any connection with A$, I absolutely do not blame you - it’s all about our individual comfort level, and we have the right to feel good about the stim toys we buy.

I do have ideas, though, about DIY alternatives, and @pink-rainbow-sparkles and @thesensorybox have posted on very good alternatives available in Australia and New Zealand.

If you don’t want a weighted plush, the simplest solution is to literally drop essential oils on a plushie/soft toy you already own. Some essential oils like lemongrass are yellow-tinted and will stain; other essential oils, like lavender, tea tree or peppermint, are clear and won’t stain. (I’ve been dropping lavender on my pillow at night, to help me sleep, for four or five years. You wouldn’t know it to look at my pillow or pillow case.) If you want to change the scent, wash the toy and add a new oil. (My pillow case does not smell of lavender after machine washing, and I use fragrance-free laundry powder.)

If you want more info on which essential oils don’t stain, I’ll gladly go through my oil collection and swatch test them for you, but I’ve been dropping lavender oils on my weighted soft toys to refresh their scent and there is absolutely no staining. None. Do use pure essential oils and not oils blended with a carrier oil, though, or else you might make your toy tacky or greasy to touch.

(Note: I have no idea about the stainability of perfume/fragrance oils when dripped on fabric, because I don’t use them. Can anyone advise on this?)

The other options involve using weighted heat bags inside a plush animal case, very similar to the Scentsy toys. These toys are a cover designed to contain a rice or wheat bag that you remove, microwave and then replace, so they’re ideal for the switchable scent pack function.

@thesensorybox wrote this post on how to find them in K-Mart stores; @pink-rainbow-sparkles wrote this post on how they use their unicorn, also from K-Mart. There’s several different ones listed on K-Mart’s website, $9 AUD. Big W, another Australian department store, also has several different kinds, also $9 AUD. The bunny looks really cute!

I checked out Amazon, but I was having trouble finding toys with the removable pouch, since that is part of the function we want here. I’d recommend checking out your local department store. If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, it may be harder to find these as you’re moving out of cold weather. My local department stores, albeit with less stock, did have them throughout the summer just gone, so I’d consider it worth a look.

If you want the switchable scent pack function, for different scents, you’ll likely need to make or buy packs of a similar size to swatch them out, and either scent those packs with essential oils or fill them with a scented filler (dried herbs, lavender heads) in addition to stuffing or something weighted (rice, seeds, grains, soup mix, dried beans, poly pellets). You can scent rice very easily by tossing it in a container (an old ice-cream tub works well) and adding a few drops of oil, and I’ve scented plastic poly pellets the same way with no problems. I’ve also mixed poly/soft toy stuffing with dried lavender heads with no problems, just by layering: one layer of stuffing, one layer of lavender, etc.

The wheat packs, if you make several, are no different from a bean bag (two tutorials linked on this post). Cut two pieces of fabric the size of the bag inside the toy (usually a rectangle or a square), sew or glue up three edges, fill with scented rice or wheat or weighted pellets (if you’re not going to heat it, it doesn’t matter what you use) and sew or glue closed the fourth edge, making a sealed-shut pocket. Since it goes inside the toy, it doesn’t even have to be neat - just keep your stitches small enough that the inside filler can’t come out. The seams can be as messy as you like!

You can also refresh this pouch with a few drops of essential oil, and because it goes inside the toy, you can even use those oils that stain, as you won’t see the inner pouch.

If you don’t mind rustling plastic, you could even use several ziplock bags to contain the scented filler. I’d recommend using the thinner, cheaper kind, as the smell of the oil will seep through the plastic more easily. (I never find one ziplock bag to contain scent all that well, but the cheaper ones are much worse at it, which is what we want!)

Either way, it’s a little involved if you want to have the multiple scent options. Just dripping a toy with essential oils is the easiest, but it will still involve the purchase of several oils. (This said, oils last a long time and you can use them for scented necklaces, slimes, burning in oil burners, bean bags, personal care, cleaning…) The heat-up pocket plush toy will require sewing or gluing, and the purchase of fabric (or ziplock bags), bag fillers and oils. I can’t find a way that’s less complicated, because I don’t think perfumes and body sprays will last as long as essential oils, in terms of the filler or plush toy holding the scent.

If anyone has any suggestions, or a supplier for something similar that isn’t Scentsy, by all means, suggest away!

ETA: @ninjacacti says,

a good scent thing that isn’t oils are tea bags! they never stain and last a super long time I have a little pocket I’ve sewn on teddy bear that sits in my bed with a tea bag in it and it works great! if you can’t sew or just don’t like it you can get Velcro or just glue

Oh, very cool thought! It’d be so easy to remove and replace different tea bags from the heat bag soft toys! Thank you!

ETA the second: @2hon5 says,

Also, if you don’t have the spoons or motor function to sew or glue your own bean/rice bags, you can use those little zipper wallets. Just make sure the zipper is entirely plastic (no metal) if you’re going to microwave it. If you can’t find one like that, you can always use a sock and fill it up, tie it off, microwave it, and put it in the plushie.

I bow before your genius. Seriously. Very, very good suggestions. Especially the sock one, because that’s so simple and accessible. Thank you.