More Sensory Cocoons!~snagglebox

Where's Attie?

Since this post where I describe how to make a quick sensory cocoon out of a fitted sheet was so popular, here are a few more ideas for making an easy sensory time-out zone.

Saying that Attie loves soft and fluffy things would be an understatement. That picture above is how he sleeps, with his bed completely covered by over a hundred stuffed animals of every size and shape. They all have names, and heaven help anyone who throws one onto the floor unceremoniously while trying to change the sheets.

Things were getting a tad unmanageable in the sensory time-out department, so I was looking for ways to give him the same soft-fluffy-thing immersion in a more contained way. These solutions worked really well for us.

Sensory Tent

Not just for the outdoors!

I set up a two-person tent in his room, lined the floor with camping mattresses (both firm and squishy) and filled it wall-to-wall with cushions, stuffed animals and all things fuzzy and soft.

It's not just cozy, it's Uber Cozy.

Sensory Tunnel

One of the things that got me thinking about the tent was that he liked crawling inside this collapsible tunnel thingy that I bought for the puppy.

He'd wrap himself in a blanket and then crawl inside, like a caterpillar (which is where the cocoon idea first came from). Although I think this would work much better for a smaller kid, since he's almost as tall as me now...

Sensory Canopy... Thing...

Every time we're forced to visit the sensory hell that is Ikea, Attie asks me for one of these cute bed canopies.

I always said no because ~~I'm mean~~ it's made to fit a particular type of bed... but he wasn't feeling great about our move to the new house, and apparently this would make him feel so safe and awesome and I'd find some way to make it fit because I'm soooo clever and can we just get it please please please can we please?

Before we added the other 143 snuggle buddies

It's the best thing. The visual boundary makes his wide open room feel less scary, the stars give him something to stare at as he tries to wind down and best of all, it (almost) holds all of the stuffed animals on the bed instead of on the floor.

Speaking of stuffed animals, he gets one as a reward every time we ~~survive~~ visit Ikea. But even he wouldn't touch this...