my son has a weighted blanket and the extra weight helps him fall asleep. it is quilted in squares so each square has a few weights in it. you can use small galvanized steall washers or ceramic beads. his has some kind of plastic fill in it but i would probably avoid that because it is small enough that he can work them out of the fabric and i feel like i am always picking them up. he also likes his blanky 'soft' so it is flannel on the bottom. depending on how old the child is they may like to have little buttons with texture sewn onto it as well or little tabs to fiddle with. to know how much weight is the max it is 10% body weight plus 2 lbs so a child of 40 lbs should not have more than 6lbs. quilting each filled pocket fairly small will keep the weight from shifting too.