Hi, this is Anna Kennedy at Women’s Radio Station talking all things autism. Today, my guest is Mel Wood, who’s from Fidgetbun, but before we go over to Mel, I’ll just tell you a little bit about what I’ve been up to. Yesterday, I was in Manchester at AutoTrader, and it was a great event, and what they were doing was I was speaking to 50 different companies, and it was trying to raise awareness and acceptance of giving people with autism a job, employment, so there’s only 15% of people in the autism spectrum that have a job, which is quite sad really, because if they get it right and they get the reasonable adjustments right, they can make so much of a difference, so it was a great event, lots of interest, they had the police there, we had the National Health Service, so hopefully, they will create more positions for people on the spectrum, and what’s coming up is Autism’s Got Talent, and we’ve only got a few weeks to go, so Autism’s Got Talent at the Mermaid Theatre, which is at Blackfriars, and we have 20 performers coming in from all over the country, and the United States, and it’s an amazing showcase of talented young people on the spectrum.

So, Mel. Hello. Hello, Anna.

Is this your first radio interview? It certainly is. Oh, well, there you go, baptism of fire. Thank you for that.

Okay, so, Mel, when did I meet you? Was it last year? Yes, it was last year, middle of last year we met. Okay, and we were talking about, because obviously, I have difficulty with my son Angelo, and sleep problems, I try to look at whatever I can that’s non-invasive to get a better night’s sleep. We’ve had a particularly bad week this week, Angelo’s just been all out of sorts, I don’t know if it’s to do with the weather that we’ve had, but 48 hours with no sleep, I was walking around like a zombie, I didn’t know what to do with myself, but totally shattered last week, so hopefully, things are getting a little bit better, but we usually get three to four hours sleep a night, so I can function on that, but any less, it’s just not fun really.

So, tell me a little bit about yourself, and why you created Fidget Bomb. Okay, I created Fidget Bomb, because when my youngest, who’s now eight, when she was 18 months old, and she made the transition from cot to bed, she would kick off the duvet, calling out for a mummy daddy to go back and tucker back in. We tried every solution to try and rectify this problem, but nothing seemed to work for our little wriggler, that’s when I came up with the idea of Fidget Bomb.

So, Fidget Bomb basically is a stretchy piece of material that feeds underneath the mattress and comes over the top and zips up, it’s a meter long, so you can position it wherever you want to on the bed, and of course, being the nature of the material being stretchy, they can wriggle around and move around and still freely be able to get out of bed fine. And of course, I made this, and it rectified the problem of the duvet ending up on the floor, or my daughter wriggling out of bed, or falling out of bed. So, who came up with the idea then? Did you try lots of different prototypes then? Yeah, well, personally, I tried other sleep aids on the market at the time, but nothing seemed to work.

My daughter, she had a little snuggle blanket, and one day I was just sat there kind of thinking, there’s got to be a simple solution, and I thought about, believe it or not, a tubey-grip bandage, and because of the snuggle blanket that she had being stretchy, I put a zip on it, and it was the right dimensions, and put it on her bed, and it worked. And it worked, and it worked, and it worked every night. So, I thought it’s such a common problem, so I wanted to help other families and children.

So, I literally went into production with Fidget Bomb. So, how was that then going into production and setting up a company? Very exciting. I mean, I suppose it’s quite tough when you come up with an innovation product to go through the right procedures, and I suppose the right kind of tracks, etc.

And it took me a long time. So, really, I’ve been out trading for about three years now, so when you think she was 18 months old, so officially taking my product to market three years ago. She’s still using it? Well, she hasn’t done, because she’s now in a cabin bed, believe it or not, but occasionally she does.

I mean, she does say, but I suppose it’s been quite warm, so I haven’t used it with her, but occasionally she’ll ask for Fidget Bomb, especially when it’s on the colder nights, you know, just to keep her tucked up. What’s the fabric? What is it made of? So, I initially started off with 100% cotton, but now I use 95% cotton, 5% spandex, so it gives that whole, and a four-way luxury stretch, so it gives that kind of feeling of a hug in bed, and that kind of, that, you know, that coziness, and that, you know, that calming effect, and that whole security factor. So, it’s for single beds? What about cops? I do it for a cop bed, a toddler bed size, and a single bed size, and I’ve been asked numerous times for double bed sizes, so I’ve literally kind of brainstorming at the moment with a solution for a double bed size, which hopefully I’ve rectified, you know, come up with an idea, which hopefully I’m going to make some prototypes, and hopefully go to market with that.

Okay, so why Fidget Bomb? Who came up with that name? My husband came up with that name. Okay, and if someone was interested in having a look, you know, about Fidget Bomb and how it works, where would they look? We’re currently, we’ve got a website, so you can order from our store on our website, and we’ve got a few stockists as well that hold our product, and we’re literally in setting up to go on Amazon. We are literally ready to go on Amazon, but that’s the UK market at the moment, and then hopefully, once all the design work comes in, then we’ll be going global with it.

I was just gonna say, where can you see yourself in five years time? Hopefully many, many countries are helping a lot of children and families. Okay, have you got any other ideas that you might like to extend your range, if you like? Well, yes, I would. I mean, we’re looking at other sleep aids to work along with Fidget Bomb.

I mean, my husband’s got some ideas. Oh, that’s good. So hopefully we will kind of expand on our product range.

Yeah, so with them, obviously you came to the Autumn Expo, and you met quite a few families that have children who are on the autumn spectrum, and probably met some autistic adults. Yes. Did parents share any, you know, of their dilemmas, if you like, of sleep problems that their children have? Yes, I mean, I’ve helped so many friends, sorry, children and families.

I also work closely with some occupational therapists as well, who are now recommending Fidget Bomb. That’s good. One, because it’s so small and discreet, so the child can enjoy their favorite bed designs during the day because you can hide it underneath the duvet, or so you can take it on holiday with you, because children, it’s the whole familiarity.

So if you have the problem at home, then you’re going to have the problem, whether they have sleepovers at grandparents, aunties, uncles on holiday. So to take Fidget Bomb with you, you know, and every bed becomes your child’s bed, which is lovely. Yes, so basically, you know, the problems with the sleep issues that these children and adults are having, is that kind of that slight pressure that they like, and with Fidget Bomb, it gives that slight pressure, and being, you zip them in, it’s that whole security factor as well.

Okay. I mean, yes, of course, it is an awaited blanket, but it gives that slight pressure, and of course, if you can start off with Fidget Bomb, and if your child does need that more pressure during the night, then maybe you can use the weighted blanket, and then once you take the weighted blanket off, you’ve still got that whole Fidget Bomb covered without kind of exposing them to having nothing during the night. So that’s where Fidget Bomb comes in into its own.

Yeah, well, Angelo’s 25 now, and I’ve tried so many different remedies that are non-invasive, if you like, for Angelo, so I’ve tried medication, and things like chloral hydrate, balligan, and there’s melatonin, but my GP will not prescribe melatonin for Angelo. So somebody actually sent it to me from America, because you can get it in the pharmacy in America. Yes, and do you know what, things for Angelo, I don’t know what it is, it seems to work for like a week or so, and then it just doesn’t work anymore.

I even had a chap that came all the way from America that brought a bed for Angelo, a vibrating bed, and basically what he did was, it’s like, it’s almost like Tonka proof, because Angelo has broken so many beds. I’ve had metal beds, I’ve had wooden beds, mattresses on the floor, and at the moment this bed that’s come from America, it hasn’t broken, but the vibration and the heartbeat, and basically it’s got an iPod attached to it, and what happens is you can program a heartbeat, you can program what pieces of music, and it seemed to work for a little while, and I thought, thank God for that, but it just doesn’t work anymore, and I just don’t know what it is about Angelo, that he just seems to just need three to four hours per night, quite an active young man, and he’s got nocturnal epilepsy, and quite a significant sensory processing condition. I don’t know, I’ve tried various different things, and people keep sending me things, saying, try this Anna, because obviously what I do is, I share on social media, you know, about the difficulties, because a lot of parents feel that it’s only happening to them, so they like it when I share about what’s happening with me, and it’s like they said, they don’t feel as guilty that they’re not doing something, and sometimes they feel that they’re a full moon can affect our children, so yeah, we’re going to talk a little bit more about sleep disorders and children and adults on the spectrum, so we’re at Women’s Radio Station, and we’re talking all things autism.

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Membership is free. Join now by visiting reallyhelpfulclub.com. Hi, we’re at women’s radio station. It’s Anna Kennedy talking all things autism.

I just wanted to share with you Anna Kennedy online, which is the charity website. So if you’re going through a difficult time, or you might think you might need some advice, or if you just want a listening ear, please contact www.anna Kennedy online.com and the telephone number is 018 95 5 4 0 1 8 7. So we can offer training as yesterday I was speaking to the NHS Lancashire. We are going to go along to speak to some of the nurses, then some of the doctors.

We can offer legal advice. We have a helpline and we do events to create opportunities for young people on the spectrum and autistic adults. So we have Autumn Scott Talent.

We’ve got The Roadshow, which is set in Ives in July, which is really exciting. And then we’ve also got another Roadshow in The Wirral, which is in November. So last year I went to the Northeast.

You probably picked up my Northeast twang because I was born in Middlesbrough. We went to Essex, which was amazing. We also have every year the AKO Autism Expo, which is at the United States.

We have small businesses that might want to just raise awareness about autism or they might want to sell a product. And they’re usually families who set up their own business so they can’t afford the external prices when they go to these big exhibitions, which are charged like three, four grand. And so that’s something else that we do.

We have free clinics so people can come into the Expo. And if they want some advice on speech and language, or they want some legal advice, or they want some advice on behavior management, that’s something else we do. And something else is the Autism Hero Awards, which were in our third year this year, which is an amazing event.

So if you want to nominate someone, there’s 12 different categories. If you check out Anna Kennedy Online at the Autism Expo link, there’s 12 different categories. So if you want to nominate someone that goes the extra mile, so it could be a teacher, it could be a business, it could be someone that’s really supported the family.

If you want to nominate your mom, your dad, a carer, your nana, your granddad, there’s 12 different categories there for you to nominate somebody. And what happens is we have a panel of judges and they choose, which is so difficult for them, three finalists for each category. We invite the finalists to the event at the Radisson Blue, and then we choose the winner on the 9th.

And it’s just such an amazing event and it’s quite a bit of an emotional roller coaster when we talk about each of the finalists. So that’s just some of the things that we do at Anna Kennedy Online. So just check it out.

And we’re talking today about sleep, autism and fidget bomb. I love that word fidget bomb. It’s quite good.

So as I say, Angelo has quite significant difficulty with sleeping. So I just wanted to go through like, how do you define a sleep disorder? So many people on the autism spectrum are likely to suffer from disturbed sleep. It happens at some point in their lives.

So it could be that they’re having difficulty settling, winding down, going to sleep, walking repeatedly during the night. That’s something that my eldest son Patrick does. I can hear him walking up and down on the landing trying to listen to music to help him settle down.

Increased anxiety or an inability to relax causing insomnia, social curing problems where an autistic person doesn’t make the connection between others in the house going to bed and their own need to sleep. That’s very much in my house. A regular secretion of the sleep hormone melatonin which regulates sleep patterns or having an atypical circadian rhythms which is their body clock.

Urological conditions such as epilepsy. Quite a few children at Hillingdon Manor School which is the school I’m founder of. They have overlapping conditions such as epilepsy, dyslexia, dyscalculia or CD.

Sensory differences such as increased sensitivity to blue light from smartphones, laptops and other screens or sensitivity to certain sounds or white noise which may be upsetting or distracting and keep them awake. Now I didn’t know until a while back that you could actually dim the screen so that it’s not so bright because there’s a lot of kids and adults who are autistic who will look at their laptop to try and help them calm down. You know might watch a piece of film or whatever it is so I didn’t know that you could actually dim the light so that’s something that I learned.

So we’re talking about fidget bomb. Is there anything else that you might like to share about fidget bomb that you think that might be able to help children who are autistic? With fidget bomb I mean when I launched and I literally started you know kind of sharing my product on social media a lot of parents were drawn to my product rather than using you know medication or the weighted blankets just using an alternative to begin with and of course where it’s helping and what parents are saying just the fact that you put the child is in bed you know read a story dim the lights and especially with the children who’ve got sensory issues and have difficulties sleeping with that whole zipping in factor you know that whole security this is where that child just likes and they know then once you literally do your bedtime routine and then you zip them in they know that child that is the signal then it’s now sleep time okay and hopefully it works so and hopefully that will continue and the feedback that I’ve had and the reviews that I’ve had from parents with children who have these issues with sleeping I mean it’s been absolutely immense to the point you know is so rewarding for me and it just brings the tear to my eye that I’m helping these children from an idea that I came up with and now share and helping it is just so wonderful you know to hear that that it’s helping and I would really love more and more people to know of my product and to help these children and families okay so can you remind everybody where to look for what’s the website yes it’s www.fidgetbum.co so please have a look and read the reviews and hopefully that Fidget Bum can help you and something else that I know at Hillings and Manor School we have a person that really can talk to parents that are having a really difficult time thought of over a 24-hour period and what we found is useful is to keep a sleep diary so sleep diaries can be used to establish any unusual patterns of sleep and identify factors which may be influencing the person’s ability to sleep if you’re using other strategies to aid sleep you’ll be able to track how effective they are so sleep diaries are also useful because you can show them to professionals such as teachers, GPs, social workers give them a clearer idea of the impact sleep issues are having on your life certain benefit application forms for example disability living allowance, DLO which is like a nightmare to fill out you needed a greeter sort of fill out these forms they’re just like pages and pages long ask you how often you have to get up in the night to help your child you can send in a copy of the sleep diary to support your application a sleep diary can show the person themselves what their sleep patterns are like they can then be used to establish incentives for staying in bed and trying to sleep so one day hopefully I will find something that’s going to work for Angelo because obviously it’s been 25 years Patrick my eldest son he had difficulties for about six or seven years he used to actually sleep in our bedroom in the mattress next to the bed because he used to be frightened of sleeping in the bedroom of his own he used to talk about this lady called the um the lady with the white hair and the red dress that used to come into his bedroom and give him a kiss on the cheek like mommy does and has to think who is this woman that keeps coming into his room and I remember I bought him a thomas the tank engine watch one he said oh I’m just going to upstairs to show it to the lady and then after a period of time he said to me oh mommy he said um the lady doesn’t come and visit me anymore I said oh that’s good where where do you think she might have gone she said oh she’s actually coming your wardrobe in your room so for a while this is like really stupid but I used to shut the wardrobe door put the chair in front of it in case she came out to see me but um yeah so it’s just weird isn’t it how children’s imaginations can sort of run away with them if you like so I’m glad we’ve got rid of this woman but um yeah so Patrick after sort of six seven years he sort of slept the whole night so I had at one period two boys that just weren’t sleeping which was like yeah not fun really but you still look amazing Anna thanks do you know what I think helps me um is going walking I go walking on a Saturday and Sunday and then I do um Zumba on a Thursday and I call it my autism free zone so um I seem to recharge my batteries on a Thursday when I do Zumba I get rid of a lot of stress so I would advise people um to do something for yourself because moms tend to forget to do things for themselves you’ve got to remember you’re still you even though you’re a mom or you’re a wife or whatever your job may be you still got to do something for you even if it’s just going to the shop for a coffee if you’re feeling stressed I say to parents sometimes just shut yourself in a room somewhere have a good scream and jump up and down whatever it is that helps you relax and do it yeah just don’t forget about you and I know that when my both my boys were diagnosed I felt guilty about doing something for myself and the reason was it’s just I felt I had to be so focused I felt that you know obviously it was a difficult system going through the special educational needs system you know you’ve got to go through the statementing process or now it’s the education and health care plan filling out the disability living allowance form now it’s the the PIP the personal independent payment um form it’s do you know what it’s just not an easy life um once you’ve got a child diagnosed with autism it’s almost like the system says how can we make their life more difficult what you know processes can we put into place but that’s just what’s so and all I would say to you is try and get an advocate to help you because when you’re speaking about your own child you’re too close you’re too emotionally attached you need somebody to go with you to support you through whatever meeting assessment whatever it is that you’re going through so we’re at women’s radio we’re talking all things autism and I’m with Melanie Wood and we’re talking about fidget one hi I’m Sarah Austin and I’m the founder of the really helpful club an online and offline community that helps supports and connects thousands of women in our personal and business lives we are buzzing join us to share and discover your best ideas come to our events to meet other members and learn something new book now for our London workshop on the 10th of May helping you prepare thought and manage the menopause membership is free join now by visiting reallyhelpfulclub.com Please also find us on thewomensradiostation.com Hi, I’m Yekaterina Brikova, Head of Conference Production, City and Financial Global and I want to tell you about our Vote 100 Women in Business Summit at the Royal Garden Hotel on 17th of April. Opened by Royal Highness, The Countess of Wessex, it will be a great day full of useful content and amazing networking opportunities.

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