Pediatric physical therapist Libby Kelly, of Delhi, is offering clients a new way to calm children.
In a written statement, Kelly said, “as a pediatric physical therapist and mom, I saw a gap in the market for a calming tool that truly worked for children with sensory needs, ADHD, anxiety, and other neurodivergent minds. But I didn’t just want to design another weighted product, I wanted it to mean something more. That’s how the Calmily Perfectly Weighted Pillow was born.”
Making the pillow a reality, Kelly said, was the result of personal and professional findings.
“I’ve been a pediatric PT for 20 years … so I’ve worked with every kind of weighted tool you can think of when it comes to the neurodivergent population,” she said. “It got to the point where the kids I was working with in schools were asking for weight on the tops of their heads. Some of them really wanted strong, heavy pressure, and I thought, ‘Gosh, there has to be another way.’
“Then I went to a waterpark with my kids years ago and I couldn’t sleep, because I didn’t have my setup, and these two pieces came together,” Kelly continued. “I’d never seen a weighted pillow, so it hit me that I wanted one for myself and, depending on the shape I made it, kids could use it the way their bodies have been looking for. Making something more specific to where their bodies need it is something I’ve focused on that other PTs haven’t — it’s figuring out where kids want the weight and then they can direct it, so it’s more bang for your buck and you can have that calming, regulating effect faster.”
From there, Kelly said, she spent more than a year fine-tuning her approach.
“I sat down at my sewing machine within a month after being home from that vacation, and started playing around with shapes of the pillow and filling,” she said. “My sewing space in our house was covered with beads and latex stuffing and the poly-fill stuffing was like snow floating around. It took me a couple months to settle on the shape I wanted, and initially I was just doing it for myself, but my kids started taking all my prototypes, and I thought, ‘This might mean something.’ I started to lay into the weighted component and how to make it different from what’s out there. I thought I could make it more versatile, and that was probably January of 2024. I (had) the prototype and the pattern and started contacting anybody who made pillows to see if they’d be willing to make it.”
Kelly said that effort led her to a fitting production partner.
“I found Finger Lakes Textiles ARC,” she said. “I loved the idea of an ARC, because many of the children I’ve worked with in the last 20 years have gone into that kind of setting, so I thought, ‘This has to work.’
“Every ARC is supposed to have some form of employment and … they’ve been producing arctic wear for the military,” Kelly continued. “I reached out to their director and asked if they’d be willing … and that really took off in spring of ’24. We went back and forth with a bunch of different prototypes and what might work best. We worked for three months on conceptualizing the cover, because I wanted it to be as sensory-friendly as possible — no tags, no stitching on the outside, I wanted it to be as soft and squeezable as it could without having anything get in the way. I was able to go and pick them up about a month ago and drove home with them all.”
In Kelly’s written statement, she added, “For families, the Calmily Pillow supports emotional regulation, sensory integration, and better sleep. For the adults who make it, it creates meaningful, independent employment in a population often underserved after school-age services end.”
The finished product, Kelly said, “is shaped like a candy cane, and the top half has one pound of recycled glass beads, then four pounds in the bottom, and it kind of looks like a snail when it’s all curled up.” It also includes, she said, a vegan poly-fill and Egyptian cotton exterior.
Kelly said she’s using the initial run of 150 Calmily pillows to fill pre-orders and further vet the market.
“I had done pre-orders in November, so I had to get those out, and some to family,” she said. “On the website, I’m selling direct to consumer. My plan, right now, is to use this limited run as a test market and gain that efficacy, in terms of ‘Do people want a variously weighted input or is the traditional evenly weighted enough? Or is this new enough that people are interested in how it will support them and their families?’”
Because of the pillow’s weight, Kelly said, it can be more expensive to ship, though she is willing to coordinate drop-off with local customers.
Kelly said early feedback has been affirming.
“Feedback from the pre-orders that’s come in has kind of blown my mind, in terms of how it’s being used and the benefits,” she said. “It’s been validating, so that’s why I continue to push it. The most surprising feedback that I got was a breast cancer survivor that had a double mastectomy and she said, ‘For the first time in seven years I was able to sleep on my side without pain.’
“And a customer parent said, ‘I think you’re a genius,’” Kelly continued. “I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh. This is the kid I made this for.’ My initial direction was the families with neurodivergent children, only because that was my wheelhouse. Those are the families that have used everything, and they’re going to give me the feedback that’s the most meaningful.”
For more information, visit calmily.com or follow @calmily_perfectlyweighted on Instagram.