[HN Gopher] Dad makes teddies with health conditions to help chi...
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Dad makes teddies with health conditions to help children with
medical disorders
Author : zeristor
Score : 359 points
Date : 2021-08-13 08:29 UTC (14 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (inews.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (inews.co.uk)
| dlevine wrote:
| This kind of stuff is super helpful.
|
| My dad was a surgeon who treated kids with scoliosis. He also
| happened to make teddy bears as a hobby. So he made a teddy bear
| with an artificial spine in it that he put scoliosis hardware on.
|
| When he was meeting with a kid for a pre-op consult, he would let
| the kid hug the teddy bear, and then he would show them the teddy
| bear's X-Ray. It really helped them understand what was going to
| happen to them, and put them at ease.
| chrisgd wrote:
| Would recommend this book, it changed my relationship to my kids
| and echos what others have said about children and play. The more
| you turn into games with your kids, the better relationship there
| will be.
|
| https://www.playfulparenting.com/
| [deleted]
| op00to wrote:
| My man!
| cout wrote:
| What kind of 3D printer is required to make items that are safe
| for young children?
|
| I imagine the material needs to be durable and non-toxic if
| swallowed, but I know very little about both 3D printers and
| child safety standards.
| foxpurple wrote:
| The standard PLA plastic is fine. It is non toxic although may
| provide a surface for bacteria to grown on. Although the whole
| toy does as well
| eurasiantiger wrote:
| PLA is only fine if it's food-grade and only if the extruder
| and hotend have never been used with any non-food-grade
| materials.
|
| Otherwise, there is no telling what additives and dyes are in
| those filaments, or what they do to a child after prolonged
| exposure.
| Macha wrote:
| The article indicates the maker sought out advice on child
| safety from people who validate toys and was asked to
| change materials, which he did. So that implies he did have
| to change from whatever the default material he was using
| at least
| foobar33333 wrote:
| >what they do to a child after prolonged exposure.
|
| You could say this about most plastics. If you are
| concerned about PLA purity you should be triple scared of
| the much worse plastics we use regularly.
| eurasiantiger wrote:
| I don't disagree, but this discussion was about PLA
| specifically.
| sen wrote:
| Even off-the-shelf cheap PLA still has orders of magnitude
| less random crap in it than any of the other plastic toys
| they already play with.
|
| I wouldn't make a pacifier or chew toy from it, but I've
| got no problem making dozens of PLA toys for my kids (after
| having done the research on the filaments), and I'd say 50%
| of the toys my kids have, have been 3D printed by
| ourselves.
| James-Livesey wrote:
| Is it possible to clean existing extruders that have been
| previously used with non-food-grade PLA to make them fit
| for food-grade use, or do you have to purchase a brand new
| extruder?
| OJFord wrote:
| Unless you don't cook anything without your binder of US
| FDA datasheets and guidelines in hand, you don't worry
| about it.
|
| (And if you do that, you're already screaming 'not food
| safe' any time anybody mentions 3D printing anyway.)
|
| Aside from direct and prolonged contact, (you probably
| don't want to print and repeatedly use a spoon for
| example) the main somewhat legitimate concern is
| bacterial growth in all the tiny crevices that arise as a
| result of the printing process. Don't 3D print food
| storage jars and try to wash and re-use them?
|
| For a child's toy, there's not really a reason to worry
| about or treat it differently than anything you buy. Once
| it's been chucked on the floor, smeared through the dogs
| breakfast, and stuck in their mouth, it's pretty
| inconsequential that it happened to be 3D printed.
| jonnycomputer wrote:
| Artist Josh Hardie printing duckies for his kid.
|
| https://www.facebook.com/joshhardie9/posts/2274692719328954
| jorblumesea wrote:
| My sister had one of these to explain terminal cancer and dying.
| It's a really effective tool, not just for the kid itself, but
| also siblings.
| m3kw9 wrote:
| I misread "Tendies"
| puritanicdev wrote:
| You're not the only one :D
| technothrasher wrote:
| This dad is carrying on a fantastic, but not at all new
| tradition. I had surgery in the early 1970's when I was three,
| and I've still got the old teddy bear up in a box in the attic
| that the staff at the hospital made for me that "needed the same
| surgery".
| vanderZwan wrote:
| "Teddy Technothrasher" rolls off the tongue nicely, I must say
| jerf wrote:
| I'd go to that concert.
| technothrasher wrote:
| Considering the height of my musical career was a one night
| only performance of "La Cucaracha" badly strummed out on
| the guitar in first grade, I'm not sure how good the
| concert will be. But perhaps the teddy bear would be
| better.
| toast0 wrote:
| The teddy bear would make it much better. After all,
| consider the moral of Green Jelly[1]'s Three Little Pigs:
|
| > That bands with no talent can easily amuse idiots with
| a stupid puppet show
|
| Best of luck with your return to music! :D
|
| [1] Originally known as Green Jello
| yarcob wrote:
| Yeah, my kid also got a teddy with the same scar as his from
| the hospital. It's a nice idea, but my kid didn't really care
| about it. (I don't know why, he had other stuffed animals that
| he really liked, but apparently the scar was not a big deal to
| him)
| technothrasher wrote:
| It was too many years ago, and I was too young for me to
| remember if it helped me deal better or not. But if I'm still
| holding on to it, it must mean something!
| [deleted]
| keiferski wrote:
| Great story. The Teddy Bear is really a wonderful thing and ought
| to be considered one of the most important "inventions" of the
| last ~century. They've brought a lot of joy to a lot of kids (and
| adults too.)
|
| I came across this link recently and bookmarked it, as it
| reminded me of the fun and quirky articles that used to be more
| prevalent online. A time capsule from the 90s, almost.
|
| "10 Common Misconceptions About Teddy Bears":
|
| https://neverimitate.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/10-common-misc...
| eurasiantiger wrote:
| Ah, what could be more important than a mechanical device which
| simulates human presence! It liberates the parent to other
| pursuits, just as mechanical reproduction simulator devices
| liberate the partner.
| jacquesm wrote:
| What a lousy comment.
| zabatuvajdka wrote:
| Inanimate objects stimulate the mind. Wooden blocks can
| become space ships, rocks mountains. I wouldn't trade my
| imaginative childhood experience for any modern day app. No
| way.
| Bancakes wrote:
| All these inanimate, inert gifts are much better for kids
| than smartphones and computers, which they shouldn't have
| either way.
| [deleted]
| foxpurple wrote:
| Why is this on hacker news? This is the kind of feel good story I
| would expect on reddit and doesn't leave anything to be discussed
| or learned.
| Igelau wrote:
| > Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into
| Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills.
|
| Why is _this comment_ on hacker news?
| keiferski wrote:
| He uses 3D printers to create unique designs that would
| otherwise be economically unviable. Seems pretty hackerish to
| me.
| foxpurple wrote:
| 3D printers have been in the public's hands for about a
| decade now. They aren't exactly new or interesting technology
| and the use here isn't particularly novel or interesting.
| eurasiantiger wrote:
| Everything in your statement is false.
|
| Most people don't have the skills required to benefit from
| owning or operating a 3D printer, so most people don't have
| anything to do with them.
|
| They are still an emerging technology, with new
| applications reported steadily. Still, they are very
| interesting to most people, because 3D printing is
| basically wizardry in their eyes.
|
| This use case is definitely novel, it even says so on the
| article. It may not be interesting to you, but your strong
| reaction reveals that you are actually angry at the
| feelings provoked by the article, and it might do you good
| to take a moment to analyse WHY you are having that kind of
| emotional reaction.
| Macha wrote:
| You could make the same argument for many of the react SSR
| articles which still make it here
| keiferski wrote:
| If you feel that way, I suggest you imitate Wittgenstein
| and pass over the article in silence.
| athirnuaimi wrote:
| Not the main reason most of us come to HN, but given the last
| year or so, many are ok with the occasional feel good story.
| pomian wrote:
| Inventiveness. Decision for action. A startup. Not following or
| depending on big business to make what you want, Imagination.
| Design and production. Sounds like hacker news to me!
| Fnoord wrote:
| Thank you. This guy is filling a spot of supply and demand
| where profit is unlikely to be made. So it ends up in the
| public benefit/non-profit art segment.
| hellbannedguy wrote:
| Let's hope it's not a Start-up, or if it is, it's a honest
| 501c3.
|
| My father went in for a routine hernia operstion. He had
| great insurance. Covered 100% of every overpriced procedure.
|
| He was recovering at home, and was just going through the
| bill for no reason.
|
| He noticed $690 for "Psychological Positivity therapy".
|
| That explained the Teddy Bear, and flowers, none of us sent
| him.
| dkdbejwi383 wrote:
| Thankfully in the UK we have the national health service.
| zeristor wrote:
| I tried to go through all the cookies turning them off, but there
| were too many:
|
| https://archive.is/pNlJC
| simion314 wrote:
| JS off by default works fine on this site.
|
| I suggest for power users to run with JS off by default and
| turn it on per website.
| yackernews wrote:
| There's also Higgy Bears, bears with removable scoliosis braces
| that match the kid's. They come with xrays.
|
| https://higgybears.com/
| myself248 wrote:
| So, Eeyore?
| mongol wrote:
| Sometimes I question if what I am doing is meaningful. But this
| is meaningful.
| brodouevencode wrote:
| Same here. I love my job and the volunteer things I do but
| stuff like this makes me feel like it's all not enough. God
| must certainly be smiling down on this man.
| _def wrote:
| I had a similar idea a few months ago, and I'm so glad that there
| are people out there who are really doing this. Fantastic.
|
| > "If they have a certain condition and they have a toy just like
| them, it helps the children understand what's going on. I've had
| calls with more than 70 play therapists across the country and
| from that I've been told there aren't many toys like it, but
| they're desperately needed to help these children not only
| understand why they're different, but to feel less alone."
| imacerealkiller wrote:
| That's the sweetest thing. We need more people like this Dad out
| there. Someone needs to get behind this and fund it! There's a
| real need for toys like this.
| glonq wrote:
| I'll take one _tourette 's teddy_ plz.
| newbamboo wrote:
| I love these kind of stories on hn. As entrepreneurial minded
| people, it's common to think a lot about markets and
| opportunities. It's hard to come up with ideas that will be
| viable.
|
| But these stories serve as a good example of how, if you think
| about doing good and helping out others, the market for that is
| wide open. There is no end to opportunities. And often, by
| focusing on improving the world rather than making f---- you
| money, you end up being greatly enriched, financially but
| spiritually as well. It's as though there were some greater force
| that recognizes efforts to do good and bestows upon these people
| great rewards, wealth, plenty. Doing good is anti-fragile.
| CobaltFire wrote:
| My son was given a teddy bear with a port through a program at
| the hospital when he had his put in (for chemo).
|
| The impact between him and my older child who was struggling to
| understand what was happening to her brother cannot be
| overstated.
| schobi wrote:
| I really love the Sigikid "Erwin little patient" toy - you can
| take out all the organs and start explaining. Available only in
| Germany? https://sigikid.de/shop/spielen-
| kuscheln/rollenspiel/lerntie...
|
| Unfortunately, the girl version is discontinued
| nickpeterson wrote:
| I do think this is neat, but their is something so oddly German
| about a children's puppet you can easily disembowel...
| schobi wrote:
| I also met a few German parents who were a little irritated
| "oh no! Don't take it apart! " But the kids are fine and
| often curious about all the things inside.
| Symbiote wrote:
| It looks like they'll deliver anywhere in the EU.
| Wistar wrote:
| Many years ago, perhaps in the mid-90s, a friend of mine proposed
| starting an outfit that made "Boo-Boo Bears," teddy bears that
| had casts, crutches, and other injury-healing themes intended for
| hospitalized children.
|
| Then he discovered Hanna-Barbera owned the BooBoo Bear trademark
| and he gave up on the idea. I always thought that it was a good
| idea upon which he gave up too easily.
| menrris wrote:
| The dad has found good advocacy while at the same time doing
| business. It will boost the morale and mental state of the
| patients with health conditions.
| throwawaymanbot wrote:
| Sounds like Apple might be interested in his pictures.
| a0-prw wrote:
| If you want a dark, weird take on this, watch Zefrank's YT video:
| Teddy has an operation.
|
| https://youtu.be/AdYaTa_lOf4
| kkoncevicius wrote:
| It might seems like a simple feel-good story for some, but it's
| more than that. I didn't imagine how much children learn and cope
| through toys until I had my own kids.
|
| Example 1: when my daughter was 2 she got a fishbone stuck in her
| mouth. I gave her lots of bread and water so that something would
| force the small bone to go down. After 5 minutes the issue was
| resolved and she immediately jumped to her teddy bear and started
| playing "you have a bone teddy, you need bread, take this, take
| that". The first plays were urgent and quite serious and the
| teddy was always "cured" quickly. But later through the following
| days as she played the same idea she started to improvise. Teddy,
| in her hands, would cough and cough - I would offer him things
| for 10 minutes and more and nothing would help him. And she would
| laugh at this. After these plays fish bones in her mind were no
| longer serious.
|
| Example 2: when she was 3 we tried to adapt her to a
| kindergarten. After the first day when she was home she picked up
| her toy cars and started playing. Some of the cars were teachers,
| others were children, one was me, another one was her, and one
| small car was a smaller child that cried all the time. And we
| played the routine where I came to the kindergarten with her,
| stayed for a bit, and then went to work. At the moment the "dad"
| car went to work she would physically tense up and become silent,
| as if it was really happening. But those moments became easier
| once she learned more details about what to expect during the
| typical day in the kindergarten and that later the "dad" car
| always comes back to take her home. Seems like this experience
| was helpful as, despite being somewhat shy, she never cried
| during her adaptation period.
| heywherelogingo wrote:
| "a simple feel-good story" - am I the only one who feels
| manipulated? It could have been eg "Man makes toy bears...".
| When I see something like "Dad makes teddies..." I stop
| reading. Give me the details, and I'll draw conclusions on my
| own, thanks. Related, I struggle to find objective media; I
| thought The Economist would be hard nosed objective economics -
| nope, had to unsubscribe; I figured the FT must be the answer,
| only interested in money and profits, facts only - nope,
| unsubscribed.
| renewiltord wrote:
| Why is "Man makes toy bears" superior? It doesn't sound any
| more objective.
| dkdbejwi383 wrote:
| Exactly, it should simply state "Homo Sapiens specimen
| manufactures inanimate objects"
| octaonalocto wrote:
| I have found (as I've gotten older, and, hopefully wiser)
| that I no longer seek out objectivity because it cannot exist
| in most human interest topics.
|
| Economics has no objective truth, as evidenced by its
| inability as a whole to make accurate predictions. Politics
| has no objective truth, because we need to understand
| people's motivations which are often hidden from themselves.
|
| If you see this kind of headline and get upset because of the
| editorializing, I suspect you should only read about physics
| and math. At least until you start to see the subjectivity in
| those fields as well.
|
| We cannot escape our biases. We cannot communicate
| objectively - the decisions of what to talk about, how we
| express it, and how much context to include - those all fly
| against objectivity.
|
| It took me a while to accept that I'm not a logical robot and
| to embrace the parts of humanity that I previously found
| distasteful because it couldn't be cleanly reduced to a
| binary.
| lazyasciiart wrote:
| How incredibly curious that you find the word 'dad' to be
| manipulative but think 'man' is just a generic fact about
| someone.
| kzrdude wrote:
| Objective economics? But there are many schools of economics
| and quite some overlap with politics. The expectation you
| have might need to change.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| That you haven't read the story but you feel manipulated says
| a lot more about you than the story. The story is fine, and
| it doesn't even make a value judgment about what the father
| is doing. It documents why he started making these things and
| why he claims that he is continuing to make them... so unless
| you have a problem with documenting the motivation of the
| subject of a story, I have no idea why you would feel
| manipulated unless you're just looking for a grievance.
| aledalgrande wrote:
| Wow, that's a cynical take if I've seen one.
| nitrogen wrote:
| Perhaps, but the parent post was right to notice that
| headline wording choice has an effect on emotion, and can
| be manipulative. Human interest stories aren't always
| chosen and conveyed with the interest of the reader or the
| subject in mind.
| sharken wrote:
| The headline can be misleading, but reading a few of the
| top comments and how they relate, makes me think that
| this is a great story.
|
| More teddies !
| sweetheart wrote:
| IMHO, saying that "Dad makes teddies" is simply a
| manipulative form of "Man makes toys" is just drawing
| arbitrary lines on the spectrum of the descriptiveness of
| language. It primes the reader for a more light-hearted,
| cute story, rather than a factual retelling of a series
| of events. Evoking emotional !== being manipulative. It
| _can_ mean that, but just because something tugs at our
| heart strings doesn't mean we are being manipulated.
|
| Further, why not consider that "Man makes toys" is just a
| manipulative form of "Dad makes teddies"? Sure that
| primes us just as much as "Dad makes teddies", just in
| the other direction, no?
|
| EDIT: Rereading this it sounds like I'm coming at you, or
| the OP, but I'm not :) Just thinking out loud in response
| to your comment!
| heywherelogingo wrote:
| I think you underestimate the media, or maybe it's just the
| UK media.
| friedegg wrote:
| I had several eye surgeries related to my congenital cataracts
| as a kid, including one where I had to wear an eye patch
| bandage for a few weeks. I remember being given a Mickey Mouse
| doll with a circular band-aid over the same eye, similar to my
| own. I peeled it off right away. Maybe I was a cynical kid.
| bonoboTP wrote:
| As you say, kids will instinctively do this, she pretend played
| that a car is herself and another is you. They don't need
| adults to prescribe what they should pretend play. They'll play
| with rocks and twigs and anything else and have fun.
|
| These toys-that-make-feelgood-news are not about kids but
| adults playing politics (that they are compassionate unlike the
| other tribe).
| ska wrote:
| > These toys-that-make-feelgood-news are not about kids but
| adults playing politics (that they are compassionate unlike
| the other tribe).
|
| Notwithstanding the tone of the article being "feel-good" I
| really don't know how you make the jump you made here - lots
| of research supports the idea that representation matters.
|
| Sure kids will happily play with rocks and cardboard tubes,
| but if they are playing with _dolls_ they will absolutely
| notice if they are none of the options are much like
| themselves. It 's hardly a big conceptual jump to see how a
| kid in a wheelchair would like to have a doll/action
| figure/whatever also with a wheelchair.
| Fnoord wrote:
| Oh yes, my daughter's favorite (she loves rabbits in general)
| helps her all time, even during sleep. She's role playing with
| the doll, as well as her imaginary friends (who also aid her,
| and go through similar events as she does). I suppose before
| she had imaginary friends, a solution as OP's makes sense.
|
| A plushie (often a favorite) who also suffers from the same (or
| similar) issue creates that form of empathy/connection children
| require.
|
| We got some special toys as well, for example a doll with a
| heartbeat which supposedly helps kids with autism (both parents
| in our household got the diagnosis). I don't think it works for
| our oldest, and for our youngest jury's out on it (he's not
| even 1 year old).
|
| Suffice to say I find this a beautiful project. Thank you so
| much for linking to it, submitter!
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