Less anxiety during chemotherapy: small study on weighted blankets for children (2025)
An American children’s hospital investigated whether a weighted blanket helps children with cancer feel calmer during a chemotherapy infusion. In this article, you’ll read what was measured in 24 children and why it is uncertain exactly what the blanket contributed.
Through:Koen Dolron -
- Reading time: 5 min
Published: 13-10-2026 - 2026-10-13T09:14:25Z
Updated: 13-10-20262026-10-13T10:53:02Z
You are sitting next to your child in the day treatment unit. The infusion is running, and it will still be a while before the bag is empty. Your child keeps asking how much longer it will take and looks up whenever a nurse comes in. In a few weeks, you will be sitting here again for the next treatment cycle.
According to the Princess Máxima Center, around 600 children in the Netherlands develop cancer each year. They are all treated at that center. Anxiety is common among children with cancer, write the researchers of the study on this page. At an American children's hospital, they investigated whether a weighted blanket helps during an infusion: a blanket made heavier with, for example, glass beads.
Their 2025 study included children aged 4 to 17 who had recently been diagnosed with cancer. Each child received a weighted blanket during one chemotherapy infusion and usual care during the other; the order was determined by randomization. Before and after each infusion, the children indicated how anxious they felt on an anxiety meter. Of the 26 children, 24 were included in the calculation. In the calculation used by the researchers to estimate the blanket's effect, the anxiety score decreased by 0.71 points. According to them, anxiety had decreased significantly after the infusion, so the result was probably not due to chance.
However, it was a small group, the children knew when they had the blanket, and it is still uncertain how much of the decrease was caused by the blanket. Below, you can read exactly what was measured and what to consider if you want to try it with your own child.
Why this was studied
Most of the researchers work at Children's Hospital Colorado. They see the weighted blanket as a possible way to reduce anxiety in children with cancer and wanted to know whether it would also help children who come to the hospital for a chemotherapy infusion and go home the same day.
How the study worked
Children aged 4 to 17 who had recently been diagnosed with cancer could take part. First, they completed a short test in which they put things in order. Children who did not pass the test did not take part.
It was a cross-over study. Each child took part twice: during the first infusion after the start of the study, they received the blanket, and during the second they received usual care, or vice versa. Randomization determined who started with the blanket. This meant that each child was compared with themselves.
Anxiety was measured using the Children's Anxiety Meter-State, or CAM-S for short. On this meter, a picture of a thermometer, children indicate how anxious they feel at that moment, on a scale from 1 to 10 according to the study registration. The children completed it before and after each infusion.
We do not know how heavy the blanket was, what it was filled with, or how long it remained in place during the infusion. We also do not know exactly what usual care involved.
What the researchers found
There were 26 children in the study. All data were complete for 24 of them, and only those children were included in the analysis.
In the statistical model for the blanket's effect, the anxiety score decreased by 0.71 points (uncertainty margin 0.19 to 1.25). According to the researchers, anxiety had decreased significantly after the infusion, so the result was probably not due to chance.
During the second visit, the blanket appeared to have a greater effect than during the first. The margin was so wide that this could also have been due to chance.
According to the researchers, more research is needed. They point not only to the blanket, but also to the care provided by nurses as something that affects these children's anxiety.
What this study does not say
The study involved 24 children in Colorado. That is too few to draw conclusions about all children with cancer.
There was no sham blanket, a blanket that looks the same but is not heavy. The children therefore knew when they had the weighted blanket, and they reported their own anxiety. Children who expect a blanket to help may score lower.
As far as is known, the available data do not show how much of the decrease was caused by the blanket and how much by the infusion visit itself.
On a meter from 1 to 10, the difference was less than one point. You cannot determine from these figures how that feels to a child.
The study involved two infusions shortly after diagnosis. It says nothing about the rest of the treatment, sleeping under a weighted blanket, or using one at home.
We do not know whether the blanket has a different effect on young children than on teenagers. Children under 4 did not take part.
How this fits with other research
The same thing has previously been studied in adults. In 2020, adults who had just started chemotherapy received a weighted blanket during their first or second infusion at an American chemotherapy center. There, too, randomization determined the order, and they were less anxious during the infusion when using the blanket. We do not know how many people took part or how large the difference was. You can read more about this on the page about weighted blankets in hospitals.
In both adults and children, the results therefore point in the same direction. Neither study compared the weighted blanket with a blanket that was not heavy.
Is your child afraid or tense during treatment? Discuss this with the treatment team. A weighted blanket does not replace their care.
Would you like to bring a blanket or ask whether the department has one? Always discuss this with the treatment team first when your child is ill, because they know what is and is not suitable for your child. A weighted blanket is not suitable for babies or children under 3. For older children, the rule of thumb is approximately 10% of their body weight. This is a practical guideline, not a finding from this study. The child must be able to push the blanket away independently.
Olson, J., Adamson, L., Lang, C., Miller, K., Phillips, E., Legette, F., & Loresto, F. L. (2025). Effects of weighted blankets on anxiety for pediatric oncology patients during outpatient chemotherapy infusions. Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nursing, 42(3), 129-137. DOI Checked on 2026-10-12.
Written by Koen Dolron, owner of Novaline. Koen is not a doctor, and Novaline does not provide medical advice: this page is intended as information. The summary is based on the original publication, which you can read yourself via the link above. Are you unsure whether a weighted blanket is suitable for you or your child, for example because of a medical condition or medication? Consult your GP or treatment provider first.
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