There's really no reason to spend money on fancy fidgeting toys for kids.
Unless you really want to, of course.
After all, you can make your own fidgets for a fraction of the cost.
Or you can simply use things you already have on hand to fidget with.
Below I'll show you 40+ inexpensive fidget ideas for kids (they also make great stim toys for autistic kids) that use everyday objects.
40+ WAYS FOR KIDS TO FIDGET FOR FREE (OR AS CLOSE TO FREE AS POSSIBLE!)
Fidget toys are a great way to keep kids' hands busy, but they can add up in cost. And I'm SOLike I've already mentioned, these fidgeting toy alternatives are simple ideas that use materials or objects that you likely already have on hand.
Plus, they just happen to encourage the development of fine motor skills and incorporate a variety of sensory ideas.
ALTERNATIVES TO FIDGETING TOYS
1. Pop bubble wrap2. Wear hair ties or rubber bands around the wrist and pull or pluck them
3. Twist pipe cleaners
4. Play hand games for kids
5. Loop a rubber band around a finger and thumb and flick/strum it
6. Twist and bend straws
7. Fill a zipper seal bag with hair gel (tape it closed) to squish, poke, or "draw" on with fingers
8. Make a sensory bin to run hands through
9. Thread beads on to a pipe cleaner
10. Play with curly bow ribbons (the ones used to decorate gifts)
11. Bounce a ball or pass a ball back and forth between hands
12. Make DIY fidget toys to play with
13. Use twist ties and wrap them around a finger, twist them, or bend them
14. Fold paper (e.g., origami, paper fortune tellers, paper airplanes, folded paper fan)
15. Roll dice
16. Unzip and zip zippers
17. Crumble paper or tin foil and unwrap
18. Run fingers over a piece of velcro or stick and unstick velcro pieces
19. Peel stickers (reusable sticks or gel window clings work great too!)
20. Rip tissue paper
21. Play with strings, yarn, or ribbons: twist, tie, play Cat's Cradle, braid multiple pieces
22. Play with PopSockets style phone holders
23. Open and close containers (wipe container lids are especially fun for fidgeting)
24. Cut paper or yarn with scissors
25. Squeeze sponges, small stuffed animals, or squishy toys
26. Play with nuts and bolts
27. Twist or braid hair
28. Spin a top
29. Do and undo snap buttons
30. Button and unbutton a shirt
31. Flip a coin
31. Play with play dough by rolling it, squeezing it, or cutting it with a knife
32. Play with binder clips or chip clips by opening and closing them
33. Crinkle and crumple a wrapper from a granola bar or similar snack
34. Twirl or tap a pencil
35. Click and unclick a pen
AND THESE IDEAS ARE GREAT TO KEEP KIDS' MOUTHS (INSTEAD OF HANDS) BUSY:
36. Blow bubbles37. Chew on a straw
38. Chew bubble gum and blow bubbles
39. Whistle or hum
40. Blow dandelions
41. Suck on an ice cube
OTHER DIY FIDGETING TOYS YOU'LL LOVE
20+ DIY Fidgeting ToysDIY Chewable Zipper Pull
DIY Chewable Jewelry Fidgets
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The only time I've been free of food noise is when on a whole 30 diet - cutting sugar, bread, alcohol, and all the rest of the things that metabolize into blood sugar spikes just switched off the noise and made me feel free. If I'm not mistaken, the new weight loss drugs were made to help with diabetes and also work by addressing those chemical highs and lows - it's just wild how our thoughts can be so intensely controlled by chemistry.
Yeah. When I started taking an herbal medication for chronic pain, it is also used for treating alcohol addiction... Apparently it can also treat addiction to sugar, and help settle out hunger pangs and the focus on food (Take this as anecdotal however as it's been my own experience.) It's really something else.
I take kratom, but it hasn't stopped my sweet tooth. It has helped with other cravings, tho, just not food, but I'm taking it for pain, and I was keeping my dose too low and only now have upped it to the point I actually get pain relief. My weight is high, so I guess it makes sense I'd need more than a couple of grams.
I have fibromyalgia, can I ask what medication it is? My chronic pain is horrible
Same! When I did Atkins, I had NO appetite. The thought of eating almost made me nauseous. But I eventually felt so deprived, plus I had to cook all the time LOL
You're right, chemistry has a whole lot to do with it. Specifically: hormones.
I had bariatric surgery a few months ago, and I was fortunate enough to have the expected hormonal changes that are supposed to go along with the surgery. Changes in my "hunger hormones" have completely eliminated food noise. I can only hope the effects last.
This. I completely cut carbohydrates and while I lost a lot of weight, the unexpected benefit was being able to drive past all fast food without even considering it as a potential stop. I’d literally forget about eating and have to be mindful of what I consumed.
Before that, every waking minute was chasing my next fix.
Yeah I get this. I’ve experienced the same. If I have a diet coke (rare) it makes me ravenous later that day. I think it’s probably the sugar. Once I cut out as much sugar as I could my appetite got more manageable. And since I’m celiac, I don’t eat a ton of carbs anyway. I do eat carbs but not as much as the typical american.
I say “sugar” but in that I include artificial sweeteners. Sorry I should’ve been more clear. Either white sugar, Splenda, candy soda etc anything with sweetness in it throws my hunger into overdrive.
Your taste buds interpret it as sugar though so for lots of people it still triggers sugar/sweet cravings even though it’s not literally sugar
I went sugar free for a year and while it was a hard three weeks to hit sugar free, after that it was so easy. The best part was not having to think about whether I should have some sweets or not. I would have never guessed that it would be easy once I got on. I let sugar a bit back in my life, but it is a pain to decide to eat something or not, I probably should go back to sugar free. The only hassle was explaining to people that you didn‘t mean to be rude when you didn‘t partake of whatever party food that was on offer.
Maybe this is why my food noise seems to have stopped alongside getting sober. 🤔
Sharing my story in case it’s helpful to someone reading this. I’ve always been overweight but wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until my early 30s. My brain always craved junk, specifically foods made with sugar and/or flour. When I was first prescribed adderall, it changed my life. I no longer craved anything, rarely even thought about food, and was finally able to focus in a way I never could before. After a few months, I noticed the effects lessening so my doc titrated me up to the next dose. We did that over the course of 18 months. By then I had lost 50ish lbs and was in a healthy weight for the first time ever. But eventually the highest dose stopped working, my anxiety was through the roof, and food noise returned. I stopped taking it and gained all the weight back. I’ve gotten my prescription refilled a few times since, but the magic was gone. I wasn’t able to lose weight on it anymore, the amount of focus I had wasn’t worth all the anxiety it gave me, and the amount of hoops I had to go through during the shortage were too ridiculous to deal with every month.
Started taking Wellbutrin (a non-controlled antidepressant that works on dopamine receptors) a while ago. It barely did anything for food noise, but it did give me a little focus, prevented depression, didn’t give me anxiety, and it’s easy to get bc it’s not a controlled substance- so I’ve been taking it regularly since.
I still craved junk food and went to my new doc for a Wegovy script. She was on board, but my insurance company (who has Wegovy listed as a covered medication!) would not cover it. And like Adderall before it, it was also now in a shortage.
I had a big FUCK THIS moment, and decided I wasn’t going to trust my physical and mental health with the medical industry anymore. I was going to figure out how to do this myself, bc I felt I couldn’t rely on others to take care of me (which SUCKS bc we live in a society and SHOULD have trust that systems will take care of us).
I cared primarily about stopping the food noise and secondarily about losing weight. The food noise stopped for me by replacing what I was craving with a higher protein, lower sugar, and lower calorie version. And then filling the rest of my daily food intake with more protein, fruits, and veggies (shoutout to r/volumeeating ). The advice to “eat fruit when you’re craving sugar” never worked for me. The secret to killing food noise is eating more protein. When I crave ice cream I make protein ice cream (look up recipes on YouTube), Quest cookies satisfy my cookie cravings, Legendary Foods makes protein versions of pastries. Whenever I crave something, I eat it -just the high protein version of it- and the craving GOES AWAY.
Losing weight is all CICO (calories in, calories out) so I bought a Cronometer subscription and paired it with my Apple Watch to make sure every day I was eating about 500 calories less than I burned.
By eating at least a third of my daily calories as protein, it has not been difficult to eat in a calorie deficit this way. I’ve steadily been losing about 2lbs a week since the summer.
I have a fantasy version of myself that is an “intuitive eater” who naturally craves only whole foods and instinctively keeps at a healthy weight without trying. But I’ve never been this person! My brain makes me crave high calorie junk food, so I have to do something to deal with it instead of just wishing I wasn’t this way.
I’ve had a few slip ups during my weight loss journey where I had a bite of junk food outside the house (a wedding, a sleepover at a friend’s house) and I was back to square one with cravings. Once I start eating junk food, and I don’t have a high protein food ready to eat immediately after, my brain goes full addiction food and screams at me to keep eating. So I end up eating more. This NEVER happens on a regular day when I’m eating my normal high protein diet with high protein treats.
The bodybuilder community calls these “anabolic recipes” and eating this way has truly changed my life. I recommend anyone with food noise to give it a try!
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