A soft cylinder of... ???

Looking for something in cylindrical form, made or that can be cut into 100mm (4') lengths, soft yet resiliant, about 20-23mm in diameter (3/4" to 7/8").

An eaxmple might be a tightly rolled piece of cloth, a plastic foam, soft cork, something of that nature.

This is to be held in the hand by someone who's disabled and keps their hand tightly closed, making a fist, and whose fingers dig in and distort, becoming uncomfortable and painful.

Must be cheap, or re-usable. I don't know of a ready-made thing to do this. A hand splint is unsuitable.

 

That sort of thing, but unfortunately even 15mm pipe lagging has an outside diameter over 40mm which is too big.

 

This is the problem.

Not a good image unfortunately. It can be seen that due to long-term neglect, the little finger's nail is displaced and sideways. The skin on the outside of this finger is very thin and painful. Fingernails dig into the palm. The white thing is a roll of bandage in a cloth tubigrip thing, knotted at each end, and it is extremely difficult to get in without causing a lot of pain.

 

Training nunchaku?

Martial Arts Training Nunchucks

You could cut the connecting cord off to make two batons.

I also thought about training batons, of the style used in Filipino martial arts but when I searched that up all I saw was truncheon style ones.

 

If the hand pains are helped by gentle heat, an old fashioned rice (or any grain) bag that can be warmed in a microwave could work.

Sowing a tube is easy, I'd recommend to put the rice in an inner tube that is sown closed and the cover can be just knotted at the ends. The cover is then easy to wash and there are less spillages. Colour and pattern to the recipient's liking of course.


If the person would be delighted with a little mascot, there are nowadays great soft toys that are very comfortable to hold in hand. Most are machine washable and there are also types that are filled with sand or something like that to make the irresistible not to hold I believe many autistic children (and adults!) find them helpful.

 

What about one of those cheapie mini foam paint rollers they sell at poundland style stores? You could put a removable flannellette cover perhaps?