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My boy is on the spectrum, he needs a sensory calm down bottle/jar. I have tried a ready made one but he broke that in no time as he loves to bash it on the floor in order for the glitter to mix.

I have tried regular water bottles but he loves to open the lid and pour the water on the floor, also the plastic breaks easily.

Any idea if there is a heavy duty see-through bottles that I can use for similar conditions?

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    Not sure how it would do with being bashed on the flloor, but we've used a SmartWater bottle. Once you make it, superglue the lid shut
    – Drew
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 14:53
  • this is what we've used with the lid glued on, but our daughter is only 2 so isn't smashing them into anything with lots of force. Bottles are cheap, no texture clouding the view like many water bottles and they seem reasonably strong.
    – gtwebb
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 17:54
  • Epoxy the lid on! Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 23:31

2 Answers 2

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Try PET preforms

Pet preforms for typical 5L bottles Preforms and actual bottles

These things get inflated like baloons to produce PET bottles we usually see. They're food-safe, transparent, pretty heavy-duty and cheap. You can order them in surplus to experiment a bit and also make some spares.

Use bouncy coating

Adding some soft stuff to ends will reduce damage to both bottle and terrain. You could also leave a tiny bubble of air inside - or even add some ridges/pimples on inner surface to imitate insides of a muffler if you think that water hammer adds to bottle's wear.

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My best suggestion is an "unbreakable" plastic (reusable) water bottle. These can be either rigid or somewhat flexible. Rigid will probably last longer, but it really depends on how hard your son can hit. Very good quality ones should last through fairly significant damage, though, and the lid can be superglued as Drew notes in comments to the question. Perhaps a less rigid one would actually work for you, though - a Nalgene type - and less rigidity might make for a more enjoyable sensation for him when hitting it.

A bit more risky would be a glass bottle coated in silicone or in plastic. That would keep the glass shards from being a danger, at least I think it would - hence the risk... they do when dropped, but unclear what an aggressive child would do to them.

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