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What Fillers To Use In A Homemade Heating Pad

If you are the opposite of me, you might have enough talent to make a heating pad on your own.

And to do this, you need to know what specific fillers you might want to use.

The fillers for your homemade heating pad would include long grain rice, whole corn, and small beans.

Read on to find out why these are the preferred options for your heating pad.

Why make a DIY heating pad?

There are many different reasons why you might want to make your own heating pad.

Save on costs

When you look up what it costs to get a heating pad, you could find all kind of prices depending on the kind of heating pad you want.

Microwavable heating pads will typically cost between $20 to $60, depending on the kind you want.

And that is only if you need one heating pad.

Making a DIY heating pad involves a few products.

First, you need to purchase the fabric, then some thread to sew up the fabric and then lastly whatever filler it is you are going to use.

You can typically buy a lot of fabric for just a little bit, and thread comes with quite a bit in a roll.

Can add whatever you want

The nice thing about making your own heating pad is you can add whatever you want.

For instance, after making your own heating pad, you find out from other sources that the corn you original thought was going to be good for the heating pad won't give you as much heat instead of cherry pits.

So because you made the heating pad yourself, you can carefully open up the heating pad and take out the corn.

Then you can replace the corn with cherry pits.

And close it up with the thread that you already have.

But after some time you find that you don't like the cherry pits quite as much as the corn, you can open it up again and put some corn back in instead of the cherry pits.

Another example would be adding lavender leaves to your heating pad.

A lot of people like the smell of lavender and adding lavender leaves to your heating pad will give it a nice smell each time you heat up your heating pad.

You could add other petals or leaves as well to the heating pad.

No need to run to the store

If you make your own heating pad, there is absolutely no need to run to the store when you need the heat.

As we've talked about countless times before, microwavable heating pads sometimes don't last as long as you would like.

This is because the insides are typically filled with what we would consider food.

And that means that they are eventually going to wear out and smell it.

If your wears out or begins to smell bad, then you aren't going to want to use it.

If you find one time when you it heat it, that you get either of these, then you won't need to run to the store.

You should just be able to stay home and make yourself another heating pad.

You know what you are getting

Most companies that make microwavable heating pads are doing their best to make a good product and one that works well.

But that doesn't always mean you are getting the best of what they are making.

There have been reports of heating pads with bugs inside of them.

And then it becomes hard to determine if the bugs were inside of the heating pad before you purchased them or if this is something that happened after you got the heating into your house.

If you make your own heating pad, then there isn't a question what is going on.

You personally put the filler in the heating pad, so if you do end up getting bugs in your heating pad, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Then you can open up the heating pad, pour out the filler, wash the heating pad and fill it up once again.

But at least you know you are doing the best you can.

Different fillers

Long grain rice

First off, rice is a good filler for heating pads because it delivers a moist heat to your body.

According to the National Library of Medicine:

"Clinically, it has been shown that moist heat penetrates deep tissue faster than dry heat. Therefore, in home use chemical moist heat may be more efficacious than dry heat to provide pain relief and reduce tissue damage following exercise DOMS."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3808259/#:~:text=Clinically%2C%20it%20has%20been%20shown,tissue%20damage%20following%20exercise%20DOMS.

A moist heat allows for more substantial pain relief for your body.

And that is really what you are aiming for when you put a heating pad on your body.

Long grain rice is much better for his moist heat than brown rice would be.

So having some long grain rice on hand would be very good for your heating pad.

Whole corn

Corn is a great option for your homemade heating pad because you don't need as much of it as different options.

Last say, for instance, that you have a 1 foot by 1 foot heating pad that you would like to start using.

Well to put enough whole corn in it, you would need a lot less than you would need of rice or other fillers.

This means that with corn you can put less in and you can have a better shape to your heating pad.

For an example, if you were having problems with the back of your neck, you would want a heating pad that conforms a lot better to the shape of your neck.

This way, you could put it in place on the back of your neck and then you can sit any way that you want.

Then the heating pad shouldn't move as much.

But if you have to put a filler in that fills up more of the heating pad, then you can't just place it and leave it.

So you want a filler that you need less of and whole corn is that filler.

Lastly, make sure the corn you use is dried corn.  You should be able to find it at any hardware store that sells animal feed.

At these stores, it will be sold as deer corn or feed corn.

If you don't get this corn, you might end up having some popcorn in your heating pad instead of a dried corn that gives you a nice heat to apply to your aching body.

Small beans

First, small dried beans are typically pretty readily available for most people.

We even have a large bad of dried beans in our storage room.

They are also pretty cheap at the store.

You can typically buy a bag of dried beans from the store for only a few dollars at most.

This makes them a very good option for your heating pad.

The other nice thing about the dried beans is that they are already dry.  That means you don't have to worry so much about if they are going to get ruined in the heating pads.

Most other fillers are either too small or they heat up and get ruined too easily.

But you won't have this same problem with beans in your heating pad.

While they might not retain the heat as well as other heating pad option, you don't have to worry about them smelling as much.

Other heating pad options

There are some other options if you don't feel like going to the store and making your own heating pad.

One of these options is to get a wash clothe.

Once you have the wash clothe, get it soaking wet and put it in the microwave for just a minute or two.

The water in the wash clothe will heat up and give you a nice soothing heat.

Then you can apply it to the area of your body that you need to soothe.

The other option is much the same, but instead of a wash clothe, you use a whole towel.

This again gives you a nice soothing heat that you can then apply to the area that needs some pain relief.

Another reason that these are a good option besides being readily available is that you can add essential oils as well.

We have always found that the lavender essential oil has a good smell and is very smoothing, especially when you are trying to go to sleep.

So you could apply a drop or two or essential oils on your towel or wash clothe, put it in the microwave and then apply it to your body.

Summary

There are a lot of great options to making your own heating pad.

And that includes whole corn, long grain rice and small beans.

But really the best heating pad you are going to come across is the lava sand heating pad.

This heating pad will give you the relief you need for your aches and pain, as well as remove any concerns that you have about other heating pads.

So if you decide to purchase a heating pad instead of making it yourself, a lava sand heating pad is the way to go.