That's the sweetest thing. We need more people like this Dad out there. Someone needs to get behind this and fund it! There's a real need for toys like this.
Same here. I love my job and the volunteer things I do but stuff like this makes me feel like it's all not enough. God must certainly be smiling down on this man.
I had a similar idea a few months ago, and I'm so glad that there are people out there who are really doing this. Fantastic.
> “If they have a certain condition and they have a toy just like them, it helps the children understand what’s going on. I’ve had calls with more than 70 play therapists across the country and from that I’ve been told there aren’t many toys like it, but they’re desperately needed to help these children not only understand why they’re different, but to feel less alone.”
The article indicates the maker sought out advice on child safety from people who validate toys and was asked to change materials, which he did. So that implies he did have to change from whatever the default material he was using at least
Is it possible to clean existing extruders that have been previously used with non-food-grade PLA to make them fit for food-grade use, or do you have to purchase a brand new extruder?
Unless you don't cook anything without your binder of US FDA datasheets and guidelines in hand, you don't worry about it.
(And if you do that, you're already screaming 'not food safe' any time anybody mentions 3D printing anyway.)
Aside from direct and prolonged contact, (you probably don't want to print and repeatedly use a spoon for example) the main somewhat legitimate concern is bacterial growth in all the tiny crevices that arise as a result of the printing process. Don't 3D print food storage jars and try to wash and re-use them?
For a child's toy, there's not really a reason to worry about or treat it differently than anything you buy. Once it's been chucked on the floor, smeared through the dogs breakfast, and stuck in their mouth, it's pretty inconsequential that it happened to be 3D printed.
Even off-the-shelf cheap PLA still has orders of magnitude less random crap in it than any of the other plastic toys they already play with.
I wouldn't make a pacifier or chew toy from it, but I've got no problem making dozens of PLA toys for my kids (after having done the research on the filaments), and I'd say 50% of the toys my kids have, have been 3D printed by ourselves.
Great story. The Teddy Bear is really a wonderful thing and ought to be considered one of the most important “inventions“ of the last ~century. They’ve brought a lot of joy to a lot of kids (and adults too.)
I came across this link recently and bookmarked it, as it reminded me of the fun and quirky articles that used to be more prevalent online. A time capsule from the 90s, almost.
Ah, what could be more important than a mechanical device which simulates human presence! It liberates the parent to other pursuits, just as mechanical reproduction simulator devices liberate the partner.
Inanimate objects stimulate the mind. Wooden blocks can become space ships, rocks mountains. I wouldn’t trade my imaginative childhood experience for any modern day app. No way.
3D printers have been in the public’s hands for about a decade now. They aren’t exactly new or interesting technology and the use here isn’t particularly novel or interesting.
Most people don’t have the skills required to benefit from owning or operating a 3D printer, so most people don’t have anything to do with them.
They are still an emerging technology, with new applications reported steadily. Still, they are very interesting to most people, because 3D printing is basically wizardry in their eyes.
This use case is definitely novel, it even says so on the article. It may not be interesting to you, but your strong reaction reveals that you are actually angry at the feelings provoked by the article, and it might do you good to take a moment to analyse WHY you are having that kind of emotional reaction.
Inventiveness.
Decision for action.
A startup.
Not following or depending on big business to make what you want,
Imagination.
Design and production.
Sounds like hacker news to me!
Thank you. This guy is filling a spot of supply and demand where profit is unlikely to be made. So it ends up in the public benefit/non-profit art segment.
I also met a few German parents who were a little irritated "oh no! Don't take it apart! "
But the kids are fine and often curious about all the things inside.
This dad is carrying on a fantastic, but not at all new tradition. I had surgery in the early 1970's when I was three, and I've still got the old teddy bear up in a box in the attic that the staff at the hospital made for me that "needed the same surgery".
Considering the height of my musical career was a one night only performance of "La Cucaracha" badly strummed out on the guitar in first grade, I'm not sure how good the concert will be. But perhaps the teddy bear would be better.
Yeah, my kid also got a teddy with the same scar as his from the hospital. It's a nice idea, but my kid didn't really care about it. (I don't know why, he had other stuffed animals that he really liked, but apparently the scar was not a big deal to him)
It was too many years ago, and I was too young for me to remember if it helped me deal better or not. But if I'm still holding on to it, it must mean something!
It might seems like a simple feel-good story for some, but it's more than that. I didn't imagine how much children learn and cope through toys until I had my own kids.
Example 1: when my daughter was 2 she got a fishbone stuck in her mouth. I gave her lots of bread and water so that something would force the small bone to go down. After 5 minutes the issue was resolved and she immediately jumped to her teddy bear and started playing "you have a bone teddy, you need bread, take this, take that". The first plays were urgent and quite serious and the teddy was always "cured" quickly. But later through the following days as she played the same idea she started to improvise. Teddy, in her hands, would cough and cough - I would offer him things for 10 minutes and more and nothing would help him. And she would laugh at this. After these plays fish bones in her mind were no longer serious.
Example 2: when she was 3 we tried to adapt her to a kindergarten. After the first day when she was home she picked up her toy cars and started playing. Some of the cars were teachers, others were children, one was me, another one was her, and one small car was a smaller child that cried all the time. And we played the routine where I came to the kindergarten with her, stayed for a bit, and then went to work. At the moment the "dad" car went to work she would physically tense up and become silent, as if it was really happening. But those moments became easier once she learned more details about what to expect during the typical day in the kindergarten and that later the "dad" car always comes back to take her home. Seems like this experience was helpful as, despite being somewhat shy, she never cried during her adaptation period.
Oh yes, my daughter's favorite (she loves rabbits in general) helps her all time, even during sleep. She's role playing with the doll, as well as her imaginary friends (who also aid her, and go through similar events as she does). I suppose before she had imaginary friends, a solution as OP's makes sense.
A plushie (often a favorite) who also suffers from the same (or similar) issue creates that form of empathy/connection children require.
We got some special toys as well, for example a doll with a heartbeat which supposedly helps kids with autism (both parents in our household got the diagnosis). I don't think it works for our oldest, and for our youngest jury's out on it (he's not even 1 year old).
Suffice to say I find this a beautiful project. Thank you so much for linking to it, submitter!
As you say, kids will instinctively do this, she pretend played that a car is herself and another is you. They don't need adults to prescribe what they should pretend play. They'll play with rocks and twigs and anything else and have fun.
These toys-that-make-feelgood-news are not about kids but adults playing politics (that they are compassionate unlike the other tribe).
> These toys-that-make-feelgood-news are not about kids but adults playing politics (that they are compassionate unlike the other tribe).
Notwithstanding the tone of the article being "feel-good" I really don't know how you make the jump you made here - lots of research supports the idea that representation matters.
Sure kids will happily play with rocks and cardboard tubes, but if they are playing with dolls they will absolutely notice if they are none of the options are much like themselves. It's hardly a big conceptual jump to see how a kid in a wheelchair would like to have a doll/action figure/whatever also with a wheelchair.
"a simple feel-good story" - am I the only one who feels manipulated? It could have been eg "Man makes toy bears...". When I see something like "Dad makes teddies..." I stop reading. Give me the details, and I'll draw conclusions on my own, thanks. Related, I struggle to find objective media; I thought The Economist would be hard nosed objective economics - nope, had to unsubscribe; I figured the FT must be the answer, only interested in money and profits, facts only - nope, unsubscribed.
Perhaps, but the parent post was right to notice that headline wording choice has an effect on emotion, and can be manipulative. Human interest stories aren't always chosen and conveyed with the interest of the reader or the subject in mind.
IMHO, saying that "Dad makes teddies" is simply a manipulative form of "Man makes toys" is just drawing arbitrary lines on the spectrum of the descriptiveness of language. It primes the reader for a more light-hearted, cute story, rather than a factual retelling of a series of events. Evoking emotional !== being manipulative. It _can_ mean that, but just because something tugs at our heart strings doesn't mean we are being manipulated.
Further, why not consider that "Man makes toys" is just a manipulative form of "Dad makes teddies"? Sure that primes us just as much as "Dad makes teddies", just in the other direction, no?
EDIT: Rereading this it sounds like I'm coming at you, or the OP, but I'm not :) Just thinking out loud in response to your comment!
Given that his role as a father was central to him creating the first bear, what word should they have used that would have conveyed the same amount of information? Are we really going to pretend that "Man makes toys" is a superior informational choice to "Dad makes teddies?"
I have found (as I've gotten older, and, hopefully wiser) that I no longer seek out objectivity because it cannot exist in most human interest topics.
Economics has no objective truth, as evidenced by its inability as a whole to make accurate predictions. Politics has no objective truth, because we need to understand people's motivations which are often hidden from themselves.
If you see this kind of headline and get upset because of the editorializing, I suspect you should only read about physics and math. At least until you start to see the subjectivity in those fields as well.
We cannot escape our biases. We cannot communicate objectively - the decisions of what to talk about, how we express it, and how much context to include - those all fly against objectivity.
It took me a while to accept that I'm not a logical robot and to embrace the parts of humanity that I previously found distasteful because it couldn't be cleanly reduced to a binary.
That you haven't read the story but you feel manipulated says a lot more about you than the story. The story is fine, and it doesn't even make a value judgment about what the father is doing. It documents why he started making these things and why he claims that he is continuing to make them... so unless you have a problem with documenting the motivation of the subject of a story, I have no idea why you would feel manipulated unless you're just looking for a grievance.
I had several eye surgeries related to my congenital cataracts as a kid, including one where I had to wear an eye patch bandage for a few weeks. I remember being given a Mickey Mouse doll with a circular band-aid over the same eye, similar to my own. I peeled it off right away. Maybe I was a cynical kid.
The dad has found good advocacy while at the same time doing business. It will boost the morale and mental state of the patients with health conditions.
My dad was a surgeon who treated kids with scoliosis. He also happened to make teddy bears as a hobby. So he made a teddy bear with an artificial spine in it that he put scoliosis hardware on.
When he was meeting with a kid for a pre-op consult, he would let the kid hug the teddy bear, and then he would show them the teddy bear's X-Ray. It really helped them understand what was going to happen to them, and put them at ease.
Would recommend this book, it changed my relationship to my kids and echos what others have said about children and play. The more you turn into games with your kids, the better relationship there will be.
I love these kind of stories on hn. As entrepreneurial minded people, it’s common to think a lot about markets and opportunities. It’s hard to come up with ideas that will be viable.
But these stories serve as a good example of how, if you think about doing good and helping out others, the market for that is wide open. There is no end to opportunities. And often, by focusing on improving the world rather than making f—— you money, you end up being greatly enriched, financially but spiritually as well. It’s as though there were some greater force that recognizes efforts to do good and bestows upon these people great rewards, wealth, plenty. Doing good is anti-fragile.
Many years ago, perhaps in the mid-90s, a friend of mine proposed starting an outfit that made "Boo-Boo Bears," teddy bears that had casts, crutches, and other injury-healing themes intended for hospitalized children.
Then he discovered Hanna-Barbera owned the BooBoo Bear trademark and he gave up on the idea. I always thought that it was a good idea upon which he gave up too easily.
84 comments
[ 13.5 ms ] story [ 239 ms ] threadhttps://archive.is/pNlJC
I suggest for power users to run with JS off by default and turn it on per website.
> “If they have a certain condition and they have a toy just like them, it helps the children understand what’s going on. I’ve had calls with more than 70 play therapists across the country and from that I’ve been told there aren’t many toys like it, but they’re desperately needed to help these children not only understand why they’re different, but to feel less alone.”
I imagine the material needs to be durable and non-toxic if swallowed, but I know very little about both 3D printers and child safety standards.
Otherwise, there is no telling what additives and dyes are in those filaments, or what they do to a child after prolonged exposure.
You could say this about most plastics. If you are concerned about PLA purity you should be triple scared of the much worse plastics we use regularly.
(And if you do that, you're already screaming 'not food safe' any time anybody mentions 3D printing anyway.)
Aside from direct and prolonged contact, (you probably don't want to print and repeatedly use a spoon for example) the main somewhat legitimate concern is bacterial growth in all the tiny crevices that arise as a result of the printing process. Don't 3D print food storage jars and try to wash and re-use them?
For a child's toy, there's not really a reason to worry about or treat it differently than anything you buy. Once it's been chucked on the floor, smeared through the dogs breakfast, and stuck in their mouth, it's pretty inconsequential that it happened to be 3D printed.
I wouldn't make a pacifier or chew toy from it, but I've got no problem making dozens of PLA toys for my kids (after having done the research on the filaments), and I'd say 50% of the toys my kids have, have been 3D printed by ourselves.
https://www.facebook.com/joshhardie9/posts/2274692719328954
I came across this link recently and bookmarked it, as it reminded me of the fun and quirky articles that used to be more prevalent online. A time capsule from the 90s, almost.
“10 Common Misconceptions About Teddy Bears”:
https://neverimitate.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/10-common-misc...
Most people don’t have the skills required to benefit from owning or operating a 3D printer, so most people don’t have anything to do with them.
They are still an emerging technology, with new applications reported steadily. Still, they are very interesting to most people, because 3D printing is basically wizardry in their eyes.
This use case is definitely novel, it even says so on the article. It may not be interesting to you, but your strong reaction reveals that you are actually angry at the feelings provoked by the article, and it might do you good to take a moment to analyse WHY you are having that kind of emotional reaction.
My father went in for a routine hernia operstion. He had great insurance. Covered 100% of every overpriced procedure.
He was recovering at home, and was just going through the bill for no reason.
He noticed $690 for "Psychological Positivity therapy".
That explained the Teddy Bear, and flowers, none of us sent him.
Why is this comment on hacker news?
Unfortunately, the girl version is discontinued
> That bands with no talent can easily amuse idiots with a stupid puppet show
Best of luck with your return to music! :D
[1] Originally known as Green Jellö
Example 1: when my daughter was 2 she got a fishbone stuck in her mouth. I gave her lots of bread and water so that something would force the small bone to go down. After 5 minutes the issue was resolved and she immediately jumped to her teddy bear and started playing "you have a bone teddy, you need bread, take this, take that". The first plays were urgent and quite serious and the teddy was always "cured" quickly. But later through the following days as she played the same idea she started to improvise. Teddy, in her hands, would cough and cough - I would offer him things for 10 minutes and more and nothing would help him. And she would laugh at this. After these plays fish bones in her mind were no longer serious.
Example 2: when she was 3 we tried to adapt her to a kindergarten. After the first day when she was home she picked up her toy cars and started playing. Some of the cars were teachers, others were children, one was me, another one was her, and one small car was a smaller child that cried all the time. And we played the routine where I came to the kindergarten with her, stayed for a bit, and then went to work. At the moment the "dad" car went to work she would physically tense up and become silent, as if it was really happening. But those moments became easier once she learned more details about what to expect during the typical day in the kindergarten and that later the "dad" car always comes back to take her home. Seems like this experience was helpful as, despite being somewhat shy, she never cried during her adaptation period.
A plushie (often a favorite) who also suffers from the same (or similar) issue creates that form of empathy/connection children require.
We got some special toys as well, for example a doll with a heartbeat which supposedly helps kids with autism (both parents in our household got the diagnosis). I don't think it works for our oldest, and for our youngest jury's out on it (he's not even 1 year old).
Suffice to say I find this a beautiful project. Thank you so much for linking to it, submitter!
These toys-that-make-feelgood-news are not about kids but adults playing politics (that they are compassionate unlike the other tribe).
Notwithstanding the tone of the article being "feel-good" I really don't know how you make the jump you made here - lots of research supports the idea that representation matters.
Sure kids will happily play with rocks and cardboard tubes, but if they are playing with dolls they will absolutely notice if they are none of the options are much like themselves. It's hardly a big conceptual jump to see how a kid in a wheelchair would like to have a doll/action figure/whatever also with a wheelchair.
https://youtu.be/yj5U-tr-E24
Who can watch that and say rocks and sticks would be just as good?
Further, why not consider that "Man makes toys" is just a manipulative form of "Dad makes teddies"? Sure that primes us just as much as "Dad makes teddies", just in the other direction, no?
EDIT: Rereading this it sounds like I'm coming at you, or the OP, but I'm not :) Just thinking out loud in response to your comment!
More teddies !
Economics has no objective truth, as evidenced by its inability as a whole to make accurate predictions. Politics has no objective truth, because we need to understand people's motivations which are often hidden from themselves.
If you see this kind of headline and get upset because of the editorializing, I suspect you should only read about physics and math. At least until you start to see the subjectivity in those fields as well.
We cannot escape our biases. We cannot communicate objectively - the decisions of what to talk about, how we express it, and how much context to include - those all fly against objectivity.
It took me a while to accept that I'm not a logical robot and to embrace the parts of humanity that I previously found distasteful because it couldn't be cleanly reduced to a binary.
https://youtu.be/AdYaTa_lOf4
My dad was a surgeon who treated kids with scoliosis. He also happened to make teddy bears as a hobby. So he made a teddy bear with an artificial spine in it that he put scoliosis hardware on.
When he was meeting with a kid for a pre-op consult, he would let the kid hug the teddy bear, and then he would show them the teddy bear's X-Ray. It really helped them understand what was going to happen to them, and put them at ease.
https://www.playfulparenting.com/
The impact between him and my older child who was struggling to understand what was happening to her brother cannot be overstated.
https://higgybears.com/
But these stories serve as a good example of how, if you think about doing good and helping out others, the market for that is wide open. There is no end to opportunities. And often, by focusing on improving the world rather than making f—— you money, you end up being greatly enriched, financially but spiritually as well. It’s as though there were some greater force that recognizes efforts to do good and bestows upon these people great rewards, wealth, plenty. Doing good is anti-fragile.
Then he discovered Hanna-Barbera owned the BooBoo Bear trademark and he gave up on the idea. I always thought that it was a good idea upon which he gave up too easily.