JPH07194679A - Baby bottle nipples - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] The present invention is capable of changing and adjusting the flow of fluid in response to the force of sucking the fluid, by biting the nipple of the baby bottle of an infant who drinks fluid from the feeding bottle. Intended to provide bottle nipples. Further, the feeding bottle teat according to the present invention can create a relationship with a desired flow rate of the fluid, regardless of the pressure applied at any angle. The baby bottle teat according to the present invention has three slots that extend radially from substantially the center of the end portion of the teat through the teat wall.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a nipple attached to a baby bottle. More particularly, the present invention provides a method for delivering fluid in a baby bottle substantially independent of the attachment to the baby bottle or the direction of rotation of the nipple by the baby's grip depending on the infant's instinctive response. The present invention relates to a nipple having an opening that can be given while changing the.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Nipples of baby bottles are made of soft elastic rubber or synthetic elastomer, and are attached to baby bottles and provided with openings at the ends. Many proposals have been made for this, and various products have been released. There is. Such a nipple opening has a circular hole in the center, a single slot (small cut), a combination of slot and hole, and an X-shaped cut with crossed slots. There is. An example of such a proposal is U.S. Pat.
No. 651, No. 774,848, No. 981,072, No. 2,223,
No. 179, No. 2,520,157, No. 2,688,326, No. 2,
No. 707,470, No. 2,720,328, No. 2,942,746, No. 3,139,064, No. 3,335,890, No. 3,516,564
No. 3,650,271, No. 4,676,387, and Des.
No. 273,896, British patent application No. 2,215,318A, PCT application FR90 / 00123, etc.

[0003]

When feeding a liquid such as milk to an infant through the nipple of a feeding bottle, several criteria must be considered. First, babies tend to increase the pressure of the lips applied to the nipple to control the desired fluid flow rate. That is, the stronger the desire for the fluid, the greater the force on the lips. Therefore, if the opening of the nipple is well designed, such a situation can be dealt with well. That is, the stronger the force applied to the nipple, the wider the opening of the nipple and the larger the flow rate. When an infant applies pressure to his lips, the nipple made of elastic material deforms. Therefore, in this specification, the force applied to the nipple and the deformation thereof are qualitatively equivalent.

Second, the baby bottle held by the baby or a caregiver who gives fluid to the baby must be oriented in a predetermined direction so that the pressure applied to the nipple by the baby can be maintained in the above-described pressure-deformation relationship. I have to. For example, if the nipple opening is a single slot, the pressure exerted on each longitudinal side of the slot may actually act to occlude the slot, dissatisfying the infant who wants to drink more fluid. . On the other hand, the pressure exerted on the ends of this slot acts to widen the slot and further expand the fluid flow. Therefore, if the nipple opening is a single slot, the caregiver of the baby must tilt the slot depending on the direction in which the baby exerts pressure, which is always well visible. is not.

At the other extreme, in the case of a single circular hole with a central nipple opening, the pressure applied in a given direction is dependent on the flow rate, independent of the direction of the feeding bottle. Gives the same effect. Unfortunately, however, such openings are frustrating to the infant as they try to increase the flow by exerting more pressure on their lips, which cannot be accommodated.

The problem of the structure and orientation of the nipple opening becomes significant when trying to satisfy the above relationship for a nipple attached to a non-straight cylindrical baby bottle. When attaching the nipple to a straight and symmetrical feeding bottle, the anomalous problems such as the angular relationship between the bent feeding bottle and the single slot do not occur. Therefore, a certain portion of the feeding bottle does not become a problem. However, in reality, feeding bottles are not limited to those having a straight cylindrical shape. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,387 discloses a configuration in which the head of a baby bottle, including the nipple, is at an angle to the rest. This crooked baby bottle, even when the baby is lying down,
It is said that you can conveniently feed even when you are sitting.
In the case of such an asymmetrical feeding bottle, an additional factor must be considered in order to feed the infant in a specific posture in the orientation in which the pressure-deformation relationship is maintained. That is, in the case of an asymmetrical feeding bottle, the nipple must be mounted with its opening oriented properly. To achieve this, therefore, the design of the nipple attachment system is complicated and also inconvenient for the caregiver who has to attach the nipple to the feeding bottle in a supported position.

[0007] Therefore, it is desirable to have a design for a baby bottle teat opening that is capable of increasing fluid flow in response to the force of the baby's lips and independent of the direction in which this force is applied.

[0008]

According to the present invention, it changes according to the pressure applied from the caregiver of the baby,
Also provided is a baby bottle teat capable of producing a regulated fluid flow. The feeding bottle nipple can satisfy the desired pressure-flow relationship regardless of the direction in which the previous pressure is applied.

The baby bottle nipple of the present invention has an opening containing three slots through which fluid extending through the nipple wall can pass. These slots meet at, and extend radially from, the approximate center of the teat end. The slots are preferably at equal angles to each other, ie 120 °.
It is good to extend from the center of the nipple end while making an angle. However, this angle is about 100 ° to 140 °
You may change in the range of.

With the design of the baby bottle teat opening of the present invention, the relationship between the pressure applied to the teat and the fluid flow rate is maintained at a desired level and is substantially independent of the angle at which the pressure is applied. It was found that Therefore, the baby bottle nipple of the present invention can be easily applied to a normal straight baby bottle and the recently proposed asymmetric baby bottle.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 shows a baby bottle 10 to which a nipple 10 is attached.
It is a side view which shows. This feeding bottle 10 has a top 14
Has a certain angle with respect to the remaining portion 16,
The design of the nipple opening is the most difficult type. However, nevertheless, the baby bottle teat opening design of the present invention can be employed and takes advantage of any shape baby bottle, including, for example, conventional straight cylindrical baby bottles.

FIG. 2 is a plan view (viewed from the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1) showing a baby bottle teat opening of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a view taken along line 3-3 in FIG. FIG. 7 is a top cross-sectional view of the baby bottle-nipple assembly. As you can see from the figure,
The baby bottle nipple opening of the present invention has three slots (nipple 1
2 wall notches 18, 20, 22 with the slots extending radially from a point 24 at the center of the teat end. The slots are substantially evenly spaced, i.e. separated by an angle B of about 120 °. The spacing between the slots is preferably symmetrical (that is, 120 °), but a change in the range of 20 ° can bring out the advantages of the present invention. However, the change in the angle is still preferably within the range of 120 ° ± 10 °, more preferably within the range of 120 ° ± 2 °.

The length of each slot must in any case be greater than the thickness of the teat wall where the slot is provided. Then, in order to maintain the uniformity of the flow rate, it is preferable that all three slots have substantially the same length.
However, the length of each slot can be changed to some extent within the range in which the uniformity of the flow rate in the direction of deformation can be sacrificed. In general, the diameters of commercially available teat ends are not so different and are 10 to 15 mm. Thus, the nipple slot can achieve a desired range of flow rates from about 1 mm to about 3 mm. That is, the minimum flow rate is mainly used for newborns, and the maximum flow rate is used for toddlers.

To better illustrate the advantages of the present invention, the following example compares the teat opening design of the present invention with that of the prior art.

In each example, the apparatus shown in FIG. 8 was used, and the flow rate was determined by a gravimetric method using an electronic scale connected to a computer. The feeding bottle and its attached nipple were pressurized to a relatively constant level with a pressure controlled gas (typically 500 mm of water pressure) delivered from a source of pressurized air or nitrogen. On the head side of the baby bottle,
A liquid whose water pressure changes in the range of 40 to 60 mm increases air pressure and pushes the liquid out of the opening of the nipple. The nipple bulb is deformed in the desired orientation by the desired amount. In Figure 8, the combined edge of the feeding bottle and nipple is held in place. At the bottom of the feeding bottle, a tube 32 connects the feeding bottle to a source of pressurized air or nitrogen 40 via a valve 34, a U-shaped water manometer (pressure gauge) 36 and a low pressure controller. In the figure, the feeding bottle is shown tilting and pouring its liquid contents into a beaker 42 supported by an electronic balance 44. The electronic scale 44 is connected to a computer 48 via a serial type cable 46. The nipple, which is in the position of infusing fluid therein, is clamped between the spaced apart jaws of the clamp. The clamp thus provides radial deformation of the nipple. The diameter of the nipple, of course, intersects two points on its periphery. The position of this intersection changes depending on the rotation angle of the nipple diameter clamped by the clamp in the circumferential direction of the nipple. In this way, deformations of the nipple in different orientations can be created. The degree of deformation can be varied by changing the distance, or gap, between the jaws of the clamp. The computer 48 converts the change in the weight of the beaker accompanying the filling of the contents into a flow rate and reports it. The content used for this test can be a liquid such as milk or juice, but in this example water was used in particular. Nitrogen was used as the pressurizing gas and was pressurized to a pressure corresponding to a water pressure of 500 mm. The degree of deformation of the nipple bulb is expressed as a percentage of the original bulb diameter. Therefore, if the nipple ball portion originally having a diameter of 12 mm is sandwiched by the gap of 9 mm, the degree of deformation is 25%.

Referring now to FIG. 4, the effect of the azimuth of ball deformation in a nipple of conventional design is shown using a polar coordinate graph. The nipple of this design has a single circular hole in the center of the end. If this nipple is sandwiched by a 6 mm gap, the deformation rate is 50%. Then, it is rotated to various positions around the nipple periphery. The curve in the figure is
Represents the change in flow rate when the clamp is rotated around the nipple (unit: cm ³ / min). As can be seen in this FIG. 4, the circular holes describe a circular flow pattern. That is, substantially the same flow rate is achieved regardless of the rotational position of the clamp. This is ideal from the perspective of making the nipple independent of its deformation orientation. However, as described below, the nipple opening of this circular hole design does not respond very well to nipple deformation, with the advantage that a uniform flow rate is obtained in all orientations. Therefore, when an infant instinctively applies pressure to deform the nipple by wanting to drink more of the contents of the feeding bottle, the flow rate does not increase much.

In FIG. 5, the same experiment as above was attempted with two more prior art nipple openings. The two openings are two short slots 52 intersecting at 90 °.
And two long 54. These two openings show quite different flow rates. However, nevertheless, the pattern of flow curves when deformed around the nipple is almost the same. As can be seen from this FIG. 5, the flow rate depends entirely on the angle at which the deformation occurred. For the long slot 54, it varies from a minimum of less than 20cc to a maximum of about 130cc. For the short slot 52 it varies from a minimum of about 0cc to a maximum of about 45cc.

Proceeding to FIG. 6, this figure shows the results of the same experiment performed using the slot 60 of the present invention. The slot 60, as in FIG. 5, also includes two designs of openings, a short slot with a length of 1.55 mm and a long slot with a length of 1.96 mm. And, as in the case of FIG. 5, the openings of these two designs show a marked difference in the flow rate, and the pattern 64 with long slots is considerably larger than the pattern 62 with short slots. Observing the two patterns 62 and 64 obtained when deforming around the nipple, these patterns closely resemble those for a circular opening (FIG. 4) with relatively low flow rate variations. I know that In other words, the fluctuation of the flow rate in the case of a long slot is 65-75cc
In the range of 30 to 3 for short slots
It is within the range of 2cc. That is, Y according to the present invention
A slotted aperture design surprisingly takes on a deformation / flow pattern that is very similar to a circular aperture design. In addition, the flow rate, which is independent of the direction of deformation, can be realized without the inevitable drawbacks of circular openings. That is, according to the novel opening design of the present invention, the flow rate of the contents can be increased and given to the baby according to the degree of deformation. On the other hand, the conventional circular opening could not give the same appropriate change in flow rate as the present invention.

This difference in effect is best shown in FIGS. 7 (a)-(c). The effects of the present invention neck opening design are shown in Figure 7 (a), with a nipple opening consisting of orthogonal slots in Figure 7 (b), and with a single hole to the nipple opening in Figure 7 (c). . In each figure, the vertical axis is cc /
The flow rate in minutes and the horizontal axis represent the deformation rate in the range of 0 to 50%. In addition, each figure shows a large flow rate and a small flow rate at each deformation ratio except for a single hole (FIG. 7C). When looking at this flow rate variation pattern, it should be noted that the nipple clamps were placed in only one of the most suitable positions for each opening design. In the case of the circular hole of FIG. 7 (c), the orientation of this deformation is not important. In the case of the opening of two orthogonal slots of FIG. 7 (b), the clamp is applied such that its diameter is collinear with the diameter of one of the two orthogonal slots, and FIG. ), The clamp was applied so that its diameter was collinear with the diameter of one of the three slots in the Y-shape.

Looking at these three figures, FIG.
The change range of the flow rate is extremely large from the case where the slot is closed without any force applied and the flow rate is almost 0 to the case where the flow rate of 80 cc / min is obtained with considerable deformation for the long slot. . When looking at this FIG. 7 (a), it should be noted that the flow rate pattern did not change even if the deformation direction changed around the nipple, which was almost the same as that in the case of the circular hole. In the case of FIG. 7B, it can be seen that the change in the flow rate due to the length of the slot is larger than that in the case of FIG. 7A. Although the reason for this is not clear, if the slot is short, the response to the change in the deformation ratio is weak, and the slope of the flow curve is smaller than that for the long slot. However, such a change in flow rate is still satisfactory. However, in FIG. 5, recall that this example produced the unsatisfactory result that the flow rate would change significantly if the orientation of deformation deviated from the ideal position. FIG. 7C shows the result obtained by the circular opening pattern. In this example, in FIG. 4, the flow rate change pattern was circular, and the relationship between the deformation direction and the flow rate was perfect. However, in FIG. 7 (c), the flow rate is rather decreased even if the deformation rate is increased, which produces the opposite result to the infant's desire, which may cause dissatisfaction to the infant.

As can be seen from the above example, although the reason is not always clear, the nipple opening pattern of the present invention has a substantially uniform deformation direction-flow rate relationship similar to that of a circular hole, and In the case of circular holes, there is no disadvantage that the flow rate decreases on the contrary as the degree of deformation observed increases. In other aperture designs, some satisfy one or the other of these two properties, but none satisfy both.

Specific embodiments of the present invention are as follows. 1) The slots are about 110 ° to 130 ° to each other
The nipple of a baby bottle according to claim 1, wherein the nipples are provided at different angles. 2) The baby bottle teat according to the above-mentioned embodiment 1), wherein the slot has a length larger than the thickness of the teat wall at the location where the slot is provided. 3) The baby bottle teat according to embodiment 2), wherein the slot has a length of about 1 mm to about 3 mm. 4) The nipple of a baby bottle according to claim 1, wherein the nipple is attached to a straight cylindrical baby bottle. 5) The nipple of a baby bottle according to claim 1, wherein the nipple is attached to a baby bottle having a partially bent shape.

[0023]

As described above, according to the nipple of the baby bottle of the present invention, the flow rate is constant irrespective of the azimuth direction of the nipple deformation, and when pressure is applied, the flow rate is correspondingly increased. More baby bottle nipples are provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a nipple attached to an asymmetrical baby bottle according to one aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of an end portion of the nipple shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a graph chart in polar coordinates showing the effect of the deformation of the opening of the nipple and the flow rate of the fluid according to the first related art.

FIG. 5 is a graph chart in polar coordinates showing the effect of the deformation of the opening of the nipple on the flow direction and the flow rate of the fluid according to the second conventional technique.

FIG. 6 is a graph in polar coordinates showing the effect of deformation of the opening of the nipple and the effect on the flow rate of the fluid according to the present invention.

7 (a), (b) and (c) are graphs in Cartesian coordinates showing the effects on the azimuth of deformation of the nipple and the flow rate of the fluid according to the present invention and the two prior arts.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a test apparatus for obtaining the data shown in FIGS. 5 to 7.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Feeding bottle 12 Nipple 18, 20, 22 Slot 24 Center of nipple end

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Albert Sea Chen, Box Hall Road, East Brunswick, New Jersey, 08816 United States, New Jersey 14 (72) Inventor Joseph Earl Vice United States, 08638 New Stewart Avenue, Trenton, Jersey 9 (72) Inventor Donald El Harper United States, 08822 Plenart Road, Flemington, NJ 30

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A nipple of a baby bottle that produces a substantially uniform oriented, variable and adjustable flow of fluid extending radially from approximately the center of the nipple wall end. A nipple of a baby bottle having three slots, each of which is provided at an angle of about 100 ° to 140 °.