Beds – Support for users body or part thereof – Spring containing
Patent
1994-06-22
1996-03-19
Saether, Flemming
Beds
Support for users body or part thereof
Spring containing
5922, A47C 2002
Patent
active
054994187
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a body support which enables a baby or young child to sleep safely on its side.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or "cot death" as it is commonly known, has been acknowledged for many years. The causes of SIDS are mostly unexplained and the associated risk factors have still to be defined. However, the medical professions generally agree that one of the likely contributory factors to SIDS is the bedding and sleeping position of the young baby.
Parents are often concerned as to what is the best position for laying down a sleeping baby. A baby sleeping on its back faces the risk of choking on its vomit. A baby lying on its front can inhale dangerous toxic gases created by fungus development on the cover of the cot mattress. A baby sleeping on its side would be less susceptible to such unnecessary risks. The present invention sets out to provide a device which serves to position a baby comfortably and securely upon its side.
Although parents may lay their babies in the desired side position, it has been found that only 30 percent such babies remain in that position and many move to a prone position with their face downwards and such babies face a higher risk of cot death.
Many parents use rolled-up towels or blankets, one for the front and one for the back, to keep their babies in the side position. Spontaneous movements by babies including stretching and kicking may lead to the front rolled-up towel to end up partially or completely covering the baby's head, leading to overheating and possibly suffocation. Pillows used in place of towels or blankets are an improvement.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,765,480 discloses an all purpose orthopedic pillow comprising a pair of equal size pillows with a connecting band with snap fasteners for detachably connecting one or both pillows to the band. These snap fasteners allow the pillow to be used for various purposes with one or both of the sets of snap fasteners engaged. This type of snap fastener only allows a pillow case to be secured completely to the band or to be not secured to the band and there is no adjustment of the proportion of the band which is secured to the adjacent pillow case.
According to the present invention there is provided a body support for a young child or baby comprising a pair of bolster cases permanently interconnected by means of a length of flexible connector means, a bolster in each case and means for adjusting the effective length of the connector means between one bolster case and the other by selectively connecting lengths of the flexible connector to bolster case. This adjustment means may include a continuous strip fastener, such as that made under the trademark Velcro where a plurality of hooks are mounted on a continuous strip or by a plurality of snap fasteners. In either case, lengths of the connector starting from the junction of the connector with the bolster case are releasably fastened to the case, the remainder of the connector governing the separation of the bolsters.
Each bolster may simply be the filling of the case or may be a removable pad, which is preferable for hygenic reasons.
The connector means may take any convenient form. Preferably it consists of a length of fabric having opposite ends attached to the respective bolsters. It may be such as to keep the bolsters substantially parallel to one another, and accordingly may for example comprise two or more tapes or cords each extending between the two bolsters, and spaced along the length of the bolsters.
The length of the connector means will be chosen for the range of baby sizes with which the support is to be used. Any part of the connector means not required is removed from the effective length, for example by rolling around one or other of the bolster cases and being fastened thereto by the fasteners if provided. This means there will be a tangential connection between the effective length of the connector and the bolster case. The wrapped-around part of the connector is preferably only at the baby's back so that there is no possibility of the fro
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patent: 5165130 (1992-11-01), Wendling
patent: 5272780 (1993-12-01), Clute
Capper Valerie A.
Tan Sze W.
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