Bottles and jars – Nursing bottles and nipples
Reexamination Certificate
1997-03-25
2001-01-23
Elkins, Gary E. (Department: 3727)
Bottles and jars
Nursing bottles and nipples
C215S011400, C606S236000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06176380
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a feeding-bottle teat specially adapted for feeding babies.
Compared with breast feeding, bottle-feeding a baby presents drawbacks that are associated essentially with two factors. Firstly, there is no uniformity in the dose of milk delivered for constant sucking effort. The dose is a function of the depth of liquid present in the bottle, i.e. firstly on the quantity of milk it contains, which quantity decreases as it is consumed, and secondly on the inclination of the bottle relative to the horizontal. In particular, choking-style incidents are observed during the first mouthfuls taken by the baby because the baby is sucking hard and the liquid column is at its maximum, thereby causing too much liquid to reach the baby.
The second factor that impedes proper feeding of a baby lies in air penetrating into the bottle to replace the milk that has been consumed. In the simplest of teats, air penetrates via the milk outlet slit once the suction inside the bottle is greater than the suction force exerted by the baby. It is not unusual for the baby to swallow air at that moment which, together with irregularity in feed rate, constitutes the main cause of digestive troubles. Attempts have been made to mitigate that drawback by providing an inlet for air ingress into the bottle via an orifice other than the liquid outlet orifice. Thus, certain teats are installed on the bottle by a nut that presses a flange of the teat against the end surface of the neck of the bottle, the flange having one or more radial grooves that form channels through which outside air can penetrate when the suction inside the bottle is sufficient. Since the flange of the teat is made of rubber and can therefore be compressed, the tightness with which the teat is screwed onto the neck of the bottle adjusts the flow section of the channels so that they operate like a valve having an opening threshold. In use, such teats have nevertheless shown that it is difficult to adjust operation thereof, particularly for very young babies. It is necessary for air to penetrate into the bottle even under low suction, since the sucking power of a newborn baby is relatively small, so the teat is held against the neck of the bottle by a nut that is tightened very little. Unfortunately, under such circumstances, it is not unusual to observe milk leaking out, and that causes users to tighten the teat so much as to close the air passages completely, thereby eliminating the technical effect intended therefor.
An object of the present invention is to provide a solution to the two main causes of difficulty in digestion for newborn babies due to the way in which they are fed, i.e. to enable a given sucking force to deliver a constant dose of milk and to provide entirely satisfactory air ingress to the inside of the bottle while it is being emptied.
To this end, the present invention provides a feeding-bottle teat comprising a flexible and pierced endpiece designed to be put in the mouth of a child, and a fixing portion for fixing the teat to the body of a bottle, the teat comprising a tubular inner wall lining its outer wall and defining an annular chamber which terminates in the vicinity of the base of the endpiece and which is in permanent communication with the atmosphere via at least one orifice formed through the outer wall of the teat at the base of the annular chamber. By means of this disposition, the liquid sucked out by the baby is at constant pressure regardless of the quantity of liquid contained in the bottle, which pressure is atmospheric pressure. In addition, air penetration into the bottle does not require any initial adjustment and it adapts accurately to the quantity of liquid that the newborn baby has extracted.
In a preferred embodiment, at least the free end of the inner wall is flexible and, in the rest position, bears against the inside surface of the base of the flexible endpiece. This embodiment, particularly when the outside diameter of the free end is slightly greater than the inside diameter of the teat at the base of the endpiece, serves, when the bottle is moved from its in-use position to its vertical position with the teat on top, to prevent a small quantity of milk, in particular the quantity contained in the endpiece, flooding the annular chamber. In preferred manner, all of the inside wall of the teat lining is made of a material that is flexible and elastic, e.g. a silicone having all the necessary food grade qualities.
In another embodiment, the endpiece of the teat is integrally formed with the inner wall, the junction portion between the endpiece and the inner wall forming a zone through which slits are formed, the means for fixing the teat to the body of the bottle being constituted by a nut for clamping a flange of the inner wall against the end of the neck of the bottle, which nut includes a rigid dome provided with a central opening through which the endpiece is received and against the inside edge of which there presses the connection zone between the endpiece and the inner wall in which the slits are formed, at least one opening being formed in the rigid dome to place the space between the inner wall and the dome in communication with the atmosphere.
Other characteristics and advantages of the invention appear from the embodiments described below by way of example.
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Drevet Jean-Baptiste
Glories Serge
Elkins Gary E.
Friedman Stuart J.
Mai Tri M.
Nixon & Peabody LLP
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