FI126393B

FI126393B - Fingermatmedel

Info

Publication number: FI126393B
Application number: FI20155326A
Authority: FI
Inventors: Marja-Leena Haapanen
Original assignee: Medioral Ky
Priority date: 2015-05-06
Filing date: 2015-05-06
Publication date: 2016-11-15
Also published as: FI20155326A

Description

BABY-LED WEANING DEVICE

The present invention relates to a baby-led weaning device according to the preamble of claim 1.

Infants start to feed complementary food at the earliest at the age of about 3-4 months, mostly from about 6 months on. Traditionally complementary food is introduced to the infants by spoon-feeding of purees from various types of dishes, such as cans, pots or plates. A recent trend, where infants self-feed family foods, i.e. baby-led weaning, has grown in popularity in many countries, like the UK and New Zealand. Relying on the self-feeding skills of an infant is the basis of the approach to introduce solid foods without caregiver-assistance. The infants feed themselves hand-held family foods instead of being spoon-fed by an adult. The infants are generally fed at family mealtimes, but they are also offered breast or bottle milk on demand until they self-wean. The baby-led weaning method has been motivated by various issues, such as promoting healthier eating behavior, more controlled weight gain, but also a very important aspect is that baby-led weaning makes self-feeding and self-weaning possible and solid foods more easily acceptable for the infants.

Complementary solid food feeding by the baby-led weaning method is typically started at the age of 6 months for health, practical, and safety reasons. According to WHO infant feeding guidelines the infants are recommended to be exclusively breastfed until 6 months of age. Gross sensorimotor skills to control head and neck position and the body for sitting and fine oral motor skills are prerequisites for successful self-feeding.

The baby-led weaning method allows the infant to take complementary solid food by her/himself with her/his own fingers from the top of the table. Using own fingers promotes the infant to choose those foods she/he likes and according to her/his own rhythm and speed, and it is also supposed to enhance hand motor development of the infant.

The problem in table top feeding is a mess that occurs while eating, when the pieces of food are widely spread out along the tabletop and also dropped on the floor. This results in additional homework for caregivers, and may also be a sanitary risk. Besides the food spread all over may be felt unacceptable by many people, and it may even arouse disgust in some people, particularly if baby-led weaning is practiced in public places such as fast food places, restaurants and motels or hotels. A published document US2004043182 (Al) 2004-3-04 introduced a portable placemat device, that includes a sheet member and a scoop. This invention allows infants to eat by bare hand off of a flat surface without a spoon and a plate, and the portable placemat can be taken into public places such as fast food restaurants. The scoop of the device makes it portable and as well gathers most of the dropped foods, which adds to the acceptance of the device in terms of tidiness. The said invention allows higher sanitary level and hence safer eating, and thus solves some of the problems of sanitary risks and tidiness, but there are other problems left to be solved. Using a fairly wide sheet as a placemat allows the infant to move foods and spread them all over the placemat. This may be disapproved by other people, particularly in public places. Using a placemat on the ground while picnicking, does not prevent insects, such as ants from invading. A document CN102920256 (A) - 2013-02-13 presents an invention where the plate is bordered by a circular groove to be filled with water to avoid invading of insects. That invention, however, is not provided with other elements suitable for self-feeders.

Self-feeding from the top of a flat surface, such as a placemat, promotes the hand motor skills of the children, but a problem concerning development of more controlled finger skills remains. Infants will self-feed different kinds of foods, like slippery pieces of fruits such as banana, grated foods and pieces of vegetables or bread and cereals. That will produce different demands on hand motor fine skills of an infant. Children tend to pick up pieces of food by the hand lying on the top of the placemat when feeding on a flat surface, even when picking up foods by a pinch grip. If the foods demanding different skills of the finger control would be served from separate grooves of different sizes instead from a flat surface, it would be easier for an infant to practice her(his)and promote the fine motor skills of the hand and fingers.

There is also another concern to be solved. When using a placemat like the one presented by the above mentioned invention, the problem remains that the infant must be weaned from the habit of spreading food all over and to accept the world-wide culture of plate-feeding, and hence adopt a more sophisticated and probably acceptable way to eat by using a plate and finally transit from fingerfeeding to spoon-feeding.

There are lots of plates with separate segments for separate foods at the market, but none of them are suitable for baby-led weaning in terms of segments adjusted to the needs of a self-feeding infant. The document US2329279(A) - 1943-09-14 introduces a plate with some grooves and two handles. The said plate is not provided with a groove capable of gathering the dropped feeds, neither has it any cover or a placemat, neither are the recesses for serving foods of optimal shape for self-feeding. Many kinds of portable dinner plates and devices with multifunctional members (e.g. the documents CN203073990 (U) - 2013-07-24, CN203226560 (U) - 2013-10-09) functioning as a cover or as an underlay can be found, but none of the inventions meet simultaneously the requirements for being portable, protective against unclean agents and wearing, practical and safe to use and transport and being adjusted to self-feeding by an infant. The document CN203073990 (U) introduces a multifunctional dinner plate for children consisting of a cover, dinner plates with grooves and as well a music playing device. This innovation, is however, not suitable for self-feeding infants.

It is the object of the present invention is to introduce an easily implementable technical solution that is easily manufactured for rapid commercial deployment at low costs by disclosing such a device that can decrease and overcome those problems arisen from the contemporary ways to practice baby-led weaning, and which problems are not solved by the available plans or embodiments of the table wares of children. The present invention discloses a portable device with multifunctional members that allows self-feeding by an infant in a more sophisticated and acceptable way, and yields a more easily achievable higher sanitary and esthetic level of eating at home and in public places in a variety of environments. The object of the present invention is also adjusted to promote the hand fine motors skills of an infant to finally transit from hand-feeding to plate-feeding with a help of a spoon.

The above mentioned goals are achieved by the baby-led weaning device according to the invention. When using a plate, the area for feeding is restricted forcing the infant to control for the hand movements. Adjusting the sizes of the recesses allows the child to progress in fine motor skills of the hand and fingers to picking up various qualities of food. The groove bordering the plate gathers the dropped pieces of food and adds to the sanity and tidiness of eating. The cover connected to the plate that is provided with a handle makes the device portable and simultaneously protects the plate and the suction cups attached to the inner surface of the cover. The cover that can be turned upside down to function as a placemat for the plate decreases the number of separate components of the device according to the invention and protects the table top and the suction cups make the device retentive and stabile at the top of the table. The possibility to connect the plate to the placemat makes sure that the device is stable. Self-feeding from a plate introduces a more sophisticated, acceptable and tidier way of eating to an infant.

In the following, the invention, that includes three members, i.e. a plate member (1), a cover member (2) and a placemat member (3), will be explained with reference to the characteristics of which the device is known according to the claim 1 and the appended drawings, in which: FIG 1 shows a schematic horizontal view along the surface of the plate member (1) of the Baby-Led Weaning Device according to the invention, which is intended to be used, when infants are beginning to receive complementary foods. The plate member (1) consists of two parts: a round plate (la) and a groove (lb) bordering the plate. The plate part (la) is provided with at least three bowllike recesses, i.e. bowls (4,5,6a) with the diameters of different length. The fourth bowl (6b) is optional. The bowls are inlaid at the surface of the plate part (la) following the arch of its edge (7), so that the bowl of a chosen size can be manually rotated to face the infant. The place of the suction cups (11) of the cover member (2) (see FIG 2) is theoretically shown by a dashed line. The suction cups (11) are attached to the inner side of the cover member (2) (see Fig 2) so that they are placed in the space created by the groove (lb) and the bowls (4 - 6a and b) of the plate member (1). FIG 2 shows a schematic vertical cross sectional view along the median plane of the plate member (1) and the cover member (2) . The median plane runs along the line going through the center point of the bowls (4 and 5) of the plate (la) (see FIG 1) . The cover member (2) is connected to the plate member (1) to function as a cover of the Baby-Led Weaning Device according to the invention. The dashed line shows an imagined view of a cross section of the bowl (6a or b) , that would not visible in the present view. The curve of the groove (lb) bordering the plate part (la) is shown at the present view at both poles of the device. The groove (lb) is formed as the edge (7) of the plate part (la) curves downwards, serving as an inner wall (8) of the groove (lb) or the outer wall (8) of the plate (la), and then outwards (9) and upwards (10) serving as an outer wall (10) of the groove (lb) or the plate member (1) . The bottom of the plate part (la) is open in the present figure showing the outer bottom of the bowls (4-6a or b), but it may be covered as shown by a bolded dashed line (15) .

The inner surface of cover member (2) of the device is provided with several suction cups (11), most of which are not shown in FIG 2, and an annular vertical rim (13) in a down standing position. The cover member (2) is connected to the plate member (1) at both poles of the device by a simple closing system (12a,b) described detailed with reference to the FIG 4. FIG 3 shows a vertical cross sectional view of the Baby-Led Weaning Device along the median plane according to the invention, where the cover member (2) (FIG 2) is turned upside down to be a placemat member (3) with suction cups (11) beneath. The median plane follows the line going through the center points of the bowls (4,5) of the plate (la) (see FIG 1) . The imagined bowl (6a or b) is shown by a dashed line. The annular vertical rim (13) is now in upstanding position. The placemat member (3) is connected to the plate member (1) with the closing/locking system described in FIG 4. FIG 4 shows a vertical front view of the placemat (3) and the components of the closing/locking system (see also FIG 2,3) by which the cover member (2) or the placemat member (3) may be connected to the plate member (1) of the Baby-Led Weaning Device according to the invention. A stalked stopper (12a,b) is attached to the upper part of the outer wall (10) of the groove (lb) of the plate member (1) via a round small hole (12c) (see also FIG2,3), where the stalk can move to opposite directions. There are two stoppers at both ends of the stalk (12a) at the other pole of the plate member (1). On its (1) other pole the stalked stopper (12b) ends up with a handle (14) being outside the outer wall (13) of the cover member (2) when the device according to the invention is closed. The figure shows the narrow longish hole (13a), marked with a dashed line (13a,b) (see FIG 2,3) in the free part of both poles of the annular vertical rim (13) of the cover member (2) or the plate member (3) into which the stalked stopper (12a,12b) is pressed or pushed. The said longish hole (13a) of the cover member (2) or the placemat member (3) ends up into two cusps (15), that capture the stalk of the stalked stopper (12a,b). The hole (13a,b) must be long enough to let the stalk of the stoppers (12a,b) glide up or down depending on whether the cover member (2) or the placemat member (3) is connected to the plate member (1).

In the following the Baby-Led Weaning Device according to the invention will be described more detailed with the reference to the Figures 1-5:

The Baby-Led Weaning Device according to the invention is designed to help infants from 6 months on to transit from breast or bottle milk, i.e. beverage feeding, to tidy self-feeding of solid foods, and in addition to promote their hand motor fine skills in feeding. The round bowls (4-6a or b) in FIG 1 are of different size with regards to their diameters. The size of the said bowls is adjusted to the capacity of the hand motor behavior of the infants. The curve/slope of the walls of the bowls may vary, but the size of the space close to the bottom is crucial. Younger infants with their less developed hand fine motor control capacity typically cover the food with their palm and then crab the food to carry it into the mouth. Therefore, one bowl (4) must be wide enough to allow an infant to put her/his hand with a palm fully open and the fingers spread out onto the bottom of the bowl. The width of an open palm of an infant of about 8 - 9 months of age is about 7-9 cm. Because the infant cannot always put the hand directly over a piece of food, and she/he tends to move the place of the hand, the bowl (4) must yield enough room for that movement. Hence the diameter close to the bottom of the bowl (4) is recommended not to be shorter than 10 cm. The diameter of the second bowl (5) must be long enough to allow the infant to pick up a piece of food by more than two fingers, i.e. by a multi finger grip. As the circumference of the fingers in multi grip position in an infant of the above mentioned age is about 13 - 15 cm, the diameter close to the bottom of the bowl (5) should not be less than 8 cm. The diameter of the third (6a) and fourth (6b) bowl must be long enough to allow an infant to pick up a piece of food by a pinch grip, i.e. by the thumb and the index finger. As the circumference of the fingers of an infant in a pinch grip position is about 6-8 cm, the diameter/the width close to the bottom of the smallest bowls (6a,b) is recommended to not be less than 6 cm. The fourth bowl (6b) is optional, and designed to avoid extra space at the top of the plate, and to allow the said bowls to follow the edge of the plate, and because of a symmetric appearance, too. The variation of the horizontal size of the bowls (4-6) is supposed to promote the development of the hand motor behavior of a self-feeding infant. The shape of the bowls may vary, but the circular form as shown in FIG 1 is regarded as optimal for the bowls (5 and 6) . The bowls (6a and 6b) may alternatively be oval or resemble a kidney, and as well differ from each other by their size, but their main width should not be less than 6 cm. The bowls (4-6a,b) are positioned at the plate (la) according to the invention so, that a bowl of a chosen size can - one at a time - be placed, by manually rotating the plate member ( 1), to face the infant allowing her/him to pick up pieces of food according to the developmental phase of her/his hand fine motor capacity.

The maximal depth of the bowls (4-6a,b) of the plate member (1) according to the invention (FIG 2, FIG 3) must be adjusted to allow the infant to perceive pieces of food at the bottom of the bowl and easily pick them up by hand. The curve/slope of the inner wall of the bowls (4-6a, b) may vary between the bowls and between various points of the bottom of a single bowl, but the maximal depth of any point of the bottom of the said bowls should not exceed 2 cm, because the length of the fingers of an infant of about 8-9 months of age is about 2-4 cm. The infant must be able to move her/his hand freely above the bowl.

The groove (lb) (FIG 1, 2, 3) bordering the plate part (la) of the plate member (1) according to the invention is designed because of practical reasons. The groove (lb) must be wide enough to gather the dropped pieces of food, and to allow the infant to pick them up with her/his finger (of course depending on the developmental phase of the hand fine motor skills) , and to allow the caregiver to put her/his fingers therein to hold the plate member (1) in place, if necessary, e.g. if it (1) is not fixed with the placemat member (3). The outer wall (10) of the groove (lb) must be high enough to keep the dropped food inside and allow the caregiver to grasp it, if needed. Therefore the height of the outer wall (10) and the width close to the bottom of the groove (lb) are recommended not to be less than about 1,5 and 3 cm, respectively. The plate member (1) according to the invention (FIG 2, 3) should be low enough to allow an infant sitting in her/his highchair to perceive the pieces of food at the bottom of bowls (4-6). The wall (8) of the plate part (la) may optionally be as high as the outer wall (10) of the groove (lb,) but rather exceed its height. The recommended height of plate part (la) of the plate member (A) according to the invention is about 3 cm.

Connecting the cover member (2) to the plate member (1) of the Baby-Led Weaning Device (FIG 2) according to the invention, makes the device portable, and also protects the plate member (1) against unclean agents, particularly, when the device is transported to outside home activities, such as restaurants, fast food places, visitation, picnics etc. The handle (14), which is optional, adds to the portability of the device according to the invention.

The possibility to turn the cover member (2) upside down has a few advantages. The cover member (2) of the device (FIG 2) according to the invention is provided with several suction cups (11) attached to its (2) inner surface, which protects them from wearing or becoming dirty while storing or transporting the device. The suction cups (11) (FIG 1) are placed so that they fill the space created by the groove (lb) and the bowls (4-6a,b) of the plate part (la). When the said cover member is turned upside down (FIG 3) to function as a placemat (3), the suction cups (11) are underneath and make the placemat retentive and the device according to the invention stabile.

The cover member (2) or the placemat member (3) may be connected to the plate member (1) in various ways, but the point is, that the said members must be able to be fixed together easily and firmly, but the closing system, concerning the connection of the cover member (2) and the plate member (1), need not be air tight or water proof. FIG 2, 3, 4 show one embodiment of the fixing system, where the longish hole (13a,b) makes it possible to connect the cover member (2) or the placemat member (3) to the plate member (1) by virtue of a stalked stopper (12a, 12b) pressed or pushed into the hole (13a,b) in an adequate place with reference to vertical direction. The stalked stopper is connected to the upper wall (10) of the groove (lb) of the plate member (1) by a going through around hole, where the stalk of the stopper can move to the opposite directions and through which the stopper can be detached, if it is made of flexible elastic material and rather has a shape e.g. of a shallow funnel or a flat disc (FIG 4). The possibility to connect the plate member (1) together with the placemat member (3) that has the suction cups in its undersurface makes sure that the device according to the invention is stabile on the tabletop.

The cover member (2)/ the placemat member (3) must be at least partly made of flexible and elastic material in order to fulfill the requirements assessed to the device. Those points are the corners between the rim (13) and the surface of the said members (2,3) to allow them to be turned upside down, and also the vertical rim of the members (2,3), so that it can to some extent be flexibly bent inwards or outwards, if required, for example, to allow the caregiver to grasp the outer wall (10) of the groove (lb) in order to manually rotate the plate member (1) positioned into the placemat member (2) when it is not fixed with the placemat member (3). It is noteworthy that the hand find motor capacity of a self- feeding infant is not yet so developed, that she/he could grasp and lift the plate member (1) up to throw it away in case the plate member (1) is inside the placemat member (3) but not fixed to it. The vertical rim (13) of the placemat member (3) must also be flexible and elastic, so that the handle (14) can be bent in between the outer wall (10) of the groove (lb) of the plate member (1) and the inner vertical wall (13) of the placemat member (2) . Hiding the handle (14) is important in order to prevent the infant from grabbing it. Therefore, the handle must be flexible, too. The suction cups (11) and the stoppers (12a,b) must be flexible and elastic, too. Other parts of the Baby-Led Weaning Device according to the invention may be made of harder materials and the plate member (1) itself even from ceramics.

The lower surface of the plate member (1) according to the invention may be open revealing the bottom of the bowls (4-6a,b) (FIG2,3), but it can also be covered by a flat undersurface resulting in a more pleasant appearance, and in a device, that it is easier to keep clean.

There may be alternative techniques to connect the plate member (1) to the cover (2) or the placemat member (3). The components of the closing/locking system may be embodied vice versa, i.e. so, that the hole (13a,b) capturing the stalked stoppers (12a,b) exists in the plate member (1), and the stalked stoppers (12a,b) with the corresponding small round hole, and the handle (14) is placed in the cover member (2), or the device may have two handles, one in the plate member (1) and the other in the (cover member (2).

The bottom of the bowls (4-6a,b) may be provided with small knots, i.e. so called activators, that help the infant to pick up slippery pieces of food, such as slices of banana. The knots will also promote the sensory development of the fingertips of the infant.

The device may be decorated with nice figures.

Any material used must meet all the standards and requirements of safety. The device should be made of dishwasher and rather also micro-oven proof material.

Claims

1. A finger food dish consisting of a plate having separate bowl-shaped recesses for eating different dishes from the dish lid to a plate base with suction cups at its base for a table-top food dish for children starting to feel that: the portable food container has multifunctional parts: a plate (1) comprising a plate (la) having at least three shallow dish-shaped recesses, ie dishes (4 to 6a or h) having different diameters and a groove (Ib) rotating from the plate portion (1a) and a lid portion (2) having a vertical edge (13) and each lid portion (2) provided with suction cups (11) ) mounted on its inner surface, the cover part (2) being made of at least partially flexible and elastic material so that it (2) can be turned upside down to act as a base part (3) with suction cups (11) on its underside and having a vertical edge (13) surrounding the plate portion (1) when it (1) is placed on said base portion (3), and each plate portion (1) can be attached to either the lid portion (2) or the plate portion (3).

A food container according to claim 1, characterized in that the plate (la) is designed to be usable by the child himself, taking into account the width, depth and position of the plates of said plate (la) such that the largest plate (4) wide, with the child moving his / her hand and grasping solid food therefrom, designed so that the child can pick up solid food with the multi-finger grid from the second largest dish (5), and designed to grab food from the smallest dish (6a, b) with tweezers and moving their fingers at the base of the bowl, designed so that the bowls are so low that a child sitting in the high chair can easily see and pick up small snacks from the bottom of said bowls, and designed with the bowls placed on the surface of can be easily wrapped in front of the child, making it o n closest to the child and his hands.

Food container according to claims 1-2, characterized in that the plate portion (la) has a groove (Ib) which is wide enough to collect the fallen pieces and allow the child to pick them up with his fingers and allows the nurse to grip the groove with his fingertips. 1) in position or rotation, and that the outer wall (10) of the groove (Ib) is sufficiently high to hold the fallen pieces of food and to allow the nurse to grip his fingertips, if necessary, to prevent it from grasping and throwing the plate; the height of the edge (10) of the groove (Ib) must not exceed the height of the plate (la).

4. The food container according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cover (2) or base part (3) can be combined with tray part (1), for example, in a simple, but definite sulkemissysteemillä, wherein the tray (1) on two sides is with arm lever (12a; b) which is secured to the opening in the corresponding position of the cover part (2) or base part (3).

Food container according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the lid part (2) is made at least partially of a flexible and resilient material so that it can be turned upside down as a base part (3) with suction cups (11) at its bottom.

Food container according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the suction cups (11) are arranged on the inner surface of the lid part (2) so that they fit into the empty space formed by the groove and the plates (4-6a, b) when the lid part (2) is connected to the plate part (1) to form a portable box and to protect the plate part (1) and suction cups (11) from dirt and wear during storage and transport.

Food container according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the plate (1) can have a handle (14) made of a flexible and resilient material so that it can be bent and placed in the groove (Ib) of the plate (1). and between the inner edge of the base portion (3), if necessary, to prevent the child from grasping and throwing it away.

Food container according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the plate (1) may be made of a harder material than the lid (2) or the base (3), which must be at least partially made of a flexible and resilient material, but in any case, complying with all safety regulations and standards, and all materials should be dishwasher-proof and not microwave-safe, but may have funny pictures and may have small bumps at the bottom of the dishes (4-6) of the dish (1) activators to help pick up slippery snacks.