GB2281510A

GB2281510A - Safety sleeping equipment

Info

Publication number: GB2281510A
Application number: GB9318391A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Malcolm Douglas Sanders; Michael John Turbitt
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1993-09-04
Filing date: 1993-09-04
Publication date: 1995-03-08
Also published as: GB9318391D0

Abstract

Safety sleeping equipment for an infant comprises a garment (14) for wear by the infant; a flexible sheet (16) secured to the garment at a central dorsal position (15); and a bed, mattress or mattress cover (10). The flexible sheet (16) has engagement means (17) such as touch and close fastener strips spaced from the garment (14) and the bed, mattress or mattress cover (10) has engagement means (13) such as longitudinal touch and close fastener strips cooperable with the engagement means (17) on the sheet (16) to secure the sheet and bed means releasably together face to face at portions spaced from the garment. The infant is thereby securely held in a safer supine position yet can be rapidly released by an adult in an emergency. <IMAGE>

Description

SAFETY SLEEPING EOUIPHENT This invention relates to safety sleeping equipment for infants.

Sudden infant death syndrome (cot death) is the commonest cause of death in infants between the ages of one month and one year. The sudden unexpected death of the infant, usually overnight whilst sleeping in a cot, cannot be explained either by clinical or postmortem findings.

However recent studies have found that there is a significant correlation between cot death and the sleeping posture of the infant. The risk is higher when the infant is sleeping prone (face down) rather than sleeping supine (face up) or partly on the side.

It is an object of the present invention to provide safety sleeping equipment which assists in ensuring that the baby adopts the safer supine position.

It is however necessary to ensure a certain amount of freedom of movement for the infant both from the point of view of comfort and to ensure that the infant can roll somewhat on its side should regurgitation of food occur.

According to the invention there is provided safety sleeping equipment for an infant comprising, in combination, a garment for wear by the infant; a flexible sheet secured to the garment at a central dorsal position; and bed means; the flexible sheet having engagement means spaced from the garment and the bed means having engagement means cooperable with the engagement means on the sheet to secure the sheet and bed means releasably together face to face at portions spaced from the garment.

In this way, the infant can be attired in the garment and can be placed on its back, the sheet can be releasably attached to the bed means at positions spaced from the garment and hence from the infant and the infant is enabled to lie supine or to turn slightly to either side by virtue of the slack in the sheet but cannot roll fully onto its face.

Preferably, the cooperating engagement means comprise touch and close fastener means.

The bed means may comprise a mattress but preferably comprises a mattress cover tightly secured to a mattress, for example by ties or touch and close fastener strips passing underneath the mattress in such a way that the cooperating engagement means lie along the side edges of the bed means in use, to receive the cooperating engagement means on the flexible sheet.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described in more detail by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of a child's cot mattress having a cover, Figure 2 is an underneath perspective view of the mattress and cover of Figure 1, Figure 3 shows safety sleeping equipment including the covered mattress of Figures 1 and 2.

Referring firstly to Figures 1 and 2, a child's cot mattress is generally indicated at 10. A mattress cover 11, which may be of stretch material or of any suitable fabric or plastic is placed over the mattress 10 and is secured in place on the underside shown in Figure 2, by means of straps 12. The material of the mattress cover 11 is pulled tight as can be seen. The straps 12 are secured either by tying, by mechanical fasteners or preferably by the use of touch and close fastener strips which may form the straps 12.

On reversing the mattress 10 to the condition shown in Figure 1, it will be seen that the cover 11 has a pair of broad strips of touch and close fastener 13 disposed along substantially its entire length on each of the longer sides of the mattress cover.

The safety sleeping equipment shown in Figure 3 incorporates the mattress cover 11 having its touch and close fastener strips 13. It also includes a garment 14 of any suitable type for wearing by an infant during sleep. The garment may be of a conventional stretch all-in-one type or may cover only part of the infant as desired.

The garment 14 is secured permanently by means of stitching 15 to a flexible sheet 16. The stitching 15 passes centrally down the dorsal region of the garment 14. Thus, when the infant is placed in the garment 14, the stitching lies centrally down the infant's back and at this point only is the garment 14 secured to the sheet 16.

The sheet 16 is in turn releasably secured to the mattress cover 11 by strips of touch and close fastener 17. As shown these are at spaced positions along the sides of the sheet 16 but it will be appreciated that they could equally well extend completely along the sides of the sheet.

In order to use the safety sleeping equipment, the sheet 16 is separated from the mattress cover 11 by release of the fastener strips 17 and 13 from each other. The flexible sheet 16 is then attached only to the garment 14 at the stitching 15. The infant can be placed into the garment 14 and the sheet can if desired be wrapped round the infant to act as a shawl.

When the infant is to be placed into its cot, it is placed down on its back and the sheet 16 is spread across the cot, engaging the touch and close fastener strips 17 with the fixed strips 13 of the mattress cover 11.

Since the connection is only at the sides of the sheet 16, a suitable amount of slack can be left in the sheet so that the baby has a certain freedom of movement, enabling it to roll somewhat onto its side or to remain on its back. It will be seen that the arms and legs of the infant are unrestricted.

However, the infant cannot roll onto its face because the sheet 16 is spread face to face with the mattress cover 11 and hence restricts the infant from turning right over.

From the point of view of comfort, it will be seen that there are no fasteners attached to the baby garment 14 and there are no straps or harnesses involved in the safety sleeping equipment. Straps or harnesses might become entangled with the child during normal sleep movements and could result in injury.

Although the infant is securely held in such a way that it can only lie on its back or side, and cannot release itself from the safe range of positions, the infant can rapidly be released by an adult in an emergency, simply by grasping the sheet 16 and pulling open the touch and close fasteners or even by grasping the infant and pulling it firmly away from the mattress.

It is envisaged that a range of sizes of garment can be produced with attached sheets. If the touch and close fastener strips 17 extend in a direction from side to side of the bed, they can be used with differently sized mattress covers or to give different degrees of slack when used with the standard spacing of touch and close fastener strips 13 on the mattress cover. The mattress cover 11 itself may be adjustable by the means shown in Figure 2 for example to fit different sizes of mattress or alternatively the touch and close fastener strips 13 may be secured directly onto the mattress without an intervening mattress cover since the sheet 16 is actually spread over the bed means. Although the sheet 16 is shown as being shorter than the mattress 10 in Figure 3, it could equally well be long enough to cover its upper surface.

Claims

1. Safety sleeping equipment for an infant comprising, in combination, a garment for wear by the infant; a flexible sheet secured to the garment at a central dorsal position; and bed means; the flexible sheet having engagement means spaced from the garment and the bed means having engagement means cooperable with the engagement means on the sheet to secure the sheet and bed means releasably together face to face at portions spaced from the garment.

2. Safety sleeping equipment according to claim 1 wherein the cooperating engagement means comprise touch and close fastener means.

3. Safety sleeping equipment according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the bed means comprise a mattress.

4. Safety sleeping equipment according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the bed means comprise a mattress cover tightly secured to a mattress in such a way that the cooperating engagement means lie along the side edges of the bed means in use, to receive the cooperating engagement means on the flexible sheet.

5. Safety sleeping equipment substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.