GB2319461A - Safety spoon for baby - Google Patents

Abstract

A spoon for feeding a baby comprises a handle 10 and a wall defining a bowl 13, the handle 10 including at least one projecting part 11 which is disposed within the bowl wall 13. The part(s) 11 is/are resiliently flexible, and the bowl itself is made of soft deformable plastics, to allow the bowl to flex into a flattened condition while its contents are swept from it by motion within, and/or during removal from, a baby's mouth. This is to avoid hurting the baby's mouth. There may be two curved resilient parts 11 or a wider, single part (Figure 3).

Description

SAFETY SPOON The present invention relates generally to a spoon, and more particularly to a safety spoon for a baby.

As shown in Fig. 1, a prior art spoon for a baby is made of a metal or rigid plastic material and is composed of a bowl located at one end thereof. The prior art spoon for a baby is defective in design in that the food contained in the bowl of the spoon can not be easily emptied into a baby's mouth in view of the depth of the bowl and the underdevelopment of the baby's mouth cavity. In order to empty the food contained in the bowl of the prior art spoon into the baby's mouth, it is necessary for an adult, who is feeding the baby, to pull the spoon slightly upwards and out of the baby's mouth cavity, so as to enable the baby's upper lip to make a full contact with the food contained in the bowl of the spoon. Another way to feed the baby with the prior art spoon is to rotate slightly the spoon inside the baby's mouth cavity so as to empty the food contained in the bowl of the spoon. The baby's mouth cavity is susceptible to injury caused by the mechanical friction between the tissue of the mouth cavity and the rigid spoon. In addition, the rigid spoon of the prior art is in fact a safety hazard in view of the fact that a baby may playfully put the spoon into his or her mouth.

It would be desirable to be able to provide an improved spoon for feeding a baby which overcame the above disadvantages and which enabled safe feeding of a baby.

According to the present invention there is provided a safety spoon which comprises a handle and a bowl located at one end of the handle, the bowl being made of a soft plastic material and provided with two elastic pieces capable of stretching to cause the bowl to deform in such a manner that the curved bowl is flattened to empty the food into the mouth cavity of a baby.

The foregoing features, functions and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood upon a thoughtful deliberation of the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which: Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a prior art spoon.

Fig. 1-1 shows a sectional view of a bowl of the prior art spoon.

Fig. 2 shows a perspective view of a spoon of the present invention.

Fig. 2-1 shows a sectional view of a bowl of the spoon of the present invention.

Fig. 3 shows a perspective view of a spoon of a second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3-1 shows a sectional view of a bowl of the spoon of the second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in Figs. 2 and 2-1, a spoon of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises a handle 10, two elastic pieces 11, and a bowl 13.

The elastic pieces 11 are separated and curved; they are located in the bowl 13 of a soft plastic material 12. The food contained in the bowl 13 can be easily emptied into the mouth cavity of a baby without hurting the tissue of the baby's mouth cavity in view of the curved bowl 13 which is made of the soft plastic material 12 and is flattened by the pressure.

As shown in Fig. 3 a spoon of the second preferred embodiment of the present invention is different from the spoon of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention in which that the former comprises a fused elastic piece 11.

Claims (6)

1. A safety spoon comprising a handle, a bowl located at one end of said handle, and one or more elastic pieces extending from said handle such that the or each elastic piece is located in said bowl.

2. A safety spoon as defined in claim 1 wherein there are two separate elastic pieces extending parallel to each other.

3. A safety spoon as defined in claim 2 wherein said elastic pieces are curved.

4. A safety spoon as defined in claim 1 wherein said there is a single elastic piece extending substantially the width of the bowl.

5. A safety spoon as defined in claim 1 and any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein said bowl is made of a soft plastic material.

6. A safety spoon substantially as described with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.