GB2390292A

GB2390292A - Clothing for children

Info

Publication number: GB2390292A
Application number: GB0215324A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Anna Decent
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2002-07-03
Filing date: 2002-07-03
Publication date: 2004-01-07
Anticipated expiration: 2022-07-03
Also published as: GB0215324D0; GB2390292B

Abstract

A pair of pull-on under-pants for a child is provided with elasticated waist and leg openings and with a pocket located at least partially between the leg openings and accessible from the outside while the pants are being worn to enable an incontinence sanitary pad sized for receipt in the pocket to be inserted, removed or replaced without the wearer having to lower or remove the pants. In one arrangement, at least the inner side of the pocket adjacent the skin when the pants are worn is formed of a material, for example cotton, the fibres of which are wettable. In an alternative arrangement, the inner side of the pocket adjacent the skin when the pants are worn is formed of a mesh material. In either such case, if the child should urinate while wearing the pants, he(she) will experience a feeling of wetness against the skin even though the bulk of the urine will be absorbed within the pad.

Description

CLOTHING FOR CHILDREN

This invention relates to clothing for children, and more particularly to underwear for children.

The age at which a child achieves reliable control over its bladder varies considerably, has little correlation with intelligence, and may be affected by a variety of emotional and psychological factors. As a result some children have still not achieved reliable control over their bladder by the age at which they begin 10 detailed social interaction with other children at playschool, kindergarten and even full time primary education. The greater the age at which a child has not yet acquired full and reliable control over its bladder, the greater the embarrassment for that child. The anxieties caused make achievement of bladder control even more difficult for a child in this situation.

The present invention has been made with a view to assisting the older child, who has not yet achieved full control over their bladder, to do so.

As explained in more detail below, garments in accordance with the present 20 invention may be designed so as at least superficially to appear no different from the similar garments worn by a child that is fully continent while at the same time protecting the wearer against the consequences of incontinence while training them eventually to achieve the desired control over their bladder.

25 An incontinent child wearing a garment in accordance with the present invention fashioned so as at least superficially to look no different from the equivalent garment worn by a child that is fully continent is less likely to be singled out as being different from their peers because of their problem. This fact, alone, aids considerably in a partially incontinent child of kindergarten or school age 30 achieving continence.

In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a pair of pull-on under-pants for a child, the pants being provided with elasticated waist and leg openings and with a pocket located at least partially between the leg openings and accessible from the outside while the pants are being worn to enable 5 an incontinence sanitary pad sized for receipt in the pocket to be inserted, removed or replaced without the wearer having to lower or remove the pants, at least the inner side of the pocket adjacent the skin when the pants are worn being formed of a material, for example cotton, the fibres of which are wettable, so that if the child should urinate while wearing the pants, he(she) will experience a feeling of wetness 10 against the skin even though the bulk of the urine will be absorbed within the pad.

The precise position for the pocket may be varied to provide respective male and female garments so that the pad may be most appropriately positioned for respective male or female wearers.

Access to the pocket is provided from the outside of the garment and the pocket is suitably closed by hook-and-loop fasteners of the kind sold under the Trademark VELCRO@. The pocket is suitably sized to accept commonly sized readily available urinary incontinence sanitary pads such as those sold under the 20 Trademark TENA@. These pads are relatively thin so that at least superficially, a wearer of a preferred embodiment of garment in accordance with the present invention will appear simply to be wearing a standard pair of pull-on under-pants like any other child of a similar age, so that a child with a bladder control problem wearing a garment in accordance with the present invention may avoid the 25 embarrassment of appearing different from other children of the same age who may have long achieved bladder control.

Because access to the pad is from the exterior of the garment, a wet pad can readily be removed and a new dry pad inserted by a parent, or even by the child 30 itself, without needing to remove the garment first.

Although the greater part of the urine would be absorbed within the pad should the child wet themselves, the sensation of wetness against the skin which the child will get as a consequence of the material of the pants being wettable, will leave them in no doubt that they have had an accident while removing the bulk of the 5 consequence of that accident by urine being absorbed within the incontinence pad, thereby training the child to achieve better control in future, something which is not achieved by conventional trainer pants for younger children which are often made of a material which is waterproof rather than wettable and which either mount an absorbent, often gel-based pad, on the inside of the pants or have a pocket for 10 receiving an absorbent, often gel-based pad on the inner side of the pants, the pad being designed to absorb urine into the mass of the pad while leaving its surface almost dry, thereby removing urine from the skin to avoid the discomfort of a feeling of wetness.

15 In a second and alternative aspect of this invention, there is provided a pair of pull-on under-pants for a child, the pants being provided with elasticated waist and leg openings and with a pocket located at least partially between the leg openings and accessible from the outside while the pants are being worn to enable an incontinence sanitary pad sized for receipt in the pocket to be inserted, removed 20 or replaced without the wearer having to lower or remove the pants, the inner side of the pocket adjacent the skin when the pants are worn being formed of a mesh material, so that if the child should urinate while wearing the pants, he(she) will experience a feeling of wetness against the skin even though the bulk of the urine will be absorbed within the pad.

The mesh will preferably be made of cotton or similar wettable fibres, but this is not necessary, since if the size of the mesh is sufficiently large, the child will still feel a sensation of wetness against the skin from the surface of the incontinence pad, even if the mesh is formed of a material the fibres of which are not readily 30 wettable, such as nylon.

In all other respects, a pair of pants with the mesh surface may be identical to a pair of pants in accordance with the first aspect of this invention.

5 The invention is hereinafter more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. I is a perspective view of an embodiment of pull-on under-pants for a child constructed in accordance with the present invention; and Fig 2 is a similar view to Fig. 1 but with the pocket open and the 10 sanitary pad removed.

As can be seen from Fig. 1, at least superficially, the embodiment of child's under-pants illustrated in Fig. 1, and constructed in accordance with the present invention, as explained in more detail hereinbelow, appears no different from a 15 similar pair of under-pants worn by a child that is fully continent and hence having no provision for incontinence.

Conventional such pants are usually provided with a region of double thickness of material in the gusset region between the legs (and in the case of 20 garments worn by males, extending up the front) for comfort and to allow for the occasional drop of urine left at the termination of urination by a generally continent child. Garments in accordance with the present invention may madce use of the space between these two layers of material, extended if necessary, to define a pocket located at least partially between the leg openings of a pair of under-pants for a child 25 to provide space for an incontinence sanitary pad. Alternatively' additional layers of material may be provided to define such a pocket.

Thus, in the embodiment of under-pants 1 for a child illustrated in the drawings, and having conventional elasticated waist 2 and leg 3 openings, located 30 between leg openings 3 and passing under the crutch is a pocket, generally indicated 4, for receiving a replaceable incontinence sanitary pad S such as that sold under the Trademark TENA@. Pocket 4 is defined between lines of stitching 6 for the leg

openings and lines of stitching 7 and 8 on the front and back of the garment, respectively. The inner side 9 of pocket 4 adjacent the body when the garment is worn has no opening, but its outer side 10 is formed in three panel sections, namely a first panel section 11 defined by the line of stitching 7 and portions 12 and 13 of 5 the leg stitching and a similar panel section 14 defined by line of stitching 8 and respective sections 15 and 16 of the leg stitching, and a central panel section defining an openable flap 17 attached along one side 18 to one of the lines of stitching defining a leg opening, its other side 19 being free but suitably being elasticated and the two remaining sides 20 and 21 each being provided with one half 10 22 of a pair of co-operating hook-andloop fastener strips such as those sold under the Trademark VELCRO, the other halves 23 of the respective pairs of hook-and-

loop fastener strips being provided along the confronting edges of panel sections 11 and 14.

15 Other geometries for the pocket, though feasible, are less preferred. Thus, the pocket may be formed as a pouch with an open edge. However the pocket is arranged, it must be located at least partially between the leg openings and be accessible from the outside while the pants are worn. Fastening arrangements other than hook-and-loop fasteners could be employed, for example buttons, but these 20 may be more noticeable than hook-and-loop fasteners.

By having a flap attached at one side but which can readily be pulled to open the pocket while the garment is being worn, as in the preferred illustrated embodiment, an incontinence sanitary pad can readily be inserted, removed or 25 replaced and the flap then simply pushed back into place with the respective lines of hook-and-loop fasteners holding the flap shut and closing the pocket.

At least the inner side 9 of the pocket (and preferably the entire garment) is formed of a material, for example cotton or a cotton-rich fabric, the fibres of which 30 are wettable. In such an arrangement, if the child should urinate while wearing the garment, urine will pass through the inner wall of the garment to the incontinence sanitary pad within the pocket but will also wet the inner surface of the pocket

adjacent the body so that the child will experience a feeling of wetness against the skin even though the bulk of the urine will be absorbed within the pad.

This is considered important for training the child to control their bladder 5 because it is only by knowing that they have wet themselves and by feeling at least some immediate discomfort, that they will know that they have done so, which encourages them to achieve better control on a future occasion. At the same time, by having the incontinence pad present, the bulk of the urine produced will be absorbed within the pad to avoid noticeable wetting of the outer surface of the pants 10 and any outer clothing. Since the bulk of the urine is absorbed within the pad, the feeling of wetness and discomfort produced at the time is kept to a minimum acceptable level, and the wet pad can readily be removed and replaced with a dry one by the child themselves or by an adult, without the pants needing to be lowered or removed.

As will readily be appreciated, differences in the position of the urethral opening in boys and girls will make it desirable to provide under-pants in accordance with the present invention in respective male and female versions so that the pocket, and hence the incontinence pad, will be most suitably located for boys 20 and girls in the respective versions for the two sexes.

The same feeling of wetness against the skin, should the child urinate while wearing their pants, but kept to a minimum acceptable level by removing the bulk of the consequence of that accident, can be achieved in an alternative embodiment of 25 pants in which the inner side 9 of the pocket 4 is formed of a mesh material, the pants other wise having the same construction as illustrated in Figs I and 2.

The mesh may be formed of a material, such as cotton, the fibres of which are wettable, as in the embodiments previously described. The arrangement is then 30 essentially no different from those previously described, except that the weave is more open. However, this openness enables the feeling of wetness against the skin to still be appreciated even if the fibres of the mesh itself are not readily wettable, as

in the case of a nylon mesh, and I therefore contemplate arrangements in which the mesh is made of such materials. Because the bulk of the urine will be absorbed within the incontinence pad, in exactly the same way as with the previously described embodiment, the feeling of wetness and discomfort against the skin is kept 5 to a similar minimum acceptable level. The wet pad can readily be removed and replaced by the child themselves or an adult, simply by opening the pocket from the outside of the pants and substituting a dry pad, without the pants needing to be lowered or removed.

Claims

1. A pair of pull-on under-pants for a child, the pants being provided with elasticated waist and leg openings and with a pocket located at least 5 partially between the leg openings and accessible from the outside while the pants are being wom to enable an incontinence sanitary pad sized for receipt in the pocket to be inserted, removed or replaced without the wearer having to lower or remove the pants, at least the inner side of the pocket adjacent the skin when the pants are worn being formed of a 10 material, for example cotton, the fibres of which are wettable, so that if the child should urinate while wearing the pants, he(she) will experience a feeling of wetness against the skin even though the bulk of the urine will be absorbed within the pad.

15

2. A pair of pull-on under-pants for a child, the pants being provided with elasticated waist and leg openings and with a pocket located at least partially between the leg openings and accessible from the outside while the pants are being worn to enable an incontinence sanitary pad sized for receipt in the pocket to be inserted, removed or replaced without the 20 wearer having to lower or remove the pants, the inner side of the pocket adjacent the skin when the pants are worn being formed of a mesh material, so that if the child should urinate while wearing the pants, he(she) will experience a feeling of wetness against the skin even though the bulk of the urine will be absorbed within the pad.

3. A pair of pull-on under-pants for a child according to Claim 2, wherein the mesh is formed of nylon or polyester.

4. A pair of pull-on under-pants for a child according to any preceding 30 claim, wherein the outer side of the pocket is defined at least in part by a flap held in place by co-operating fastening means, preferably one or more pairs of hook-and-loop fastener strips.

5. A pair of pull-on under-pants for a child according to any preceding claim, wherein the edges of the pocket are defined by lines of stitching across the front and the rear of the pants and by portions of the stitching 5 for the leg openings.

6. A pair of pull-on under-pants for a child according to both Claims 4 and 5, wherein the outer side of the pocket is formed in three panel sections, one panel section being defined between portions of the stitching for the 10 leg openings and the line of stitching across the front of the pants and having a free edge, a second panel section being defined between portions of the stitching for the leg openings and the line of stitching across the rear of the pants and also having a free edge, and a central panel section forming the flap and being attached to the remainder of the 15 pants along a portion of the stitching for one of the leg openings, and wherein said co-operating fastening means are provided at least along the said free edges and confronting edges of the flap.

7. A pair of pull-on under-pants for a child, substantially as hereinbefore 20 described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.