GB2405316A

GB2405316A - Infant's feeding bowl with spoon wiper

Info

Publication number: GB2405316A
Application number: GB0319962A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Rona Meyuchas
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2003-08-27
Filing date: 2003-08-27
Publication date: 2005-03-02
Anticipated expiration: 2023-08-27
Also published as: GB2405316B; GB0319962D0

Abstract

A feeding bowl is described having a rigid base and side walls. The upper edge of an upstanding element 18 of the bowl includes a wiping lip 18a, 18b adapted to make line contact with the underside of a spoon. At least the wiping lip is formed of a flexible material to act as a squeegee for removing excess food adhering to the underside of a spoon drawn across it. The wiping lip may be on a side wall 18a or a partition wall 18b of the bowl. The lip may be formed integrally with the bowl or secured thereto by bonding or a releasable mechanical fixing. Rather than a bowl, the vessel may be a plate, jar or cup used for feeding.

Description

-A - 1 -

Food Receptacle The present invention relates to a food receptacle, which for convenience only will be referred to herein as a feeding bowl, but the latter term is intended to include not only a bowl but also a cup, a plate, a jar or any other receptacle used in feeding and cooking.

The consistency of typical baby food is such as to lo stick to the underside of a spoon. If the infant's mouth is too small, or if it has not yet learned to open its mouth wide enough and to keep its tongue out of the way, the food sticking to the underside of the spoon gets wiped off on to the infant's lower lip and dribbles down its chin.

To prevent this the parent often tries to wipe excess food from the underside of the spoon on the edge of the bowl before offering the spoon to the infant's mouth. However, as the edge of the bowl is normally a rigid straight edge and the spoon's underside is convex, the two only make point contact and a single wiping stroke leaves much of the foodstuff behind. Several strokes work better but are tedious to perform. For proper cleaning of its underside, the spoon needs to be tilted sideways, but this results in the contents spilling out of the spoon.

With a view to mitigating the foregoing disadvantages, the present invention provides a feeding bowl having a rigid base and side walls, wherein the upper edge of an upstanding element of the bowl includes a wiping lip adapted to make line contact with the underside of a spoon, at least the wiping lip being formed of a flexible material to act as a squeegee for removing excess food adhering to the underside of a spoon drawn across the wiping lip. The term "line contact" does not exclude the possibility of the line having a thickness and therefore includes "area contact", provided that it extends further than the tangential contact that the underside of the spoon would make with a rigid edge that does not conform to the curvature of the spoon.

Terms such as "horizontal", "vertical" and "upstanding" are used herein to describe the attitude of components of the feeding bowl when it is resting with its base on a horizontal surface, in other words when it is in its normal orientation during use.

lo The upstanding element may be constituted by a side wall of the feeding bowl or by a partition wall separating different internal compartments of the bowl.

The upstanding member may be curved about a vertical axis in which case its wiping lip may be horizontal but curved in the horizontal plane. If the upstanding member is flat, then a wiping lip may be formed by a curved cut-out in its upper edge. It is also to be noted that it is not essential for the wiping lip to be curved to conform to the underside of a spoon when it is in its relaxed state. It is only important for line contact to be established while the underside of a spoon is being drawn across it, if necessary by deformation of the wiping lip or its top surface.

It is common nowadays for feeding-bowls to be made form a combination of a rigid plastics material and a rubber or elastomeric material. Such a combination of materials can be manufactured by means of a variety of moulding methods.

Hitherto, different materials have been combined when making the same article for a variety of reasons. A first reason has been to enhance the grip of the bowl's edge by over- moulding the edge with a rubber layer. A second has been to reduce slip by over-moulding the base with a rubber layer. A third reason was to increase the aesthetic appeal, by over moulding a plastics article with colourful rubber layers in any desired shape and location. - 3

A feeding bowl of the present invention may be formed in the same manner, the body of the bowl being of a rigid plastics material while the wiping lip is of a rubber or elastomeric material.

The curvature of spoons varies widely between different spoons, and even between different sections of any one spoon. Because of the flexibility of the wiping lip it will naturally deflect to conform to any common curvature of lo spoons' undersides. The term "flexible" is used herein to include materials that bend or compress, elastically or plastically.

Though preferred, it is not essential for the rigid and flexible parts of the feeding bowl to be moulded integrally with one another. It is possible, for example, to place a separately formed elastomeric squeegee blade in a cut-out formed in a rigid upstanding element of the bowl, or on its upper edge. In this case, the squeegee blade may either be permanently bonded to the bowl or it may be removable for - cleaning separately. - In the present invention, when the underside of a spoon is drawn across the wiping lip, a little downward force during the backward pull of the spoon, causes the upper edge - of the wiping element for conform itself to most of the spoon's underside, thus wiping off most if not all of the food adhering to the spoon. The resultant deformation of the - wiping lip tends also to create a 'canal' guiding the wiped off food back into the bowl.

The invention will now be described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: - Figure 1 is a plan view of a feeding bowl of the invention, Figure 2 is a perspective view of the feeding bowl shown in Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a side view of the feeding bowl of Figure 1 when fitted with a lid.

The drawings show a feeding bowl 10 having two compartments 12 and 14 and a surrounding rim 16 onto which a lid 30 may be fitted. The bowl 10 and the lid 30 may be made of a rigid plastics material such as polypropylene.

The compartments 12 and 14 are separated from one another by a partition wall 18b formed as part of a continuous annular band 18 of an elastomeric material that entirely surrounds the compartment 14 and projects above the upper surface of the rim 16.

The band 18 may is preferable moulded integrally with the more rigid parts of the bowl 10 using known moulding techniques but it may alternatively be formed as a separate element that is bonded to the more rigid parts.

The partition wall part 18b of the band 18 is an upstanding element of the feeding bowl of which the entire upper edge acts as a wiping lip. Because of the considerable depth of the partition wall parts, it is deflected laterally when a spoon is drawn across it and the wiping lip formed by its upper edge is bent to conform to the underside of the spoon and make line contact with it.

The partition wall part 18b therefore acts as a squeegee to wipe off excess food from the underside of the spoon.

The part 18a of the band 18 that projects above the rim 16 can also act as a wiping lip. This part 18a of the band 18 is already tightly curved in a horizontal plane (i.e. about a vertical axis) and it needs to be deflected to a much lesser extent (if at all) to conform to the underside of a spoon. The height of the band 18 above the rim 16 affords sufficient flexibility to enable the part 18a to make line contact with the underside of the spoon.

To reduce the need for the partition wall part 18b to flex laterally, a vertical cut-out may be formed in its upper edge to act as a wiping lip. As a further possibility, the partition or outer wall may be rigid and formed with a cut-out for receiving a separately formed wiping lip that is either permanently bonded in position and merely retained by - o a mechanical fastening so that it may be removed for cleaning.

A flexible wiping lip could be provided for infant-food jars. The lip could be moulded on or otherwise attached to - the rim of the jars somewhat inwardly oriented thin flexible annulus. The lip would be squashed down when the lid is closed, but would spring up when the lid is removed.

Alternatively, a separate flexible cylindrical part could be provided, the lower part of which sleeves over the top of the jar, and the upper part extends above the rim of the jar to provide the wiping lip.

Fixed or detachable wiping lips could also be foreseen for other tableware and cooking-ware, even for adults, to prevent dripping from the underside of a spoon, as occurs with certain foods.

Claims

1. A feeding bowl having a rigid base and side walls, wherein the upper edge of an upstanding element of the bowl includes a wiping lip adapted to make line contact with the underside of a spoon, at least the wiping lip being formed of a flexible material to act as a squeegee for removing excess food adhering to the underside of a spoon drawn across the wiping lip. -

2. A feeding bowl as claimed in claim 1, wherein the upstanding element is constituted by a side wall of the - feeding bowl.

3. A feeding bowl as claimed in claim 1, wherein the upstanding element is constituted by a partition wall separating different internal compartments of the bowl.

4. A feeding bowl as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the upstanding member is curved about a vertical axis, the wiping lip being horizontal and curved in the horizontal plane.

5. A feeding bowl as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein a wiping lip is a curved cut-out in the upper edge: of the upstanding element.

6. A feeding bowl as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the rigid parts and the wiping lip are moulded integrally with one another.

7. A feeding bowl as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5, - in which the wiping lip is formed separately from the more rigid parts of the bowl and is secured to the upstanding element by bonding or a releasable mechanical fixing. - 7

8. A feeding bowl as claimed in any of the preceding claims, in which the wiping lip is deformable by a sealing lid.

9. A feeding bowl constructed substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.