Abstract:
An apparatus and method is proposed for providing restraint for a child in a wooden highchair widely used in eating establishments. The proposed apparatus and method requires no tools and does not damage the wooden highchair. It is portable, washable, and addresses many of the common issues found in widely used wooden highchairs in eating establishments.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    There is an obvious need to restrain children in their highchairs for their own safety. In public eating establishments this has resulted in a wide variety of restraining harnesses and straps available on the highchairs provided by the eating establishments. 
         [0002]    These permanently mounted restraint systems vary in their functionality and unfortunately tend to suffer wear and tear from active children, storage, and cleaning. Thus parents of small children often finding the public highchairs offered to them having at least two significant issues. The first is that some of the restraint systems have either broken or poorly performing restraints, and the second is that the restraints, which often have fairly porous surfaces, can collect contaminants (food or bacteria from previous use) and potentially pass that on to the next users. 
         [0003]    There is a need then for a cleanable portable safety strap that parents can easily carry into eating establishments and use to securely restrain their children in the available highchairs. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0004]    This need can be met by the development of a portable and adjustable safety strap for use on the widely used standard wooden highchairs available in most eating establishments. The proposed device is an extended strap of nylon and polypropylene or other durable materials, made up of two strap subassemblies; a shorter one attached at one end to a custom spring loaded carabiner and at the other end to a strap length adjuster; and a longer one attached at one end to a second custom spring loaded carabiner and at the other end to a pull ring; wherein the longer strap subassembly passes completely through the strap length adjuster to complete the one piece portable and adjustable safety strap. 
         [0005]    The need can also be made by a method of using a portable and adjustable safety strap and placing the child in the eating establishment highchair; placing the elongated portable and adjustable safety strap across the child below the waist line; deploying each of the spring loader carabiners attached to each end of the one piece elongated portable and adjustable strap device outside and under the seat structure and attaching each custom carabiner across the back thickness of the seat of the highchair; and adjusting the length of the portable and adjustable strap with the pull ring to secure the child firmly in place. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0006]      FIG. 1  is an illustration of the complete strap. 
           [0007]      FIG. 2  is a view of a possible carabiner body. 
           [0008]      FIG. 3  is another view of a possible carabiner including a spring dip. 
           [0009]      FIG. 4  is three views of the spring clips of the carabiners 
           [0010]      FIG. 5  represents a very standard design of restaurant highchairs. 
           [0011]      FIG. 6  illustrates a child in a restaurant highchair with the strap securing the child across the upper legs. 
           [0012]      FIG. 7  is a rear view illustrating the attachment of the carabiner bodies to the back of the child seat. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0013]    In the following detailed description, reference is made to accompanying drawings that illustrate embodiments of the present invention. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to practice the invention without undue experimentation. It should be understood, however, that the embodiments and examples described herein are given by way of illustration only, and not by way of limitation. Various substitutions, modifications, additions, and rearrangements may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Therefore, the description that follows is not to be taken in a limited sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims. 
         [0014]      FIG. 1 , shown generally by the numeral  100  is an illustration of a proposed fully assembled portable safety strap. Illustrated are two straps  110 ,  120  with custom carabiners  130 ,  140  attached, one on each of the straps. At the other end of the portable safety strap is shown a pull ring  160 , in the case illustrated a d-ring. In between the customer carabiner ends and the pull ring end is a strap length adjuster used for tightening the portable safety strap after placing it on the child. The assembly consists of a shorter strap subassembly and a longer strap subassembly. The shorter strap subassembly  110  has a sewn loop on one end for a custom carabiner  130  and a sewn loop on the other end for the strap length adjuster  150 . The longer strap subassembly that includes strap  170  and strap  120  (as one piece) has a sewn loop on one end for the other custom carabiner  140  and a sewn loop for the pull ring  160 . The longer strap subassembly passes completely through the strap length adjuster to complete the one-piece elongated portable and adjustable safety strap of  FIG. 1 . 
         [0015]    The strap length adjuster on the shorter subassembly and the pull ring on the longer subassembly are permanent and cannot be removed. The carabiners on each subassembly can be removed easily by threading the open end of the carabiner through the sewn loop. In order to complete the main assembly, one end of the long assembly must be threaded through the strap length adjuster on the short assembly before the loop on the long subassembly can be sewn for the carabiner. 
         [0016]    In another embodiment (not shown) the simple strap length adjuster  150  can instead be a side release buckle in which the male part of the slide release buckle is attached to the short subassembly  110  and the female part of the side release buckle is the strap adjuster portion and still part of the long subassembly ( 170  and  120 ). Again the longer strap subassembly passes completely through the strap length adjuster portion. This embodiment works in the exact same way as the simpler strap length adjuster except it can be separated in the middle like an airplane seatbelt by separating the male and female parts of the side release buckle. 
         [0017]    With the appropriate clearance in the custom carabiner design these carabiners can be easily attached to the back of the seat of the highchair without damaging the highchair and without the use of any tools. In  FIG. 2 , shown generally as  200 , a custom carabiner body  210  is shown. Two holes  220  are available for the placement of the spring clip and an indented notch  230  is provided for fitting of the closed spring clip. In  FIG. 3 , shown generally as  300 , is a straight side view showing the carabiner with the spring clip  310  inserted in the holes  320  and held in place in notch  330  by the spring tension. The “custom” aspect of the carabiner design is evident in the critical dimension of the opening across the carabiner, which must be large enough to allow the custom carabiner to be easily attached across the thickness of the highchair seat. 
         [0018]      FIG. 4  shows three views  410 ,  420 ,  430  of the spring clip for clarity. 
         [0019]    The proposed portable safety strap is designed for ideally working on the ubiquitous standard wooden highchair available in almost all restaurants. This standard chair is illustrated in  FIG. 5 , shown generally as  500 . The chair is usually of all wood construction and has a flat seat portion  520  and is usually provided with a safety strap  510  on a front bar of the chair and a buckled seat belt deployed across the seat and around the seat  520 . It should be noted that in all of these standard chairs the thickness of the seat portion  520  is less than 1 inch and the custom carabiner is designed to be used on all of those seat thicknesses. 
         [0020]    In use the provided seat belt, which is sometimes broken and frequently soiled from frequent use is unbuckled and draped over the side through the side openings  530  to hang out of the way. The child is first placed in the seat and the portable safety strap is placed across the child at the waistline. Referring now to  FIG. 6 , shown generally as  600 , is a child placed in the seat after the portable safety strap has been place across the child at the waist line and each of the straps with carabiners  610  attached are fed out through the side openings of the chair ( 530  in  FIG. 5 ). The straps with carabiners are then passed under the seat and positioned behind the chair in order to clip onto the back of the seat structure of the highchair.  FIG. 7 , shown generally as  700  in a rear view of the chair shows the two carabiners  710 ,  720  fitted on the thickness of the back of the seat. The center buckle and adjuster is then used to tighten the strap appropriately by simple pulling on the pull ring until there is a snug fit holding the child firmly in the seat. The original seat belt is shown hanging below and is no longer needed. Once attached in this way and firmly tightened there is no way for the child to wiggle free of the portable safety strap and no way to reach or loosen the carabiners. This safety feature is important in that falls from these highchairs by children who have figured out how to loosen the belt buckle are the cause of many very serious head injuries annually. 
         [0021]    The proposed portable strap addresses the issues of dirty and sometimes broken seat restraints in eating establishments and gives assurances to parents of a safer eating experience. The strap is easily portable and can be taken home to thoroughly clean after each visit, The portable safety strap can easily be rolled up into a compact form that fits easily in a woman&#39;s purse or man&#39;s pocket. 
         [0022]    Although certain embodiments of the present invention and their advantages have been described herein in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the present invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures, means, methods and steps described herein. As a person of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from this disclosure, other processes, machines, manufactures, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present invention. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufactures, means, methods or steps.