Nursing aid system

A nursing aid system which includes at least one breast cup and at least one nipple extender which may be integrally formed with the breast cup or which may comprise a separate piece. The breast cup has a concave breast receiving portion and a hollow generally cylindrical nipple receiving portion located on and projecting away from the breast receiving portion, the nipple receiving portion having a remote end which includes a milk delivery aperture. The nipple extender, if separately formed, may be slidably received in the nipple receiving portion of the breast cup and has an axial length less than the length of the nipple receiving portion. The nipple extender provides at least one flow channel for conducting milk from the mother's nipple to the milk delivery aperture and is preferably sized and configured to occupy most of the space in the nipple receiving portion of the breast cup which is not occupied by a mother's nipple.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS, IF ANY

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART

The present invention relates to systems for assisting mothers to naturally breast feed babies. Mothers have often encountered pain from babies who pinch or bite their nipples during natural breast feeding. Breast shields have been designed to alleviate this common problem through the use of a flexible breast and nipple cover of sufficient thickness to substantially reduce flexing of the nipple portion and resultant pain encountered when breast feeding a biting baby. These breast shields effectively cover but do not extend the natural nipple and therefore fail to address the problem and frustration experienced by those mothers and their children who have not been able to effectively breast feed due to insufficient length, usually temporary, of the mother's nipple and resulting inability of the baby to effectively grasp it in its mouth for suckling.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a nursing aid system which alleviates the above problem.

SUMMARY

Disclosed herein is a nursing aid system which includes at least one breast cup and at least one nipple extender which may be a separate part or which may be integrally formed with the breast cup. The breast cup has a concave breast receiving portion and a hollow generally cylindrical nipple receiving portion located on and projecting away from the breast receiving portion, the nipple receiving portion having a remote end which includes at least one milk delivery aperture which may be normally open or closed. The nipple extender may be integrally formed with or may be slidably received or otherwise positioned in the nipple receiving portion of the breast cup and has an axial length less than the length of the nipple receiving portion. The nipple extender is configured to provide at least one channel for conducting flow of milk from the mother's nipple to the milk delivery aperture and preferably occupies most of the space in the nipple receiving portion of the breast cup which is not occupied by a mother's nipple.

Although the system is designed to alleviate problems frequently encountered by humans, the teachings herein are not necessarily limited to human nursing.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1depicts a breast cup10comprised of a generally concave breast receiving portion12having an integrally formed nipple portion14terminating in an end wall16. The end is provided with a normally closed milk delivery aperture, such as a slit or crossed slits18preferably located in the end wall16as seen inFIG. 2. The entire breast cup10may be formed of flexible elastomeric material having a uniform wall thickness although the breast cup1may be configured with a variable wall thickness if desired. The flexible elastomeric material may be a silicone, latex or polyurethane material or mixtures thereof and may have a Shore A durometer hardness in the preferred range of 35-80. Those skilled in the art will readily understand that the flexibility of the breast cup10will depend not only upon the material and hardness but also upon the wall thickness, all of the properties being selected to insure that the cup may be comfortably retained against the breast and flexed to conform generally to the human breast configuration.

To accommodate human breasts having nipples of various natural lengths, one or more nipple extenders20of various sizes may be provided. A single nipple extender may be integrally formed with the breast cup or a number of separately fabricated nipple extenders may be provided in differing lengths, preferably all sized to be slid into and frictionally retained inside the nipple receiving portion14of the cup10.FIG. 1depicts the nipple extender20as a part separate form the cup10but those skilled in the art will understand that the nipple receiving portion14of the breast cup10shown inFIG. 1can easily be fabricated with an increased wall thickness and centrally extending milk delivery passageway to effectively integrate the nipple extender20and cup10. The integrally formed extender or separately formed extenders20should be sized and configured to occupy most and preferably substantially all space in the nipple receiving portion14of the cup20which would not ordinarily be occupied by a human nipple so as to accommodate natural nipples of different lengths and minimize the amount of air which must be first be ingested by a suckling infant before milk is delivered.

FIGS. 3 and 4show a first presently preferred embodiment of nipple extender20of generally cylindrical configuration having a rounded or hemispherical convex front end22as seen inFIG. 3and a rear end24which preferably is configured with slight concavity as seen inFIG. 4. In this embodiment, at least one flow conducting groove26is provided. Preferably a series of peripherally spaced protuberances in the form of lands on the annular exterior surface of the extender20which engage the inside of the nipple receiving portion of the breast cup10provide a series of flow conducting grooves26between the lands for the flow of milk along the exterior of the nipple extender from the rear end24to the front end22. The groove or grooves26terminate proximate the milk delivery aperture which, in the preferred embodiment shown, is a normally closed aperture formed by crossed slits18. The inherent resilience of the breast cup10and the wall thickness of the nipple end wall16is selected to insure that suction provided by a nursing infant will easily open the flow conducting aperture in the end16in the nipple portion of the cup to conduct milk to the baby's mouth. The preferred configuration of nipple extender shown inFIGS. 3 and 4with lengthwise extending grooves26on the annular surface of the nipple extender insures that the nipple extender20and grooves26can be easily and thoroughly cleaned when removed from the cup10and that air space in the cup10is also minimized to reduce the amount of air which must be ingested by the baby prior to drawing of milk through suckling.

Although the presently preferred embodiment of nipple extender20may be configured as shown inFIGS. 3 and 4with grooves26on its exterior surface to facilitate easy cleaning, such is not essential. A nipple extender30may be configured, for example, as shown inFIG. 6with a single flow conducting passageway32which is preferably centrally located in the nipple extender30. Alternatively, the nipple extender may have multiple flow passageways or be fabricated of a porous or open cell material to provide multiple milk flow channels.

In its broadest aspects, the system comprises a single breast cup10and nipple extender20which may either be a separate piece or which may be integrally formed with the breast cup as described above. Since separately formed nipple extenders can be removed from the breast cup for easier cleaning, it is currently contemplated that the system may best be produced and marketed in kit form comprising a few breast cups10each having a nipple portion length LN1, LN2, LN3, etc. of gradually reducing length as shown inFIG. 5. Similarly, the nipple extenders20may be included in a series of different lengths LE1, LE2, LE3, etc. (FIG. 3) to accommodate mothers having nipples of different natural lengths.

A mother who has difficulty in nursing her infant may then first select the breast cup10having the longest length nipple portion14which may be used with a nipple extender20of length correlated with the length of the nipple portion14of the cup10and with the natural length of the mother's nipple such that, in use, the nipple extender will occupy most and preferably substantially all space in the nipple receiving portion14which is not occupied by the mother's nipple. As the infant gets used to suckling with the longer nipples, the mother may gradually reduce the length of nipple to which the infant is exposed by changing cups and nipple extenders.

While the nipple extenders20and30preferably are retained in the nipple receiving portions14of the cup10by frictional engagement so that the extenders can be easily removed from the cups for cleaning, one or more annular protuberances, which may take the form of a collar or collars34as seen inFIG. 6, may be formed on the exterior annular surfaces of the nipple extenders20to assist in retaining the nipple extenders20in the nipple portions of the cups10. Mating recesses or grooves may be formed in the interior of the nipple receiving portions14of the cups10to receive the protuberances so long as a suitable milk flow path is maintained. The protuberance need not take the form of an annular collar34as depictedFIG. 6. The protuberance may even take the form of a spiral male screw thread engageable with the interior surface of the nipple portion14of the breast cup10. Simple sliding engagement of the nipple extenders20,30with the interior surface of the nipple receiving portions14of the cups10is, however, presently is preferred.

Persons skilled in the art will readily appreciate that various additional modifications can be made from the presently preferred embodiments thus the scope of protection is intended to be defined only by the limitations of the appended claims.