Nursing bottle holder

A bottle holder for a vehicle safety seat having a restraining device for releasably retaining an infant in a seated position comprises a substantially planar, soft, resilient, flexible pad and means for releasably securing the pad to the restraining device in front of a seated infant. The pad has a chest shielding portion for covering the frontal profile of the infant's chest. A pair of laterally spaced apart upwardly projecting portions of the pad define an upwardly open bottle receiving yoke for cradlingly supporting and frictionally retaining a nursing bottle. A design imprinted on the frontal surface of the bottle holder comprises a fanciful animal figure having ears defined by the upwardly projecting portions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates in general to nursing bottle holders and deals more 
particularly with an improved bottle holder for use with an infant safety 
seat of the type carried in a motor vehicle and having a restraining 
device for releasably securing an infant in properly seated position. 
Heretofore various nursing bottle holders have been provided for use with 
infant safety seats and typical examples of such devices are found in U.S. 
Pat. Nos. 4,121,797 to MacNeil, issued Oct. 28, 1978; and 4,315,654 to 
Crook, issued Feb. 16, 1982. However, such bottle holders of rigid 
construction present a potential source of injury to a child seated in a 
vehicle in the event the vehicle stops suddenly or becomes involved in a 
traffic accident. Further, if the device provides rigid support for a 
bottle, the bottle itself may become a source of potential injury to the 
seated child in such an emergency situation. 
Accordingly, it is the general aim of the present invention to provide an 
improved nursing bottle holder for an infant safety seat and which is of 
non-rigid construction for supporting a nursing bottle in comfortable 
feeding position while allowing for free release of the bottle in the 
event of a vehicle emergency. A further aim of the present invention is to 
provide an improved nursing bottle holder for use with a vehicle seat and 
which is generally anatomically contoured to partially protect a seated 
infant from being struck by a lightweight flying object, such as a loose 
item within a vehicle, which may become airborne in the event that the 
vehicle stops suddenly or is involved in a traffic accident. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In accordance with the present invention an improved nursing bottle holder 
is provided for use with an infant safety seat having restraining means 
for releasably securing a child in properly seated position thereon. The 
bottle holder essentially comprises a soft, resilient, flexible, pad and 
means for releasably attaching the pad to a restraining means, such as 
aforesaid, in front of an infant releasably secured in seated position o 
the safety seat by the restraining means. 
The pad has a chest shielding portion for substantially covering or 
shielding the frontal profile of the seated infant's chest. The pad also 
has means for supporting a nursing bottle in a nursing position relative 
to the seated infant and which includes a pair of laterally spaced apart 
upwardly projecting portions which define an upwardly open bottle 
receiving yoke for cradlingly supporting and frictionally engaging 
opposite sides of a nursing bottle received therein with the longitudinal 
axis of the bottle extending in a transverse direction relative to the 
plane of the pad.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Turning now to the drawings, a nursing bottle holder embodying the present 
invention is indicated generally by the reference numeral 10. The 
illustrated bottle holder 10 is particularly adapted for use with an 
infant safety seat of the type carried in a motor vehicle and having a 
restraining device for releasably securing an infant in a properly seated 
position thereon. In FIG. 1 the bottle holder 10 is shown in a bottle 
supporting position relative to a seated infant releasably secured in 
seated position on a vehicle safety seat 12 by a restraining device 
designated generally by the numeral 14, the infant's bottle being 
indicated by the letter B. The restraining device may take various forms 
and may, for example, comprise conventional adjustable safety belts or 
straps 15,15 and may also include a rigid restraining member such as 
indicated at 17 for use in combination with straps to releasably secure 
the child in seated position, as shown in FIG. 1. The illustrated bottle 
holder 10 is releasably attached to the restraining device 14 in a manner 
to be hereinafter more fully described. 
Considering now the nursing bottle holder 10 in further detail, and 
referring particularly to FIGS. 2-4, the bottle holder essentially 
comprises a substantially flat or planar pad 16 preferably made from soft, 
resilient, flexible impact absorbent material such as sponge rubber, 
foamed plastic, fiber flock or like material. The illustrated pad 16 has a 
substantially uniform thickness and is generally anatomically contoured, 
as viewed from the front and as shown in FIG. 2. Specifically, the pad has 
front and rear surfaces 18 and 20 and includes a chest shielding portion 
indicated by the numeral 22 for positioning in front of an infant seated 
on the safety seat 12 to substantially oover or shield the frontal profile 
of the infant's chest. 
The illustrated pad 12 further includes an abdominal shielding portion 
designated by the numeral 24, which depends from the chest shielding 
portion 22, and a genital shielding portion 26 which depends centrally 
from the abdominal shielding portion 24. 
A pair of laterally spaced apart upwardly projecting portions of the pad, 
indicated at 28 and 30, extend from the chest shielding portion and define 
an upwardly open bottle receiving yoke 32 for cradlingly supporting and 
frictionally engaging opposite side portions of a nursing bottle received 
therebetween with the longitudinal axis of the bottle extending in a 
generally transverse direction relative to the plane of the pad and for 
frictionally engaging the bottle at opposite sides of its axis, as shown 
in FIG. 2 where the bottle B is shown in broken lines. 
Preferably, and as shown, the pad 16 is contained within a protective cover 
34 which substantially complements or conforms to the shape of the pad. 
The cover may be made from any suitable flexible material, but preferably 
it is made from a durable, washable material such as a washable fabric or 
plastic sheet material, which may be easily wiped clean when soiled. The 
illustrated device 10 has a soft washable sewn on cotton fabric cover 34 
which includes a decorative ruffle 36 extending around its periphery. 
The frontal surface of the bottle holder 10 is preferably decorated With a 
fanciful animal design, the animal having ears formed by the yoke defining 
portions 28 and 30. The decorative design may be applied directly to the 
frontal surface of the pad if the device does not include a cover. 
However, in the present instance, the design is applied to the cover 34 
and, as shown, comprises a fanciful floppy eared rabbit cuddling a duck. 
The bottle holder 10 may be releasably secured to the restraining device by 
any suitable arrangement of releasable fasteners. However, in the 
presently preferred embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, a 
plurality of VELCRO fasteners indicated generally at 38,38 and 40 are 
employed for this purpose, since such fasteners can easily be attached to 
the bottle holder 10 in positions required to releasably secure the bottle 
holder to an associated restraining device. Thus, the bottle holder 10 may 
be readily adapted for use with vehicle safety seats having restraining 
devices of differing types. 
Each VELCRO fastener comprises a patch or strip of fastening material which 
includes a pair of connected mating components. One component carries 
J-hooks and the other component has loops or eyes which cooperate with the 
J-hooks to releasably retain the two mating fastener components in 
connected engagement with each other, in a manner well known in the 
fastener art. 
Each VELCRO fastener component has a coating of pressure sensitive adhesive 
on one surface thereof. Prior to attaching the bottle holder to the 
restraining device, the pressure sensitive adhesive on each VELCRO 
component is covered by strip of releasable backing material (not shown). 
When the bottle holder 10 is assembled with a vehicle safety seat such as 
the seat 12, one of the components of each pair is adhesively attached to 
the restraining device 14 and the other of the components comprising the 
pair is attached to the bottle holder or, more specifically, to the rear 
surface of the protective cover 34. Typical locations for VELCRO 
attachment to the rear surface of the protective cover 34 are indicated by 
broken lines in FIG. 3 and designated by the numerals 38', 38' and 40'. 
Preparatory to first using of the device, the child is seated in proper 
position on the vehicle safety seat 12 and the restraining device 14 is 
secured to releasably retain the child in the latter position. The 
releasable backing material is then stripped from one of the VELCRO 
fastener components comprising each pair of connected component and the 
component from which the backing material has been stripped is preferably 
first adhesively secured to an associated one of the straps 15,15 which 
comprises the restraining device 14. The procedure is repeated to secure 
one or more additional VELCRO fasteners at other selected positions on the 
restraining device 14. Thereafter, the releasable backing material is 
stripped from the other of the VELCRO components comprising each connected 
pair of components attached to the restraining device to expos the 
pressure sensitive adhesive thereon and the bottle holding device 10 is 
carefully placed in proper bottle holding position and pressed into 
adhering engagement with the exposed adhesive surfaces on the various 
pairs of VELCRO components attached to the restraining device 14 . Since 
the pressure sensitive adhesive on the VELCRO has a greater affinity for 
the surface to which it is attached than the mating VELCRO components have 
for each other, the bottle holder 10 may be easily stripped or removed 
from connected engagement with the restraining device 14 by separating the 
mating VELCRO components after the VELCRO fasteners have been attached to 
the restraining device and to the bottle holder. Thereafter, the bottle 
holder 10 may be resecured to the vehicle safety seat 12 each time the sea 
is used by merely bringing the mating VELCRO components into connecting 
engagement with each other. 
When properly assembled with the restraining device, the bottle holder 10 
will support a nursing bottle in a comfortable feeding position relative 
to a seated infant. Since the nursing bottle is merely cradled and 
frictionally retained by the device, in the event of emergency, such as a 
sudden stop or traffic accident involving the vehicle, the bottle is free 
to fall from the device. 
Although the bottle holder 10 is not specifically intended to be a 
protective device, it does offer some degree of shielding protection for 
the infant and ma prevent the infant from being struck or injured by a 
lightweight item loosely stored in the vehicle passenger compartment which 
may become airborne in the event of sudden braking of the vehicle.