Abstract:
A flexible bottle holder, such as for baby bottles, is made of child-safe plastic and attaches to support surfaces with a hand operated screw clamp. A flexible arm extends from the clamp and has a bottle support at the other end. The bottle support easily adjusts to various bottles and allows for quick and easy insertion and removal of bottles by an adult, but is resistant to easy removal by an infant and does not include any hardware that is dangerous to an infant. In one embodiment, the bottle support uses spring tabs to secure the bottle inside a plastic band. In another embodiment, an elastic fabric jacket secures the bottle to a bottle support cradle with a plurality of hook and loop fasteners.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/62,090 filed Jan. 23, 2008, which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    Embodiments disclosed herein are drawn to flexible bottle holders and more particularly to an articulated baby bottle holders for providing parents and caregivers with a convenient means of feeding an infant while they are driving or attend to other tasks. While disclosed with respect to baby bottles, disclosed embodiments have further utility with respect to feeding and/or hydrating disabled or incapacitated individuals 
         [0003]    The prior art includes numerous patents on baby bottle holders. Most of them are over engineered and contain metal or stuffed fabric and thus pose hazards for their intended purpose. For example, metal devices can have dangerously sharp edges and are bad for growing teeth since babies love to teeth on (i.e., bite) anything within their reach. Moreover, stuffed fabric on bottle holders presents a possible choking/suffocation hazard as well as a cleaning problem because they can trap bacteria and mold. 
         [0004]    A variety of designs have been proposed for bottle holders. Some of the designs rest on the baby&#39;s chest with straps to secure the bottle holder around the baby, while other designs use a clamp to secure the bottle holder. Other designs have to fix a supporting clamp and an adjustable arm which extends to hold the bottle into place, with a second clamp holding the baby bottle. Still other designs use a foam wedge and strap to secure the baby bottle. Yet other designs are weighted to rest and wrap around a baby&#39;s torso, while others are disguised as animals. 
         [0005]    The disclosed embodiments provide an assembly that is convenient and easy to use, is durable yet lightweight in design, is versatile in its applications, and provides busy parents a simple, hands free means of feeding their child. Since it is ideal for use immediately after birth, the disclosed embodiments enable new moms to safely and comfortably feed their child, without causing discomfort or injury to themselves. 
         [0006]    Busy parents also appreciate that they can go about folding a basket of laundry, preparing a meal, or even getting dressed for work, all while their child is being comfortably fed. By eliminating the need to stop the task at hand, use of the disclosed embodiments provides parents valuable time in which to accomplish a day&#39;s tasks effortlessly. This is especially advantageous in households with more than one small child where attention may often be needed by an infant as well as a sibling. Being fully adjustable and completely flexible, the unique assembly is easily manipulated to accommodate the ever-changing needs of a growing child. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY 
       [0007]    As disclosed herein, a flexible bottle holder, such as for baby bottles, is made of child-safe plastic and attaches to support surfaces with a hand operated screw clamp. A flexible arm extends from the clamp and has a bottle support at the other end. The bottle support easily adjusts to various bottles and allows for quick and easy insertion and removal of bottles by an adult, but is resistant to easy removal by an infant and does not include any hardware that is dangerous to an infant. In one embodiment, the bottle support uses spring tabs to secure the bottle inside a plastic band. In another embodiment, an elastic fabric jacket secures the bottle to a bottle support cradle with a plurality of hook and loop fasteners. 
         [0008]    While the flexible arm can be made of any suitably flexible design, a ball and socket design is preferred due to easy adjustability. An all-plastic design using material that is child-safe, such as food-quality Delrin® (an acetyl copolymer available from E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company), is hygienic, easy to clean, durable, light, and inexpensive to manufacture. 
         [0009]    The design can easily adapt from use with baby bottles of various designs to use with water bottles and the like for disabled adults. 
         [0010]    Embodiments provide truly hands free feeding. Certain embodiments can employ a minor amount of rebound so that the bottle will release from the child&#39;s mouth when feeding is completed, which can avoid liquid spills and tooth decay as liquid pools adjacent an infant&#39;s teeth. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0011]      FIG. 1  illustrates a single arm embodiment of a flexible bottle holder; 
           [0012]      FIG. 2  illustrates a double arm embodiment of a flexible bottle holder; 
           [0013]      FIG. 3  illustrates another embodiment of a flexible bottle holder; 
           [0014]      FIGS. 4A and 4B  illustrate an embodiment of a cradle and a fabric jacket useful with the bottle holder of  FIG. 3 . 
           [0015]      FIG. 5  illustrates an embodiment of a flexible jacket. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0016]    One embodiment of a single arm flexible bottle holder  10  is illustrated in  FIG. 1 . The bottle holder  10  has a clamp formed with a U-shaped member  11  and a hand-operable screw  12 . The clamp is made from substantially rigid plastic and preferably includes rounded corners and edges. The hand-operable screw  12  has a handle on the outside of the U-shaped member  11 , a screw portion extending through a threaded hole (not shown) in the U-shaped member  11 , and a contact pad on the other end of the screw. In use, the clamp can be secured to suitable portions of cribs, bassinettes, bouncers, swings, carriers, strollers, high chairs, car seats, etc. 
         [0017]    Flexible arm  14 , shown here as a flexible plastic accordion tube, extends from the clamp and terminates at a substantially rigid plastic band  16 . The arm  14  can flex in such a manner as to spring back and move slightly away from a feeding mouth, if so desired. The band  16  has one or more spring tabs  17  about the circumference that apply inward pressure to grip a bottle. 
         [0018]    An embodiment of a double arm flexible bottle holder  20  is illustrated in  FIG. 2 . The bottle holder  20  has a pair of clamps formed with U-shaped member  21 ,  21 ′ and hand-operable screws  22 ,  22 ′. The clamps, again, are made from substantially rigid plastic and preferably include rounded corners and edges. The hand-operable screws  22 ,  22 ′ have handles on the outside of the U-shaped members  21 ,  21 ′, screw portions extending through threaded holes (not shown) in the U-shaped members  21 ,  21 ′, and contact pads on the other end of the screws. In use, the clamps can be secured to suitable portions of cribs, bassinettes, bouncers, swings, carriers, strollers, high chairs, car seats, etc. 
         [0019]    Flexible arms  24 ,  24 ′ extend from each clamp and terminate at a single substantially rigid plastic band  26 . The band  26  has one or more spring tabs  27  about the circumference that apply inward pressure to grip the bottle. 
         [0020]    Another embodiment of a single arm flexible bottle holder  30  is illustrated in  FIG. 3 . The bottle holder  30  has a clamp formed with a U-shaped member  31  and a hand-operable screw  32 . The clamp, again, is made from substantially rigid plastic and preferably includes rounded corners and edges. The hand-operable screw  32  has a handle on the outside of the U-shaped member  31 , a screw portion extending through a threaded hole (not shown) in the U-shaped member  31 , and a contact pad on the other end of the screw. In use, the clamp can be secured to suitable portions of cribs, bassinettes, bouncers, swings, carriers, strollers, high chairs, car seats, etc. 
         [0021]    Flexible arm  34 , shown in this embodiment as a connected series of plastic ball and socket members, extends from a ball and socket member that is integral with the clamp. Note that the “ball and socket” member on the clamp only needs to be either a ball or a socket, and as illustrated, is a socket. The flexible arm  34  extends in a bendable manner (as illustrated, the 15 ball and socket members allow great adjustability) and terminates at a substantially rigid plastic cradle  38 . The cradle  38  has a ball and socket element integral with a backside for attachment. Note that the “ball and socket” member on the cradle  38  only needs to be either a ball or a socket, and as illustrated, is a ball. The opposite side of the cradle  38  has a contoured surface for contacting an outer circumference of the bottle. 
         [0022]    The bottle is held in place against the cradle  38  by a flexible jacket  39  so as to grip the bottle. The flexible jacket  39  is preferably formed from an elastic material or fabric. In one embodiment, the jacket is formed of a layer of foam or neoprene laminated with adhesive to a stretch fabric such as Lycra®. The flexible jacket  39  illustrated in  FIG. 3  is an elastic tube of material with a hole in it so as to be attached over the ball element on the back of the cradle  38 . Attached in this manner, the elasticity of the jacket  39  presses the bottle and the cradle  38  together so as to grip the bottle. 
         [0023]      FIG. 4A  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a cradle  48 , illustrating both its curvature and its lip element  49  that can engage a narrowed portion of a baby bottle near the lid of the bottle so as to avoid slippage of the bottle when the drinking end is pointed down. The cradle  48  is of a limited length and can accommodate full sized bottles (as illustrated) as well as smaller, half-height bottles (not shown). Due to use with the jacket, the cradle  48  itself does not need to encompass much of the surface of the bottle, thus allowing superior flexibility with respect to bottle sizes and shapes. Additionally, while illustrated in a particular shape and size, one of skill in the art will recognized that many other shapes and sizes can be used for the cradle  48  without departing from the scope of the appended claims. 
         [0024]    An alternate flexible jacket design is illustrated in  FIGS. 4B and 5 . As shown in  FIG. 4B , a jacket  43  comprises a pair of hook and loop (e.g., Velcro®) closures in the form of fingers  45  and  47 . In use, fingers  45  include one side of a hook and loop closure, typically the loop portion, on an outer surface. The other portion of the hook and loop closure, typically the hooks, are provided on an inner surface of the fingers  47  so that the fingers  47  can be wrapped over the bottle and onto the surface of fingers  45  so as to secure the bottle. The fabric or material used for the jacket  43  does not need to be elastic, but an elastic material is preferred so as to supply some compressive force for gripping purposes. 
         [0025]    When laid flat, the jacket  43  of  FIG. 4B  will take a shape such as illustrated by jacket  53  of  FIG. 5 . Jacket  53  includes a hole  51  for going over a ball (or socket) element of the cradle, a major interior portion for engaging the cradle and portions of the bottle, and fingers  55  and  57  at opposite ends for attachment to each other during use. 
         [0026]    The shape and size of jacket  53  can take other forms without departing from the scope of the appended claims. Similarly, while each of the disclosed embodiments has the flexible arm extending from the central portion of the clamp, this is only a preferred location and the arm can extend from other locations on the clamp without departing from the scope of the appended claims. 
         [0027]    In a basic embodiment, a bottle holder comprises a means for clamping to a support surface, a flexible support arm attached at a first end to the means for clamping, and a means for gripping a bottle attached to a second end of the flexible support arm, wherein all rigid parts of the bottle holder are formed of child-safe plastic, and wherein the means for gripping a bottle comprises a substantially rigid band dimensioned to accommodate a diameter of the bottle and one or more spring tabs mounted on the band to supply a gripping force to grip the bottle. 
         [0028]    A variant of this embodiment includes a second means for clamping to a support surface and a second flexible support arm attached at a first end to the second means for clamping and attached at a second end to the means for gripping the bottle. In other various options, the flexible arm support can be made of food-grade plastic, can be made of plastic accordion tubing, and/or can be made of a plurality of ball and socket units. 
         [0029]    In another embodiment, the bottle holder comprises means for clamping to a support surface, a flexible support arm attached at a first end to the means for clamping, and means for gripping a bottle attached to a second end of the flexible support arm, wherein all rigid parts of the bottle holder are formed of child-safe plastic, and wherein the means for gripping a bottle comprises a substantially rigid cradle dimensioned to accommodate a diameter of the bottle, and a flexible gripping means for securing the bottle to the cradle. 
         [0030]    Variants of this embodiment include those wherein the flexible arm support comprises a plurality of ball and socket units, those wherein the flexible gripping means comprises an elastic fabric jacket, and/or those wherein the elastic fabric jacket further comprises a hook and loop closure. Other variations include those wherein the cradle is dimensioned to accommodate a diameter of a baby bottle and comprises a lip to engage a narrowed portion of the baby bottle, as well as those wherein the means for clamping to a support surface comprises a substantially U-shaped member and a hand-operated screw member traversing an open end of the U-shaped member. 
         [0031]    In yet another embodiment, the bottle holder is a baby bottle holder and comprises a plastic clamp comprising a substantially U-shaped member, a hand-operated screw member traversing an open end of the U-shaped member, and a ball and socket member fixed to the U-shaped member. A flexible support arm formed of a plurality of plastic ball and socket members attached to each other is attached at a first end to the ball and socket member of the clamp, and a means for gripping the baby bottle is attached to a second end of the flexible support arm. 
         [0032]    In one variant of this embodiment, the means for gripping the baby bottle comprises a substantially rigid cradle dimensioned to accommodate a diameter of the baby bottle and a flexible gripping means for securing the baby bottle to the cradle. Optionally, the flexible gripping means comprises an elastic fabric jacket, the elastic fabric jacket further comprises a hook and loop closure, the cradle comprises a lip to engage a narrowed portion of the baby bottle, the cradle comprises a ball and socket member for attachment to the flexible support arm, the elastic fabric jacket further comprises a hole dimensioned to fit over the ball and socket member of the cradle, and/or the hook and loop closure comprises closures for upper and lower ends of the baby bottle. Preferably, the flexible support arm is formed of an acetyl copolymer, such as Delrin®. 
         [0033]    A system for providing a flexible bottle holder has been described. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the scope of the invention disclosed and that the examples and embodiments described herein are in all respects illustrative and not restrictive. Those skilled in the art of the present invention will recognize that other embodiments using the concepts described herein are also possible. Further, any reference to claim elements in the singular, for example, using the articles “a,” “an,” or “the” is not to be construed as limiting the element to the singular.