Universal confined seat barrier

Abstract

The invention is a universal flexible barrier that is first put on the child, and then, when the child is in a confined seat—such as a shopping cart seat, a car seat, a booster seat, a high chair, or even a stroller—the barrier is mushroomed outward from the child to cover the edges of the confined seat. In this manner, the child is protected from the dirt and germs of previous children that might have used the seat, protected from the dirt and germs of adults who may have previously handled the seat, and / or protected from the harsh cleaning solutions often used to clean the seat.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION[0001]This invention relates to devices for covering surfaces with a barrier to prevent transmission of dirt, germs, and diseases to children. More particularly, the invention relates to a flexible and expandable barrier that is first put on the child, and then, when the child is in a confined seat, such as a shopping cart seat, the barrier is stretched out to cover the edges of the confined seat to protect the child from said dirt, germs, and diseases.BACKGROUND[0002]Small children that dine in restaurants, ride in grocery store shopping carts, visit amusement parks, or ride in cars, are typically placed in a confined seat, such as a high chair, booster seat, shopping cart seat, stroller, or car seat. Because these seats are often made available to the public by an entity such as a store, restaurant or amusement park, they are available to be used by and exposed to numerous children and adults. Although these seats are routinely cleaned, there is no way to guarant...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013]Another object of this invention is to provide a child seat barrier that allows a caregiver to put the barrier on the child first, place the child in the seat, and then stretch or pull the barrier so that it mushrooms outward from the child to cover all of the edges of the seat. This allows a parent that does not have a free hand to easily put a protective barrier between the child and the publicly shared confined child seat.

[0015]For a child that is too young to stand, the caregiver may hold the child in one arm and at the same time place the leg holes of the barrier around the feet of the child. Once the child's feet are in the leg holes, the barrier of the present invention is pulled up and around the torso of the child. The caregiver then places the child in the confined seat. The elastic or stretchable outer rim of the barrier may then be easily pulled away from the child to cover the edges of the specific seat in which the child was placed.

[0017]Unlike other barrier solutions, the present invention is preferably lightweight and disposable, which allows it to be packaged similar to baby wipes and to be sold on a grocer's shelf. Also unlike current solutions, the present invention preferably has an antimicrobial treatment, which allows the barrier to be a germ defense barrier.

Problems solved by technology

Although these seats are routinely cleaned, there is no way to guarantee that the seat is cleaned and / or sterilized immediately before each child uses it.

Although wipes are successful at cleaning various portions of the surface of a confined seat, these seats have a lot of surface area and cleaning them can be a very tedious task.

For example, cleaning in between all of the bars of a shopping cart seat would be quite laborious, and especially difficult while trying to hold a small child.

Regarding currently available barriers, most of these barriers are bulky and are brought by the parent to the store or restaurant.

These barriers are difficult to wrangle into the seat under the best of circumstances.

But, once again, when a parent is holding a child, covering the confined seat with a seat barrier is almost impossible.

For example, those barriers that are intended to be used in a shopping cart seat cannot be easily adapted to also be used in a restaurant high chair or booster seat, a rented stroller, or a car seat that has been used by other child occupants.

With a defined shape or particular mode of attachment, such as straps or snaps, the current barriers fail in their adaptability to all situations where it may be necessary to protect the child from a surface that has likely been contaminated.

However, all continue to fail at providing adequate sanitary protection and, moreover, adequate ease for a parent to secure the barrier on the seat.

However, the barrier is padded, thereby limiting its use to only larger seats that are able to fit the bulky cover.

Furthermore, the design is still specific to a shopping cart and makes it difficult for the barrier to be used on the variety of seats that continue to expose the child to contagions, making the barrier necessary.

Additionally, the barrier is made of a reusable, washable material; it cannot be easily disposed of when its use is done.

These factors present in the currently available devices make it illogical for a parent to carry multiple barriers.

A child's messy eating habits may make the barrier too dirty for reuse without washing.

The Bergh barrier further fails in that it must be attached to the seat before the child is placed in it.

Especially with its bulky size, it is difficult for a parent to try to balance a child in one arm while adjusting and securing the confined seat barrier with the other.

However, this barrier once again demonstrates how the currently available seat barriers fail to provide the parent with an easy means of placing the barrier on the seat while simultaneously holding a child in his or her arms.

Furthermore, as the holes are specifically created to work for a shopping cart seat, the barrier is not adaptable to the various types of situations when such a barrier is necessary to prevent contamination.

However, these devices are not made of disposable materials and lack any sort of antimicrobial treatment, thereby failing to provide the best protection for the child from contamination.

This means that they cannot provide the same protection against contagions as would a new disposable barrier.

Finally, none of the prior barrier devices are disclosed as being placed first on the child and not on the confined seat.

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