Clothes for Infants

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to protective clothing for infants and children.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As infants begin to develop they start to move. They start with rolling over and movements on their stomach then crawling, standing and ultimately walking, running and jumping. An infant's development may be slowed by injury received learning to perform the activities mentioned above. Injuries include, but are not limited to the following: abrasions on the knees and shins from crawling, impact on the knees, elbows, shoulder and buttocks from falling when learning to stand, walk, run or jump, and impact with other objects within the child's environment. The types and seriousness of the injuries change as an infant (defined as ages 0-2 years; clothing sizes 0 through 24 months) develops into a child (ages 2-6 years; clothing sizes 2 toddler through 5 toddler, and 4 kids through 7 kids) and as they grow through various stages of movement.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention described herein relates to improved garments that will assist in reducing the chance of injury. The invention particularly relates to use of appropriately located and shaped padding material, in particular spacer mesh, in infant and childrens clothing. Such clothing is constructed and arranged such that the mesh is sewn in a manner to alleviate stress on the fabric during use, and to provide comfort.

By incorporating age/activity appropriate protection into the garment for the infant and child, they will experience less injury and will therefore learn activities more easily and can develop more quickly. Since the padding can be incorporated in a non-intrusive way into the garment, it will constantly protect them. It is not necessary to put on special clothing (e.g. padded garments that go over other clothing) or attachments (e.g. knee pads or elbow pads) which are not always available to protect during development/learning stages.

Thus, in a first aspect the invention features spacer mesh attached to infant and children's garments so key areas of the body are protected from injury. The attachment method can be performed using stitching, glue, sonic weld or any other type of construction which attaches two fabrics together.

In a second aspect the spacer mesh is attached to the infant's/children's clothing by sewing the top and sides of the mesh to the garment, and use of one to many tacks at the bottom (rather than sewing the bottom as well). Optionally one can include one or more lines of quilting through the mesh to attach inner portions of the mesh to the garment. This allows airflow/cooling, moisture management, improved flexibility, and a better fit/look by avoiding wrinkles. In preferred embodiments, the infant is from ages 0-2 years and the clothing sizes are 0 through 24 months; a child is from age 2-6 years and the clothing sizes are 2 toddler through 5 toddler, and 4 kids through 7 kids.

In a third aspect, the invention relates to a system of age/activity appropriate based protection in a collection of garments for infant and children which targets injury prone areas in a specific way. This invention targets all appropriate parts of the body based on age/activity—not simply just one part. For example:

6 month (crawler)—protection at belly, knee, and buttocks.

12 month (walker)—protection at knee, buttocks, and elbow.

24 month (troublemaker)—protection at knee, buttocks, and elbow.

Spacer mesh is used as the padding component in this design because it is flexible, light-weight, breathable, does not retain moisture, and is relatively inexpensive, unlike Air Pads, Gel Pads, Rubber, Honeycomb Padding, EVA, Foam, Additional Layers of Fabric, and Neoprene.

The best way to ensure that padding will protect children is to incorporate it into their everyday clothing. In order to do this, the fabric needs to be flexible since the primary areas to protect are joints (knee, elbow, waist and buttock). It must also be light-weight so that it can be comfortably incorporated into everyday garments. It must also be breathable so the infant/child does not overheat or sweat in the padded areas. Since the padding is permanently fixed to the clothing, it needs to be washer and dryer safe. Spacer mesh does not retain moisture and will wash and dry similar to the fabrics it will be attached to. Finally, spacer mesh is relatively inexpensive which is necessary to achieve an appropriate sellable price for infant and children's clothing.

The spacer mesh is attached using stitching on the upper and both sides of the mesh. For the lower part we use a bar tack only. This stitching method allows for air flow, moisture management, increased flexibility, and provides for a better fit which avoids wrinkling which is uncomfortable and looks bad.

The specific need for protection changes as an infant/child develops. Currently products simply attempt to protect one item (e.g. Infant Crawling Pants, Infant Pants Having Knee Pockets and replaceable Knee Pads). The present invention looks at the age/development of the infant/child and incorporates appropriate protection into garments they would wear everyday. The line of clothing works so that clothing at 6 months protects activities appropriate for an infant at that stage of development (e.g. belly, knee and buttocks for crawling and sitting). At 12 month, the system adds protection for elbows and drops protection for belly since the infant crawling is replaced by walking. Each clothing item in the line protects high priority injury areas covered by the garment, and when used with other items from our line of clothing protects all priority high priority areas appropriate for that age/size.

Specifically, the invention relates to an infant and child garment having spacer mesh included therein. Preferably, the spacer mesh is provided on the inner or outer portion of the garment in the region selected from the knee region, the tummy region, the elbow region and the buttock region, and more particularly at a plurality of those regions. Generally, the spacer mesh is sewn into the garment, e.g., at the top and side edges of the mesh, and the spacer mesh is tacked to the garment at the lower edge of the mesh. The spacer mesh is formed with one layer of the mesh having a pattern e.g., selected from honeycomb, circles, diamonds and squares, and the garment is selected from a jumpsuit, pajamas, a top and a bottom.

In a related aspect, the invention features a collection of different garments as above.

In a further related aspect, the invention features a method of manufacture of a garment by attaching fabric mesh to an infant garment, e.g., by sewing, gluing, or soldering, with the sewing including tacking of the fabric mesh at its lower edge to the garment.

As used herein, the term fabric mesh is as used in the art to refer to the trilayer structure formed generally as shown in FIG. 9 with two outside planar sheets held together by a generally thicker sandwich layer of elastomeric and collapsible material. Those in the art will recognize that such materials are commonly used in shoes, mattresses and other structures but to date have not been used in infant garments. The structure of the planar sheets can be the same or different and will provide different properties. The pattern on such sheets allows the material to be more breathable and provides some rigidity, for example in the shapes noted above.

When referring to the mesh herein, the top part refers to that located closer to the top of a garment when worn, and the bottom and sides correspond to the bottom edge compared to the top, with the sides therebetween. The shape of the mesh is generally aligned with the shape of the garment and body portion as shown in exemplary form in the drawings. For example the elbow region will have a generally rectangular mesh on the outside of the elbow extending about half way to the shoulder on the one side and the wrist on the other. Similarly in the knee region the mesh is also generally rectangular and applied from a region near the top of the legs to a region half way between the knee and the ankle. For the buttocks the mesh is generally rectangular with cut out in the groin area, and is applied from just around the waist region to the top of the legs. Finally in the tummy region the mesh is generally rectangular with a more triangular portion nearer to the groin region and is applied from near the tummy button region to the area above the groin. Such mesh will extend a large part of the width of the garment to about half way or three quarters of the way to the side seams of the garment.

With regard to the sewing that is preferably used such sewing can be in any preferred stitch to allow solid holding of the mesh in place, or may have some flexibility to allow slight movement of the fabric within the garment. In those areas where there is extended mesh used such stitching can be used not just at the edges of the mesh but also in parallel or other sections to provide more flexibility to the fabric during use. This is illustrated for example in FIG. 11 in both the arm and buttock regions. The lower stitching of the mesh is preferably using tack stitches so that more flexibility is provided to the garment, as shown for example in FIGS. 1 and 2. Such stitching provides a specific look to the garment and specific designs which also form part of the inventions herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a three dimensional front, top and side view of an infant/child's pajama according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a back view of an infant/child's pajama according to the invention.

FIG. 3 is a front view being shown inside out of an infant/child's pajama according to the invention.

FIG. 4 is a back view being shown inside out of an infant/child's pajama according to the invention.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken from line 64 of FIG. 3 showing the attachment of spacer mesh to the inner surface of an infant/child's pajama.

FIG. 6 illustrates a detailed sectional view of spacer mesh.

FIG. 7 is a front view of spacer mesh taken from line 91 of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a back view of spacer mesh taken from line 90 of FIG. 6.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view picture of spacer mesh.

FIG. 10 is a printout of various examples of spacer mesh known in the art.

FIG. 11 is a back view of an infant/child's bodysuit according to the invention.

FIG. 12 is a three dimensional front, top and side view of an infant/child's t-shirt according to the invention.

FIG. 13 is a three dimensional front, top and side view of an infant/child's pants according to the invention.

FIG. 14 is a back view of an infant/child's pants according to the invention.

FIG. 15 is a three dimensional front, top and side view of an infant/child's pajama according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The diagrams used herein is intended to illustrate examples of garments for infants and children that cover the legs, arms, tummy, or buttock of infants or children, such as pajamas, bodysuits, t-shirts, pants, bibbed overalls and the like. These diagrams are intended as examples; the invention is intended to encompass any infant or child garment with spacer mesh.

The diagrams used herein only show one size of each garment, but is intended to encompass any size of garment for infants and children.

FIG. 1 illustrates the front, top and side views of the outside of an infant/child pajama 10. The elbow (the area from just below the shoulder to just above the wrist spanning ¾ of the circumference of the outer portion of the arm 11, shows the general area where the spacer mesh to pad the elbow is attached to the inside of the pajama for protection. On the top part of the elbow area two rows of stitching appear through the fabric 14, 15 which show where the padding is attached to the pajama fabric 16. Depending on the size of the elbow pad, these lines could appear either higher or lower on the arm 19 of the pajama. The side of the padding is attached to the inside front arm of the pajama by seam 17. The padding is attached at the lower point by two bar tacks 18. It is also possible to use more than two bar tacks. The bar tacks (rather than a solid stitching) on the bottom of the elbow pad allows for air flow, moisture management, increased flexibility, and provides for a better fit which avoids wrinkling which is uncomfortable and looks bad.

The buttock (the area between the waist upper thigh on the back half of an infant or child) 12, shows the general area where the spacer mesh to pad the buttock is attached to the inside of the pajama for protection. On the outer portion of the padded area, stitching appears through the pajama showing where the padding on the inside of the pajama is attached 20. On the top of the padded area, 2 stitch lines are used to ensure the padding as anchored securely 27.

The knee (the area between the upper thigh and lower shin on the front ¾ of the circumference of the leg) 13, shows the general area where the spacer mesh to pad the knee is attached to the inside of the pajama for protection. On the top part of the knee area two rows of stitching appear through the fabric 21, 22 which show where the padding is attached to the pajama fabric 16. Depending on the size of the knee pad, these lines could appear either higher or lower on the leg 23 of the pajama. It is important that the protection cover the knee and shin area to prevent injury when crawling, or for falls when learning to walk, run or jump. The side of the padding is attached to the outside of the leg of the pajama by seam 24. The padding is attached at the lower point by two bar tacks 25, 26. It is also possible to use more than two bar tacks. The bar tacks (rather than a solid stitching) on the bottom of the elbow pad allows for air flow, moisture management, increased flexibility, and provides for a better fit which avoids wrinkling. The bar tack stitching method is represented in the diagram in a exemplary way, but is intended to represent all types of stitching that would create a bar tack to anchor spacer mesh to the garment fabric. Such bar tacks are also shown in other Figs herein, e.g., FIGS. 2, 3, 4, 11, 12, 13, and 15.

Another attachment method can be used to attach the spacer mesh to the inside fabric of the pajama, in which cases stitching 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22 and bar tacks 18, 25 and 26 may not appear on the outside of the garment.

FIG. 2 illustrates the back of an infant/child pajama 40. The elbow 41 shows the general area where the spacer mesh to pad the elbow is attached to the inside of the pajama for protection. On the top part of the elbow area two rows of stitching appear through the fabric 42 and 43 which show where the padding is attached to the pajama fabric 44. The side of the padding is attached to the outside back arm of the pajama at seam 45. The padding is attached at the lower point by two bar tacks 46, 47.

The buttock 48 shows the general area where the spacer mesh to pad the buttock is attached to the inside of the pajama for protection. On the outer portion of the padded area, stitching appears through the pajama showing where the padding on the inside of the pajama is attached 49. On the top of the padded area, 2 stitch lines are used to ensure the padding as anchored securely 50.

FIG. 3 illustrates the back view of an infant/child's pajama 60 according to the invention. The elbow 61 shows the general area where the spacer mesh to pad the elbow will be attached to the inside of the pajama for protection. From the front of the pajama, the front edge 65 of the elbow padding is visible as it wraps approximately ¾ of the circumference of the arm.

The spacer mesh to pad the knee 62 is shown attached to the inside leg 63 of the pajama. The padding is represented in this figure is a specific shape or size, but may be done in any shape or any size. The outside edge of the padding 66 is visible outside stitching lines 67, 68.

The inside of the garment can be lined so that a layer of fabric is attached to the inside of the padding so the infant/child will not directly come in contact with the spacer mesh, as it may not be comfortable next to the skin.

FIG. 4 illustrates the back view being shown inside out of an infant/child's pajama 70 according to the invention. The spacer mesh 71 to pad the elbow is shown attached to the inside arm 72 of the pajama. Spacer mesh 73 to pad the buttock is shown attached to the inside buttock area 74 of the pajama. The padding is represented in this figure in a specific shape or size, but may be done in any shape or any size.

FIG. 5 illustrates a sectional view taken from line 64 of FIG. 3 showing the attachment of spacer mesh 81 to the inner surface of an infant/child's pajama 80. The upper stitching 82 shows the upper attachment of the mesh to the pajama using two horizontal stitch lines. The bar tack 83 shows the lower attachment, but does not extent the entire length of the lower portion of the padding.

The attachment method represented in this diagram uses stitching, but is intended to encompass any method which attaches two fabrics together such as adhesive, sonic weld, etc.

FIG. 6 illustrates a detailed sectional view of spacer mesh. Spacer mesh is 3d knitted fabric. It is constructed by connecting two flat mesh panels 90, 91 with a fabric placed between the mesh panels 92 to create space, breathability and cushioning between the two mesh panels.

The two flat panels are constructed in a mesh pattern to ensure both the front and back surfaces of the spacer mesh is breathable. The fabric placed between the mesh panels is porous, provides cushioning and comfort. The thickness of spacer mesh varies from 2 mm to 30 mm and is usually made from 100% polyester.

Spacer mesh is also known by a number of other names including, but not limited to; air mesh, sandwich mesh, 3d mesh fabric, spacer fabric, and XD-spacer fabric. It is commonly used in sporting goods, athletic shoes, back pack straps and back supports, outdoor products; mattress pads, cushions, car seats, and pillows. Spacer mesh has not previously been used as padding in infant clothing, particularly as shown herein.

Examples of factories who construct spacer mesh include but are not limited to; Jinntex Technical Textiles Co., Ltd in Zhongshan City, China, D.W. Mesh in Jiangsu, China, and Tsuen Lin Industrial, Co. LTD in Yun Lin Hsien Taiwan. R.O.C.

FIG. 7 is a front view of spacer mesh taken from line 91 of FIG. 6. The mesh panel is constructed to ensure the fabric is breathable, flexible and light-weight. Spacer mesh can have any number of patterns on the front and back surface. This diagram represents one possible pattern, and can be any pattern.

FIG. 8 is a back view of spacer mesh taken from line 90 of FIG. 6. The mesh panel is constructed to ensure the fabric is breathable, flexible and light-weight. Spacer mesh can have any number of patterns on the front and back surface. This diagram represents one possible pattern, and can encompass any pattern.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view picture of spacer mesh. It is a detailed picture of a manufactured product available for purchase within the category of spacer mesh.

FIG. 10 is a printout of an internet search for spacer mesh representing many different manufactures and products within the category of spacer.

FIG. 11-15 represents other embodiments of the invention. Specifically, there is shown an elbow mesh region in FIGS. 11, 12, 15, knee region in FIGS. 13, 15, buttock region in FIGS. 11, 13, 14, 15.

FIG. 11 illustrates the back view of an infant/child's bodysuit 102 according to the invention. In this example, optional anchor stitch lines 100101 are used to attach the spacer mesh to the bodysuit. This will be required in all embodiments of the invention where the size of the garment and spacer mesh becomes large enough that the top stitch 103, side stitch 104, and bar tack 105 do not adequately secure the mesh. While the optional anchor stitch lines represented in this illustration are 2, they could be 1 to many, and could be used on the knee and buttock padding as well as the elbow as represented.

FIG. 15 illustrates the front, top and side view of an infant/child's pajama 110 as an alternate embodiment of the invention. The elbow pad 111, buttock pad 112 and knee pad 113 are attached to the outside of the pajama instead of the inside as represented in the previous figures. This alternate embodiment of the invention is only illustrated in an infant/child pajama, but can be used for any infant/child garment that covers the elbow, buttock or knee.

Other embodiments are within the following claims.

Clothes for Infants

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