Patent Application
20090058072
This disclosure relates to tools for tracking certain outputs of individuals who use absorbent products. Such tracking can aid the individual or a caregiver in determining, for example, the existence or progress of certain health conditions or the adequacy of breast feeding.
Mothers of newborn babies have a strong need to know how much breast milk their baby has consumed. There were 4.1 million births in the United States alone in 2003 and about 70% of all new moms breast feed. The first two weeks of breast feeding show the largest declines in breast feeding with 10% drop off each week. There is a significant opportunity to reassure mothers (especially first-time mothers) that their babies are breast feeding appropriately, particularly during the first weeks when mom is unsure and not confident in her breast feeding ability. The mother does not know the state of her baby's fluid intake and may question her baby's level of hydration.
Prior attempts to track breast feeding include devices that have attempted to quantify breast feeding by interposing a flow meter between mother and baby, and complicated recordkeeping sheets that attempt to track baby outputs. Such attempts can lead to obvious problems with delivery, intimacy, and bonding between mother and baby, and may be difficult to understand and use, especially by an inexperienced or sleep-deprived mother.
It is desired that mothers, individuals, and caregivers have a simple way to relate to their doctors or others regarding the condition of their child or patient. For example, some moms currently are sent home with record sheets to tell their doctor how many wet diapers and bowel movements their child has had. Such sheets are only given to some moms (many mothers receive nothing with which to record breastfeeding and need to improvise their own record sheet). Such sheets are also cumbersome and difficult to decipher.
In another example, many health conditions may be indicated, diagnosed, or monitored through the analysis of certain bodily fluid outputs, such as through urinalysis. Many devices and tools exist to perform such analyses in an absorbent product, but the results of such analyses can be difficult to track, particularly if a caregiver has multiple patients, if such analyses are performed outside of a clinical setting, if the recordkeeping is to be done in a language foreign to the caregiver or individual, or if the individual using such products is incapacitated in some respect.
In one aspect, the tools described herein may be an integral part of reassuring a nursing mother that her baby is receiving sufficient breast milk and therefore sufficient nutrition. The tools use objective recordkeeping indicative of the amount of breast milk swallowed by the baby. In another aspect, the tools described herein may be an integral part of reassuring a caregiver or an individual that the individual is receiving sufficient health care with respect to a potential or actual health condition.
Caregivers and individuals can be provided with reassurance and a sense of security by providing safe, comfortable, easy ways for a caregiver to track progress. Giving a mother a tool to help evaluate whether her baby is getting enough breast milk will help reassure the mother with respect to how well breast feeding is going and provide her with a sense of security regarding her baby's health. Giving a caregiver or an individual a tool to help evaluate whether the individual has a health condition or is making progress with respect to a health condition will help reassure the caregiver and the individual with respect to the health condition and provide the caregiver or the individual with a sense of security regarding the individual's health. Making such tools significantly easier results in increased compliance by caregivers and individuals.
In one aspect of the present disclosure, tools used for recordkeeping can be much improved by relating the theme of an indicator with that on a record sheet. For example, an absorbent article for which wetness is the desired indicator may be represented by water droplets on the record sheet. Such tools fulfill both the desires of caregivers and individuals for simple yet effective tools and the desires of medical personnel for increased compliance.
The foregoing and other features and aspects of the present disclosure and the manner of attaining them will become more apparent, and the disclosure itself will be better understood by reference to the following description, appended claims and accompanying drawings.
Repeat use of reference characters in the present specification and drawings is intended to represent the same or analogous features or elements of the present disclosure.
It is to be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the present discussion is a description of exemplary aspects only, and is not intended as limiting the broader aspects of the present disclosure.
The present disclosure is generally directed for use with absorbent articles that might be adapted to indicate a health condition of the user of the absorbent article. A health condition as used herein is the presence of a body fluid in the absorbent article. Health condition also includes the status of or changes in the condition of the product or wearer as indicated directly or indirectly by the presence or level of a body fluid or the presence or level of a constituent of a body fluid. In various examples, the presence of urine or menstrual fluid in an absorbent article indicates that the absorbent article is wet, which is considered a health condition herein. The presence or level of a certain chemical, analyte, or other constituent within that urine or menstrual fluid may indicate the existence of a different health condition.
Health conditions that may be indicated through the use of an absorbent article can include:
As used herein, the term “analyte” means an atom, ion, molecule, macromolecule, organelle, or cell, or, optionally, a mixture thereof, that is detected and measured. The term “analyte” also means a substance in a medium including, but not limited to molecules such as proteins, glycoproteins, antibodies, antigens, hemoglobin, enzymes, target molecules that bind to or react with specific enzymes or other proteins, metal salts, ions (e.g., hydrogen ions, hydroxy ions, sulfates, sulfonates, phosphates, nitrates, nitrites, or electrolytes, such as sodium potassium, lithium, or calcium ions), fatty acids, neurotransmitters, hormones, growth factors, cytokines, monokines, lymphokines, lipocalins, nutrients, sugars, receptors, nucleic acids, fragments of DNA or RNA, and pharmaceutical agents or derivatives or metabolites thereof. The term “analyte” also means structured elements such as macromolecular structures, organelles and cells, including, but not limited to cells of ectodermal, mesodermal, and endodermal origin such as stem cells, blood cells, neural cells, immune cells, and gastrointestinal cells, and also microorganisms, such as fungi, viruses, bacteria and protozoa, or characteristic compounds produced by the same. For example, in pH measurement, the analyte can be hydrogen ions and/or hydroxy ions. Some analytes indicate a possible disease condition by either a higher or lower than normal level.
An absorbent article as used herein can be, for instance, a diaper, a training pant, an incontinence product, a feminine hygiene product, a medical garment, a bandage, a facial tissue, a swab, and the like.
The particular targeted body fluid may vary depending upon the particular type of absorbent article and the desired application. For instance, in one aspect, the absorbent article comprises a diaper, a training pant, or the like, and the targeted body fluid is urine and/or fecal content. The presence of such a body fluid may be apparent to a caregiver or individual or may be indicated by a sensor within or associated with the absorbent article. Alternatively, the sensor may be configured to indicate the presence of a metabolite that would indicate the presence of a diaper rash. For adult incontinence products and feminine hygiene products, on the other hand, the sensor may be configured to indicate the presence of a yeast or of a particular constituent in urine or menses, such as a polysaccharide.
In other aspects of the present disclosure, the targeted body fluid may be one or more of any body fluid or biological sample including blood or any of its components (plasma, serum, etc.), menses, mucous, sweat, tears, urine, feces, saliva, sputum, semen, uro-genital secretions, gastric washes, pericardial or peritoneal fluids or washes, a throat swab, pleural washes, ear wax, hair, skin cells, nails, mucous membranes, amniotic fluid, vaginal secretions or any other secretions from the body, spinal fluid, human breath, gas samples containing body odors, flatulence or other gases, any biological tissue or matter, or an extractive or suspension of any of these.
This disclosure relates to tools for tracking certain outputs of individuals who use absorbent products. Such tracking can aid the individual or a caregiver in determining, for example, the existence or progress of certain health conditions or the adequacy of breast feeding.
The tools of this disclosure will be explained initially using the situation of a breastfeeding baby as an illustrative example, but the tools may be equally applied to any other combination of the absorbent articles, body fluids, sensors, etc. described herein as will be apparent to those of skill in the art. The tools of this disclosure are typically for use in situations for which multiple readings or occurrences can be tracked.
Mothers of newborn babies have a strong need to know how much breast milk their baby has consumed. There were 4.1 million births in the United States alone in 2003 and about 70% of all new moms breast feed. The first two weeks of breast feeding show the largest declines in breast feeding with 10% drop off each week. There is a significant opportunity to reassure mothers (especially first-time mothers) that their babies are breast feeding appropriately, particularly during the first weeks when mom is unsure and not confident in her breast feeding ability. The mother does not know the state of her baby's fluid intake and may question her baby's level of hydration.
In one aspect, the tools described herein may be an integral part of reassuring a nursing mother that her baby is receiving sufficient breast milk and therefore sufficient nutrition. The tools use objective recordkeeping indicative of the amount of breast milk swallowed by the baby. In another aspect, the tools described herein may be an integral part of reassuring a caregiver or an individual that the individual is receiving sufficient health care with respect to a potential or actual health condition.
For the purposes of this disclosure, “mother” is defined as the person who is breastfeeding a baby, whether that person is or is not the actual birth mother. “Mother” may also refer to a caregiver, male or female, who is monitoring a health condition in an individual. Similarly, the term “individual” may also refer to a subject of any age who is monitoring a health condition.
Various methods can be used to characterize the health condition or breastfeeding volume of interest. For example, because breastfeeding volume is difficult to measure directly, the amount of breast milk as an input may be inferred from the amount of urinary and fecal output of the baby, such as from a regular or random sampling of the volume of urinary and fecal output retained in a diaper or other article worn by the incontinent baby. Typically, the dry and wet weights of a diaper may be compared to estimate the volume of urine retained in the diaper, which may then be related back to the breast milk intake. In most cases, however, sufficient breastfeeding volume may be inferred by simply counting the number of wet and bowel-movement-filled diapers each day. As long as the total for each day is above a standard minimum usually based on age, then the baby is deemed to have received a sufficient volume of breast milk.
An exemplary tool 10 is shown in
The absorbent articles to be used each day 14 are represented by an absorbent article graphical representation 22, in this case a graphical representation of a diaper. The graphical representations described in this disclosure may be of any type including alphanumeric characters, or may be limited to non-alphanumeric graphic representations. Each absorbent article graphical representation 22 is also assigned by an ordinal number to indicate which absorbent article of the day 14 is being considered. Although limited to four absorbent articles per day 14 in
The tool 10 further includes, associated with each absorbent article, an absorbent article wetness graphical representation 26. In the tool 10 illustrated in
For the aspects in which there is more than one absorbent article wetness graphical representation 26 per absorbent article, the absorbent article wetness graphical representations 26 may be differentiated to represent varying levels of absorbent article wetness. In the example shown in
The tool 10 as illustrated in the
For the aspects in which there is more than one fecal content graphical representation 30 per absorbent article, the fecal content graphical representations 30 may be differentiated to represent varying levels, consistency, color, etc. of absorbent article fecal content. In other aspects of the disclosure, the more than one fecal content graphical representations 30 may be differentiated by color, shape, darkness, size, or any other feature that may differentiate the fecal content graphical representations 30 indicating varying levels, consistency, color, etc. of absorbent article fecal content.
To increase understanding on the part of the user of the tool 10, the graphical representation(s) can be thematically related to the indication, feature, or health condition the graphical representation is representing. In the example of
The tool 10 further includes, for each day, an assessment section 34 in which the user of the tool 10 can total and record the data recorded over the course of that day. Such totals can include the number of wet absorbent articles recorded over the course of the day, and the number of absorbent articles with fecal content recorded over the course of the day. For the example illustrated in
The tool 10 further includes, for each day, an information section 38 in which information is presented indicating the expected minimum totals for each day as a guide to the caregiver or individual with respect to what one might typically expect under the conditions of the tool's use. Such expected minimum totals can be based on the age of the subject or other factors. For the example illustrated in
The tool 10 can further include a key 42 indicating the meaning of each graphical representation. Although the graphical representations are typically selected to be intuitively obvious to the user of the tool 10, some indicators or conditions may not lend themselves to be easily graphically represented, at least to an initial or casual observer. In addition, the user of the tool 10 might be sleep-deprived or incapacitated in some manner and might not immediately relate the graphical representation to the item being represented. In one example, the absorbent articles associated with the tool 10 can include a bilirubin sensor to indicate the presence or level of jaundice in a newborn baby. An obvious graphical representation of bilirubin might not be immediately apparent; a capital B or a yellow circle could be used but would not necessarily indicate bilirubin to the average user. In this case, a key 42 translating the capital B or yellow circle to a bilirubin/jaundice indication would be very helpful to the user. Once the association is understood by the user, the user would likely not need to consult the key 42 with every use of the tool 10.
The tool 10 can further include an example 46 demonstrating the use of the tool 10. Although the graphical representations are typically selected to make use of the tool 10 intuitively obvious, the user, especially if an initial or casual observer, might benefit from an example 46. In addition, the user of the tool 10 might be sleep-deprived or incapacitated in some manner and might not immediately relate the graphical representations to the items being represented.
Understanding and ease of use of the tool 10 can be further enhanced by associating the absorbent article more closely with the graphical representations of the tool 10. For example, an absorbent article may include a wetness indicator of any suitable type. The user of the tool 10, upon observing a positive indication of wetness provided by the wetness indicator associated with the absorbent article, can easily record that wetness on the tool 10.
To further enhance use of the tool 10, the same graphical representation used to indicate wetness in the tool 10 can be used on the absorbent article as well. In the exemplary illustration of
To enhance use of the tool 10 even further, more than one graphical representation indicating wetness in the absorbent article 90 may appear on both the absorbent article 90 and on the tool 10. In the exemplary illustrations of
Relating the graphical representations from the absorbent article 90 shown in
Again, it should be noted that the water droplet and wetness scenario is merely one example of use of such a tool in conjunction with an absorbent article. A tool of similar design could be used in which any particular graphical representation is used on the tool and on an absorbent article to enhance the use of the tool.
In a more general sense, the tools described herein track a health condition in the user or subject of use of an absorbent article. An example of this is illustrated in
The absorbent articles to be used each day 114 are represented by an absorbent article graphical representation 122, in this case a graphical representation of a diaper. The graphical representations described in this disclosure may be of any type including alphanumeric characters, or may be limited to non-alphanumeric graphic representations. Each absorbent article graphical representation 122 is also assigned by an ordinal number to indicate which absorbent article of the day 114 is being considered. Although limited to four absorbent articles per day 114 in
The tool 110 further includes, associated with each absorbent article, an absorbent article wetness graphical representation 126. In the tool 110 illustrated in
For the aspects in which there is more than one absorbent article wetness graphical representation 126 per absorbent article, the absorbent article wetness graphical representations 126 may be differentiated to represent varying levels of absorbent article wetness. In the example shown in
The tool 110 as illustrated in the
The tool 110 may also include, associated with each absorbent article, graphical representations of second and/or further health conditions as sensed by the absorbent article.
For the aspects in which there is more than one health condition graphical representation 132 per absorbent article, the health condition graphical representations 132 may be differentiated to represent varying levels or other factors. In other aspects of the disclosure, the more than one health condition graphical representations 132 may be differentiated by color, shape, darkness, size, or any other feature that may differentiate the health condition graphical representations 132 indicating varying levels or other factors.
To increase understanding on the part of the user of the tool 110, the graphical representation(s) can be thematically related to the indication, feature, or health condition the graphical representation is representing. In the example of
The tool 110 further includes, for each day, an assessment section 134 in which the user of the tool 110 can total and record the data recorded over the course of that day. Such totals can include the number of wet absorbent articles recorded over the course of the day, and the number of instances above a certain temperature recorded over the course of the day. For the example illustrated in
The tool 110 further includes, for each day, an information section 138 in which information is presented indicating the expected health condition assessment for each day as a guide to the caregiver or individual with respect to what one might typically expect under the conditions of the tool's use. Such expected health condition assessment can be based on the age of the subject or other factors. For the example illustrated in
The tool 110 can further include a key 142 indicating the meaning of each graphical representation. Although the graphical representations are typically selected to be intuitively obvious to the user of the tool 110, some indicators or conditions may not lend themselves to be easily graphically represented, at least to an initial or casual observer. In addition, the user of the tool 110 might be sleep-deprived or incapacitated in some manner and might not immediately relate the graphical representation to the item being represented. Once the association is made in the user, the user would likely not need to consult the key 142 with every use of the tool 110.
The tool 110 can further include an example 146 demonstrating the use of the tool 10. Although the graphical representations are typically selected to make use of the tool 10 intuitively obvious, the user, especially if an initial or casual observer, might benefit from an example 146. In addition, the user of the tool 110 might be sleep-deprived or incapacitated in some manner and might not immediately relate the graphical representations to the items being represented.
Understanding and ease of use of the tool 110 can be further enhanced by associating the absorbent article more closely with the graphical representations of the tool 110. For example, the absorbent article may include a wetness indicator of any suitable type. The user of the tool 110, upon observing a positive indication of wetness provided by the wetness indicator associated with the absorbent article, can easily record that wetness on the tool 110.
To further enhance use of the tool 110, the same graphical representation used to indicate wetness in the tool 110 can be used on the absorbent article as well, as described above with reference to
In addition, the same graphical representation used to indicate a health condition in the tool 110 can be used on the absorbent article as well. In the exemplary illustration of
In another aspect of the present invention, shown in the exemplary illustration of
Relating the graphical representations from the absorbent article 190 shown in
To enhance the use of the tool 110 even further, more than one graphical representation indicating wetness in the absorbent article may appear on both the absorbent article and on the tool 110. For example, the absorbent article may include a wetness indicator in which three water droplets of varying designs appear as the level of wetness in the absorbent article increases. The same three water droplets of varying designs can also be shown on the tool 110 in association with that absorbent article. The user then records on the tool 110 the same number or type of water droplet(s) that appear on the absorbent article.
Again, it should be noted that the water droplet and wetness scenario and the thermometer scenario are merely examples of use of such a tool in conjunction with an absorbent article. A tool of similar design can be used in which any particular graphical representation is used on the tool and on an absorbent article to enhance the use of the tool.
The tool 110 can also include space to enter further information that may be relevant to the health condition, to a related health condition, or to anything associated with the user or caregiver. For example, the tool 110 might be used to record the wet absorbent articles of an institutionalized adult patient. The tool 110 can also include space to record medications administered to the patient.
In one aspect of the present disclosure, the tool 10, 110 may be included in a package of absorbent articles including the tool 10, 110 and instructions for using the tool 10, 110 as described herein. The term “instructions” referred to herein is an outline or manual of technical procedure for the use of the tool 10, 110. Instructions can also include tips or information related to the use of the absorbent articles, to the user or caregiver, or to the health conditions covered by the tool 10, 110. In general, the instructions may describe the use of the tool 10, 110 for any of the steps for which it can be used. The instructions can also outline the potential actions, reactions, and/or demeanor to be exhibited by a subject or user.
The descriptive nature of the instructions can be provided by text, by figures or diagrams, or by any other visual guide, such as by the sequential numbering of operations in correspondence with an effective sequence of steps for using the tool. Graphical representations such as those described herein can also be included in the instructions. Also, the instructions and/or the tool 10, 110 may be included with the package in any of several forms. For example, the instructions and/or tool 10, 110 may be printed on the outside or the inside of the package itself, or may be in the form of a sheet or card contained inside the package or attached to the package. In general, the instructions may be provided in any form in which the functional relationship between the instructions and the use of the tool 10, 110 is clear to the user.
These and other modifications and variations to the present disclosure may be practiced by those of ordinary skill in the art, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, which is more particularly set forth in the appended claims. In addition, it should be understood that aspects of the various aspects may be interchanged both in whole and in part. Furthermore, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the foregoing description is by way of example only, and is not intended to limit the disclosure so further described in such appended claims.
