Patent Application
20060144737
The present invention relates generally to infant care products, more particularly to a bag for carrying a limited supply of diapers and baby wipes.
When away from home, a parent or other adult may often be accompanied by an infant in diapers. Frequently, the infant's diaper must be changed while away from home, in surroundings that are not equipped with infant care products. For this reason, most adults having care of an infant while away from home carry such infant care products with them in a diaper bag.
Most diaper bags are designed primarily to store and transport consumable baby care products that are used in caring for the infant while away from home. Many such bags are large enough to also carry a change of clothes, toys, etc. for the infant. Many diaper bags are even large enough to store a rolled-up or folded pad for laying the infant on while changing the infant's diaper. Others open to form a built-in changing pad. These features are attempts to enhance the usefulness of the diaper bag.
The above-mentioned diaper bags do not, however, solve all problems associated with changing an infant's diaper while away from home. In general, improved forms of diaper bags have become larger and more elaborate over time, designed to contain not only diapers and baby wipes, but many other items such as bottles, formula, a change of clothing and the like. Such diaper bags must be sized accordingly, making them less convenient to carry, especially on a short trip or errand where only one or at most two diaper changes are likely to be needed.
Many mothers taking a baby on errands leave the diaper bag at home or in the car and stick a diaper and a small pack of baby wipes in their purse. This eliminates the need to take along a diaper bag, but the diaper and wipes can become separated and difficult to find in the purse, which contains many other objects. The present invention addresses this difficulty.
The invention provides a bag of limited size configured to hold a package of baby wipes and a small number of diapers with little room left over. As such, the bag of the invention is small enough to fit inside a purse, yet can be easily found and removed when a diaper change is needed. The invention further provides a system for storing baby accessories which comprises such a bag with a package of baby wipes and at least one diaper contained therein with specific dimensions as further discussed in the detailed description which follows, along with a method of using such a system.
A bag configured for holding a diaper and container of baby wipes according to one aspect of the invention is generally rectangular and includes a front wall, a rear wall, a pair of sides joining the front and rear walls at opposite side edges thereof, a bottom wall and a mouth opposite the bottom wall, which mouth opens onto an internal pocket. The bag when laid flat has a length in the range of 9 to 12 inches, a width in the range of 4 to 8 inches, and can open to provide a mouth and pocket with a cross sectional area in the range of about 5 to 25 in2 when at object at least 4 inches wide, such as a disposable diaper or container of baby wipes, is placed in the pocket.
A system for storing baby changing accessories according to another aspect of the invention comprises a generally rectangular bag having a front wall, a rear wall, a pair of sides joining the front and rear walls at opposite side edges thereof, a bottom wall and a mouth opposite the bottom wall, which mouth opens onto an internal pocket. A container of baby wipes is disposed in the pocket and removable from the mouth of the bag. From one to not more than three diapers are stacked on the container of baby wipes in the pocket. The diapers and baby wipes fit closely in the pocket, which may be sized to hold one, two or three diapers plus the container. The diapers plus the flat wipes container fill the pocket in the back with little space left over, but not so tightly that they cannot be easily removed at the time of use.
A method of using the foregoing baby changing system according to another aspect of the invention includes the initial step of storing at least one diaper and container of baby wipes in the bag, then placing the bag in a larger carrying device (such as a purse) containing other items. At the time of use, the bag is removed from the larger carrying device, and then the wipes and a diaper are removed from the bag. The baby is then changed using the diaper and wipes removed from the bag, and any unused wipes and any diapers can then be placed back in the bag after changing the baby. If the bag has a closure flap thereon for closing the mouth of the bag and a closure device for releaseably securing the flap in a closed position, then the closure flap is opened prior to removing the wipes and diaper from the bag. These and other aspects of the invention are further discussed in the detailed description that follows.
In the accompanying drawing, wherein like numerals represent the same or similar elements throughout:
Referring to
As shown in
The dimensions of bag 10 are essential to its purpose, namely that it be large enough to contain container 22 and diapers 23 and still fit within a larger purse or handbag 30 having its own closure flap 31 and carrying straps 32 (
The dimensions of mouth 16 will vary due to the flexible nature of the bag walls. In general, if the resulting pocket 15 is provided with greater depth by side walls 13, then front and rear walls 11, 12 can be narrower, and the converse is also true. A bag of the invention carrying baby wipes in a container and one diaper could, for example, have pocket dimensions of 2″×5.75″, whereas a bag of the invention configured to carry baby wipes and two diapers could have pocket dimensions of 3″×5″. The hard plastic baby wipes container in this example, typical of those commercially available, is about 4.5″ by 8.5″ by less than 1″ thick (0.25″-0.75″ inch thickness is typical). The side walls or “sides” of the bag could also be just seams, and the pocket depth would then be provided by edge portions of the front and rear walls. Hence the size of the pocket and mouth can be defined by its cross-sectional area when in a position to contain an object such as a baby wipes container at least 4 inches wide therein, and may vary from about 5 to 25 in2, preferably from about 10 to 20 in2.
Bag 10 in the illustrated embodiment tapers slightly towards the bottom as shown for decorative purposes and to use less material, recognizing that the width of pocket 15 is best maximized at mouth 16. The thickness of the fabric or other material used to make bag 10 is not critical to the invention, but should in general be thick enough to be opened and closed many times without failure, but not so thick that is adds unduly to the overall size of the bag. Fabrics ranging from 1/16″ to ⅛″ thick are suitable. Bag 10 can also be made with several different coordinating fabrics, one for the baf body, a different one for the flap and another for the lining. The edge of flap 17 may be provided with a decorative trim or fringe, not shown. Flap 17 preferably extends less than half the length of bag 10 when in its folded-over position as shown in
Although various embodiments of the invention have been illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described in the foregoing detailed description, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed but, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, is susceptible to numerous modifications and variations without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.
