Portable Safety Strap for Holding Children in Wooden Restaurant Style Highchairs
An apparatus and method is proposed for providing restraint for a child in a wooden highchair widely used in eating establishments. The proposed apparatus and method requires no tools and does not damage the wooden highchair. It is portable, washable, and addresses many of the common issues found in widely used wooden highchairs in eating establishments.
There is an obvious need to restrain children in their highchairs for their own safety. In public eating establishments this has resulted in a wide variety of restraining harnesses and straps available on the highchairs provided by the eating establishments.
These permanently mounted restraint systems vary in their functionality and unfortunately tend to suffer wear and tear from active children, storage, and cleaning. Thus parents of small children often finding the public highchairs offered to them having at least two significant issues. The first is that some of the restraint systems have either broken or poorly performing restraints, and the second is that the restraints, which often have fairly porous surfaces, can collect contaminants (food or bacteria from previous use) and potentially pass that on to the next users.
There is a need then for a cleanable portable safety strap that parents can easily carry into eating establishments and use to securely restrain their children in the available highchairs.
SUMMARYThis need can be met by the development of a portable and adjustable safety strap for use on the widely used standard wooden highchairs available in most eating establishments. The proposed device is an extended strap of nylon and polypropylene or other durable materials, made up of two strap subassemblies; a shorter one attached at one end to a custom spring loaded carabiner and at the other end to a strap length adjuster; and a longer one attached at one end to a second custom spring loaded carabiner and at the other end to a pull ring; wherein the longer strap subassembly passes completely through the strap length adjuster to complete the one piece portable and adjustable safety strap.
The need can also be made by a method of using a portable and adjustable safety strap and placing the child in the eating establishment highchair; placing the elongated portable and adjustable safety strap across the child below the waist line; deploying each of the spring loader carabiners attached to each end of the one piece elongated portable and adjustable strap device outside and under the seat structure and attaching each custom carabiner across the back thickness of the seat of the highchair; and adjusting the length of the portable and adjustable strap with the pull ring to secure the child firmly in place.
In the following detailed description, reference is made to accompanying drawings that illustrate embodiments of the present invention. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to practice the invention without undue experimentation. It should be understood, however, that the embodiments and examples described herein are given by way of illustration only, and not by way of limitation. Various substitutions, modifications, additions, and rearrangements may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Therefore, the description that follows is not to be taken in a limited sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.
The strap length adjuster on the shorter subassembly and the pull ring on the longer subassembly are permanent and cannot be removed. The carabiners on each subassembly can be removed easily by threading the open end of the carabiner through the sewn loop. In order to complete the main assembly, one end of the long assembly must be threaded through the strap length adjuster on the short assembly before the loop on the long subassembly can be sewn for the carabiner.
In another embodiment (not shown) the simple strap length adjuster 150 can instead be a side release buckle in which the male part of the slide release buckle is attached to the short subassembly 110 and the female part of the side release buckle is the strap adjuster portion and still part of the long subassembly (170 and 120). Again the longer strap subassembly passes completely through the strap length adjuster portion. This embodiment works in the exact same way as the simpler strap length adjuster except it can be separated in the middle like an airplane seatbelt by separating the male and female parts of the side release buckle.
With the appropriate clearance in the custom carabiner design these carabiners can be easily attached to the back of the seat of the highchair without damaging the highchair and without the use of any tools. In
The proposed portable safety strap is designed for ideally working on the ubiquitous standard wooden highchair available in almost all restaurants. This standard chair is illustrated in
In use the provided seat belt, which is sometimes broken and frequently soiled from frequent use is unbuckled and draped over the side through the side openings 530 to hang out of the way. The child is first placed in the seat and the portable safety strap is placed across the child at the waistline. Referring now to
The proposed portable strap addresses the issues of dirty and sometimes broken seat restraints in eating establishments and gives assurances to parents of a safer eating experience. The strap is easily portable and can be taken home to thoroughly clean after each visit, The portable safety strap can easily be rolled up into a compact form that fits easily in a woman's purse or man's pocket.
Although certain embodiments of the present invention and their advantages have been described herein in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the present invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures, means, methods and steps described herein. As a person of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from this disclosure, other processes, machines, manufactures, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present invention. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufactures, means, methods or steps.
Claims
1. A one piece elongated portable and adjustable safety strap for use in providing a clean and safe restraint for a child in a highchair in an eating establishment comprising:
- a. two safety strap subassemblies comprising: i. a first shorter strap subassembly with a sewn loop on one end for attaching a first custom spring loaded carabiner and a sewn loop on the other end for attaching a strap length adjuster; and ii. a second longer strap subassembly with a sewn loop on one end for a second custom spring loaded carabiner and a sewn loop on the other end for a pull ring;
- b. wherein the second longer strap subassembly passes completely through the strap length adjuster, completing the one piece elongated portable and adjustable safety strap.
2. The one piece elongated portable and adjustable safety strap for use in providing a clean and safe restraint for a child in a highchair in an eating establishment of claim 1 wherein the strap length adjuster on the shorter strap subassembly is permanently attached to the shorter strap subassembly.
3. The one piece elongated portable and adjustable safety strap for use in providing a clean and safe restraint for a child in a highchair in an eating establishment of claim 1 wherein the pull ring on the longer strap subassembly is permanently attached to the longer strap subassembly.
4. The one piece elongated portable and adjustable safety strap for use in providing a clean and safe restraint for a child in a highchair in an eating establishment of claim 1 wherein the two custom carabiners on each of the strap subassemblies can be easily removed by threading the open end of the customer carabiner through the sewn loops.
5. The one piece elongated portable and adjustable safety strap for use in providing a clean and safe restraint for a child in a highchair in an eating establishment of claim 1 wherein the pull ring is a d-ring.
6. The one piece elongated portable and adjustable safety strap for use in providing a clean and safe restraint for a child in a highchair in an eating establishment of claim 1 where the safety strap is produced from a durable material.
7. The one piece elongated portable and adjustable safety strap for use in providing a clean and safe restraint for a child in a highchair in an eating establishment of claim 6 wherein the durable material is a nylon.
8. The one piece elongated portable and adjustable safety strap for use in providing a clean and safe restraint for a child in a highchair in an eating establishment of claim 6 wherein the durable material is a polypropylene.
9. The one piece elongated portable and adjustable safety strap for use in providing a clean and safe restraint for a child in a highchair in an eating establishment of claim 1 wherein the strap length adjuster is a combination strap length adjuster and side release buckle in which the female side of the side release buckle comprises the strap length adjuster through which the second longer strap assembly passes and the first shorter strap subassembly is attached to a male side of the snap buckle.
10. A method for restraining a child in an eating establishment highchair using a portable and adjustable safety strap having two straps with attached custom carabiners and a strap with a pull ring comprising:
- a. placing the child in the eating establishment highchair;
- b. placing the elongated portable and adjustable safety strap across the child below the waist line;
- c. deploying each of the spring loader carabiners attached to each end of the one piece elongated portable and adjustable strap device outside and under the seat structure and attaching each custom carabiner across the back thickness of the seat of the highchair; and
- d. adjusting the length of the portable and adjustable strap using the pull ring to secure the child firmly in place.
11. The method for restraining a child in an eating establishment highchair using a portable and adjustable safety strap having two straps with attached custom carabiners and a strap with a pull ring of claim 10 wherein the portable and adjustable safety strap is made up of two safety strap subassemblies; the two safety strap subassemblies comprising:
- a. a first shorter strap subassembly with a sewn loop on one end for attaching a first custom spring loaded carabiner and a sewn loop on the other end for attaching a strap length adjuster; and
- b. a second longer strap subassembly with a sewn loop on one end for a second custom spring loaded carabiner and a sewn loop on the other end for a pull ring;
- c. wherein the second longer strap subassembly passes completely through the strap length adjuster, completing the one piece elongated portable and adjustable safety strap.
12. The method for restraining a child in an eating establishment highchair using a portable and adjustable safety strap having two straps with attached custom carabiners and a strap with a pull ring of claim 11 wherein the strap length adjuster on the shorter strap subassembly is permanently attached to the shorter strap subassembly.
13. The method for restraining a child in an eating establishment highchair using a portable and adjustable safety strap having two straps with attached custom carabiners and a strap with a pull ring of claim 11 wherein the pull ring on the longer strap subassembly is permanently attached to the longer strap subassembly.
14. The method for restraining a child in an eating establishment highchair using a portable and adjustable safety strap having two straps with attached custom carabiners and a strap with a pull ring of claim 11 wherein the strap length adjuster is a combination strap length adjuster and side release buckle in which the female side of the side release buckle comprises the strap length adjuster through which the second longer strap assembly passes and the first shorter strap subassembly is attached to a male side of the snap buckle.
15. The method for restraining a child in an eating establishment highchair using a portable and adjustable safety strap having two straps with attached custom carabiners and a strap with a pull ring of claim 14 wherein the portable and adjustable safety strap is removed after use by separating the male and female sides of the side release buckle.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 8, 2016
Publication Date: Sep 14, 2017
Applicant: 567 Design, LLC (Jarrell, TX)
Inventors: John B. Messer, JR. (Georgetown, TX), Patricia Messer (Georgetown, TX)
Application Number: 15/064,575