WO2003009790A1

WO2003009790A1 - Device for preventing thumb and finger sucking

Info

Publication number: WO2003009790A1
Application number: PCT/KR2001/001699
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sang-Won Son
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2001-07-23
Filing date: 2001-10-10
Publication date: 2003-02-06
Anticipated expiration: 2004-01-23
Also published as: KR20010079466A; JP2004524874A

Abstract

This invention relates to a device which can prevent child's habit of sucking thumb and/or finger. The device comprises sucking part user's thumb being inserted into; first securing part being extended from the sucking part and surrounding user's palm; second securing part being extended from the sucking part, surrounding the back of user's hands and being connected with the first securing part; third securing part being extended from the sucking part and surrounding a side of user's thumb; and bonding band communicating the first, second and third securing part and securing the device to user's hand.

Description

Device for preventing thumb and finger sucking

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a device for preventing thumb and finger sucking_.. More specifically, it relates to a device for the prevention of children' s habit of thumb and finger sucking in a short time.

BACKGROUND ART

Children, through their infancy, have a tendency to suck their thumb or other fingers being asleep, or even being awake without realizing _, it . Habit of sucking fingers is shown in most of children though there is a discrepancy in degree and term. Sucking fingers leads to many side effects in that extraneous materials, such as dusts on fingers, various bacteria and the like, are sucked in. Furthermore, fingers may be swollen, fissured, have calluses on it and bleed, and in the worst case sucking fingers brings about the problem of mouth structure so that may cause the deformation of facial skeleton and so on. Various causes have been suggested in relation to the habit of sucking fingers, but the fundamental cause and the method to eradicate such a habit has not been made clear yet. So it is impossible to prevent sucking habit in advance and only the method for curing the habit after occurrence of such behavior has been proposed.

As a one known method in this prior arts, there is a method applying special chemical substances to fingers. But this method is not preferable because it can make children feel the stress due to its unpleasant taste and feel hatred on their fingers, mouth structure and their body. In another method, the thumb and/or fingers are covered with special device such as gloves and the like.

But this method have problems of causing excessive feel of binding and being come off easily because of crudeness of the securing means.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The object of this invention is to provide a device which can effectively and naturally prevent children from sucking thumb and fingers by breaking the formation of vacuum in the device utilizing the flow of air.

Another object of this invention is to provide a sucking prevention device which makes no restraint and rejection from children.

Also, it is another object of this invention to provide a sucking prevention device .which is easy to put on and hard to being come off by children themselves.

To achieve the objects as described above, this invention provides a device for preventing thumb and finger sucking comprising, a sucking part user' s thumb being inserted into; first securing part being extended from the sucking part and surrounding user's palm; second securing part being extended from the sucking part, surrounding the back of user's hand and being connected with the first securing part; third securing part being extended from the sucking part and surrounding a side of user's thumb; and a bonding band communicating the first, second and third securing part and securing the device to user's hand.

Also, this invention is characterized in that the sucking part is an hollow cylinder.

And this invention is characterized in that the inner surface of the sucking part is provided with a projecting part in a longitudinal direction, forming air path between user's finger and said inner surface. Further, according to the another aspects of this invention, the diameter of the lower end of the sucking part is larger than those of the upper end of the sucking part.

Further, according to the another aspects of this invention, a space is formed on the connecting region between the lower end of the sucking part and at least one of the first, second and third securing part. Further, according to the another aspects of this invention, inserting holes are formed on the first securing part, and connecting projections of which the insides are empty are formed on the surface of the second securing part, so that the combining projections of the second securing part are inserted and combined to the inserting holes of the first securing part at the time of wearing.

Also, according to the another aspects of this invention, the number of the combining projections is smaller than the number of the inserting holes by one.

Further, according to the another aspects of this invention, projecting type holes are formed on the surface of the third securing part, and the bonding band is inserted into the one of the combining projections protruded by insertion into the inserting holes of the first securing part and the one of the projecting type holes, and the inserted bonding band is secured.

Also, according to the another aspects of this invention, the bonding band comprises a first bonding part provided with three projecting parts of three- pronged spear type, an inserting ring formed on the end of the middle projecting part of said first bonding part and inserted into the second bonding part, a second bonding part inserted into and combined with the first bonding part, an inserting ring combining part formed on the second bonding part and fastened by the insertion of the inserting ring of the first bonding part, a bonding belt extended between the first and second bonding part, and a length adjusting part formed on the one end of the bonding band and controlling the length of bonding band. Further, according to the another aspects of this invention, the first, second and third securing part are formed at an angle of 120° each other to the sucking part. In accordance with this invention, by preventing the forming of clogging and vacuum using the flow of air, when children suck their thumbs and fingers, air gets to enter their mouth. Therefore, the behavior of sucking finger becomes difficult to be sustained and the sucking habit can be cured effectively in a very short time.

Besides, in accordance with this invention, it is easy to be worn on children's hands and not loosened easily by children themselves once it is put on, so breakaway of the device by children can be prevented.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Fig.l is a perspective view of a device in accordance with an embodiment of this invention.

Fig.2 shows a wearing state of the device in Fig. 1.

Fig.3 shows sectional views and perspective views of various types of the sucking parts and the projecting parts.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the device in accordance with an embodiment of this invention.

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT. THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, an embodiment of this invention will be described in detail referring to accompanying drawings. Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a device for preventing thumb and finger sucking in accordance with an embodiment of this invention. As shown in Fig.l, the device for preventing thumb and finger sucking of this embodiment comprises a sucking part 10 user's thumb being inserted into and got into the user's mouth; the first securing part 20 being extended from the sucking part 10 and surrounding user's palm; the second securing part 30 being extended from the sucking part 10, surrounding the back of user's hands and being connected with the first securing part 20; the third securing part 40 being extended from the sucking part 10 and surrounding a side of user's thumb; and a bonding band 50 communicating the first, second and third securing part 20, 30, 40 and securing the device to user's hand.

For reference, a wearing state of the device in Fig.l is shown in Fig.2.

As shown in Fig.2, thumb is inserted into the sucking part 10 and the second securing part 30 with surrounding down the back of hand is connected with the first securing part 20 (not shown in Fig.2) with surrounding down the palm. The third securing part 40 with surrounding a side of the thumb is connected with the first and second securing part 20, 30 by the bonding band 50.

Here, the position of the first securing part 20 and the second securing part 30 was described referring to a wearing state of left hand, so it may be changed in case of wearing on right hand. That is, if the device shown in the figure is worn on right hand as it is, the position of the first securing part 20 and the second securing part 30 are exchanged each other.

In the figure, the sucking part 10 is shown as the shape of cylinder tapered from the lower end to the upper end, but it is not limited to such a shape. Also, the projecting part 12 is formed on the inner wall 11 of the sucking part 10 in a longitudinal direction. The projecting part 12 forms air path for smoothing the flow of air between the thumb and the inner wall 11, so that it works to prevent the occurrence of clogging and vacuum when children is sucking the sucking part 10.

Sectional views and perspective views of various types of the sucking part 10 and the projecting part 12 adaptable to this embodiment are shown in Fig.3. It goes without saying that each shape of the sucking part and the projecting part shown in Fig.3 can be used in combination with each other if necessary. In Fig.3, the smallest circle from the inside corresponds to finger and the next circle corresponds to the inner wall of this device. And as shown in the figure, path for smooth flowing of air is formed between the inner wall and the finger. Turning to Fig.l, the first securing part 20 is extended from the sucking part 10 by predetermined length and three inserting holes 21 are formed on it. The inserting holes 21 are parts that the combining projections 31 on the surface of the second securing part 30 are inserted into. There are three inserting holes in the figure, but the number can be selected properly depending on the size of user's hand. The second securing part 30 is extended from the sucking part 10 by predetermined length and two combining projections 31 formed on its surface. As described above, the combining projections 31 are inserted into the inserting holes 21 and secured on user's hand. The two combining projections 31 are inserted into the continuous two inserting holes 21 among the three inserting holes 21 and control the tightness between the device and user' s hand

The third securing part 40 is extended from the sucking part 10 by predetermined length and provided with two projecting type holes 41 on its surface for the bonding band 50 to pass it through. The two projecting type holes 41 are for controlling the degree of tightness of device to the user' s hand by fastening the bonding band 50 depending on the size of user's hand. So, if necessary, the number of the projecting type holes 41 can be three or four and so on, but considering the size of child's hand, it is preferred that the number of the projecting type holes is two or three.

Also, it is preferable that the first, second and third securing part 20,30,40 are formed at an angle of 120° against each other to the sucking part 10 in the aspect of comfort and security when the device is put on. The device according to the embodiment described above is sucked by children and inserted into children's mouth, so it is preferable to be formed out of harmless material, for instance silicon and the like, as one whole body. Besides, as described above, in case of forming the device out of silicon as one whole body, it is preferable to make a fissure preventing film 42.

As shown in Fig. 1, the film 42 is formed along the surface and the whole side face of the device. The film 42 is somewhat projected from the surface of the device _ and makes it possible to prevent tearing by fissure and abrasion.

Also, as shown in a plan view of Fig. 4, for the purpose of preventing fissure in connecting region between the sucking part 10 and the first, second and third securing part 20,30,40, it is desirable to form a space 13.

The bonding band 50, as shown in Fig.l, is a means for securing the device to user' s hand around the user' s wrist. The bonding band 50 communicates through the combining projections 31 of the second securing part 30 and the projecting type hole 41 of the third securing part 40 and both ends of the bonding band 50 is connected with each other at the region around the user's wrist.

As shown in Fig.l, the bonding bands 50 comprises the first bonding part 51, the second bonding part 52, the bonding belt 53, the length adjusting part 54 and the inserting ring 55. The first bonding part 51 is provided with three projecting parts of a three-pronged spear type. On the middle among the three-pronged spear type projecting part, the inserting ring 55. is formed and it is inserted into the second bonding part 52 and by this connection the bonding band 50 is secured. The second bonding part 52 is a region into which the first bonding part is inserted, provided with the inserting ring combining part 56 which is made for the inserting ring 55 formed on the end of the projecting part to be protruded. The bonding belt 53 is extended between the first bonding part 51 and the second bonding part 52, and at its one end, the length adjusting part 54 for controlling the length of the band is provided. By means of the above bonding band 50, as shown in Fig. 2, the device according to this invention can be secured firmly to user's hand and removed from hand easily in case of not being used. The bonding band 50 is not limited to the form as shown in the figure, and especially various types of connecting means may be used in connecting region, such as string, button, switch type and so on.

Claims

1. A device for preventing thumb and finger sucking comprising, a sucking part user's thumb being inserted into; first securing part being extended from the sucking part and surrounding user's palm; second securing part being extended from the sucking part, surrounding the back of user's hand and being connected with the first securing part; third securing part being extended from the sucking part and surrounding a side of user's thumb; and a bonding band communicating the first, second and third securing part and securing the device to user's hand.

2. The device as set forth in claim 1, wherein the sucking part is an hollow cylinder.

3. The device as set forth in claim 2, wherein the inner surface of the sucking part is provided with a projecting part in a longitudinal direction, forming air path between user's finger and said inner surface.

4. The device as set forth in claim 3, wherein the diameter of the lower end of the sucking part is larger than those of the upper end of the sucking part.

5. The device as set forth in claim 4, wherein a space is formed on the connecting region between the lower end of the sucking part and at least one of the first, second and third securing part.

6. The device as set forth in claims 1 to 5, wherein inserting holes are formed on the first securing part, and connecting projections of which the insides are empty are formed on the surface of the second securing part, so that the combining projections of the second securing part are inserted and combined to the inserting holes of the first securing part at the time of wearing.

7. The device as set forth in claim 6, wherein the number of the combining projections is smaller than the number of the inserting holes by one.

8. The device as set forth in claim 7, wherein projecting type holes are formed on the surface of the third securing part, and the bonding band is inserted into the one of the combining projections protruded by insertion into the inserting holes of the first securing part and the one of the projecting type holes, and the inserted bonding band is secured.

9. The device as set forth in claim 8, wherein the bonding band comprises a first bonding part provided with three projecting parts of three-pronged spear type, an inserting ring formed on the end of the middle projecting part of said first bonding part and inserted into the second bonding part, a second bonding part inserted into and combined with the first bonding part, an inserting ring combining part formed on the second bonding part and fastened by the insertion of the inserting ring of the first bonding part, a bonding belt extended between the first and second bonding part, and a length adjusting part formed on the one end of the bonding band and controlling the length of bonding band.

10. The device as set forth in claim 9, wherein the first, . second and third securing part are formed at an angle of 120° each other to the sucking part.