Infant or baby oral pacifiers can be seen as a form of an artificial nipple upon which an infant may suckle. The suckling action upon the nipple (generally fluids generally do not pass through the pacifiers) is thought to provide a soothing or calming means to the baby. Further during the teething process, a burning and itching sensation can be felt the infant's gums. The infant's chewing action upon the nipple may provide a temporary alleviation of such sensations.
The pacifier could be seen as having three (3) recognizable parts: the nipple that is placed in the infant's mouth; a skin contacting plate or shield that generally limits the depth of insertion of the nipple within the infant's mouth; and a ring or other protrusion substantially allowing the pacifier to be gripped (e.g., by the infant.) The nipple in many such instances is an elongated member descending from the middle of the plate. The nipple could be hollow and made from a suitable pliable or resilient polymer. The nipple could have a hollow interior that could be sealed off to give the nipple an overall balloon-like construction, which allows the nipple to be suitably deformed by the baby's suckling action but will go back to its original shape when removed from the baby's mouth.
One possible issue for such pacifiers is that their nipples can be seen as not taking into account the change or growth that a baby undergoes during the early stages of its life. As a newborn, the baby, lacking teeth, may utilize the pacifier as soothing instrument so that the nipple can fulfill this function by being merely soft and supple. As the baby leaves the newborn stage and begins its teething stages, where the baby's teeth begin to emerge from the gum line. The nipple, in order to continue its soothing mission, needs to be more resilient to provide a to harder surface for the baby to chew upon during the teething process. Generally, the present pacifier with its non-changing nipple capacity may not being able to meet the change of the baby's suckling needs as the baby goes from newborn to teething infant.
What could be needed is a pacifier having an adjustable nipple that can be altered to meet the changes in the suckling/teething needs of the baby as it ages. One such possible solution to this issue could be the present invention of an inflatable baby pacifier with an adjustable pneumatic nipple. A gas pump connected to the adjustable pneumatic nipple can be used to insert an amount of gas (e.g., air) past a valve and into a hollow interior of an adjustable pneumatic nipple. This and other valves connected to the adjustable pneumatic nipple can further suitably alter the amount of gas within the adjustable pneumatic nipple to change the nipple's operational characteristics (e.g., suppleness/flaccidity for soothing suckling action to more resilience or hardness for chewing/teething action.)
In at least one invention embodiment, gas is pumped from the environment outside the invention into the adjustable pneumatic nipple and as needed or when needed gas could be then released from the hollow back out to the outside environment. In another embodiments, the gas may be fully self-contained within the pacifier itself and is moved through valve(s) between a containment area (e.g., gas pump) and the nipple's hollow interior.
Various embodiments of the invention could only have one valve is used to control passage of gas both into and out of the hollow interior. Other various embodiments of the invention, a first valve or set of first valves could control the movement of gas into the hollow interior wherein a second valve or set of second valves could control of the movement of gas out of the hollow interior. In still yet further embodiments of the invention an additional set of third valve(s) are used as relief valve(s) to prevent pressure in the hollow interior from exceeding a preset level.