BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention represents a weaning pacifier/soother, intended to wean children from the habit of using ordinary pacifiers. Children seem to have an instinctive need for sucking. Satisfying this need soothes the child. Hence many children develop a habit of sucking on their thumb. It is often difficult to wean a child from this habit.

Many parents prefer that their child sucks on a rubber nipple, a pacifier or a soother, instead of the thumb, since said pacifier, contrary to the child's thumb, may be physically removed when it is no longer desirable that the child continue the habit.

However, a normal pacifier cannot be partly or gradually removed. It is either present, or not. Hence, removing the pacifier often causes frustration in children, resulting in the children turning to thumb sucking as a substitute.

Some parents give in to the child's frustration and allow the pacifier sucking to continue. Many of these children continue to such on pacifiers or on their thumb long after the age of four to five years.

Such sustained sucking may cause a multitude of serious problems for the child and its parents including: 1. Malocclusion ("buck teeth")

2. Speech impairments (difficulty pronouncing certain consonants)

3. Teasing by the child's peers, stigmatism, social and psychological problems 4. Academic set backs as a result of the above

5. Expensive orthodontist bills Two existing patents deal with weaning pacifiers which are directed to the method of gradually reducing, retracting, or removing, the physical presence

of the pacifier's rubber nipple, through a retractable mechanism. U.S. Patent No. 3,129,709, patented April 21, 1964 and U.S. Patent No. 4,878,496, patented November 7, 1989. Some parents have taken a different, although similar or related, approach to the problem of weaning a child from the use of pacifiers. Lacking a retractable pacifier, some parents have cut the rubber nipple shorter and shorter. However, the above mentioned methods of weaning a child do not gradually reduce the child's physical and psychological need for the sensation of suction.

As the rubber nipple is gradually reduced, or retracted, the child's need to create a partial vacuum in its mouth remains unchanged at first, as does the child's ability to create this desired vacuum. But at some critical point the rubber nipple is reduced or retracted to a size which all of a sudden makes it impossible for the child any longer to create the desired vacuum. The need for the sensation of suction through the creation of a partial vacuum in the child's mouth, however, is still present, just as strongly as before. Hence the use of the above mentioned retractable devices may at some point frustrate the child and make the child turn to thumb sucking as a substitute when said devices all of a sudden no longer stimulate the child's need for the sensation of suction, while this need is still as strong as ever.

Both methods of shortening the pacifier's rubber nipple, as mentioned above, have another drawback. A child grows accustomed to the specific physical characteristics of its particular brand of pacifiers. A child may often reject a pacifier of a different brand than the one the child is accustomed to. Reducing the rubber nipple even slightly, changes its physical characteristics as experienced by the child This may

immediately cause the same degree of frustration in the child, as if the pacifier suddenly was removed altogether.

The present weaning pacifier is based on the belief that the key to a successful weaning is to reduce gradually the intensity and the duration of the partial vacuum that the child creates in its mouth. This makes the child gradually less and less physically attracted to and dependent on this gradually less intense sensation of a partial vacuum.

Accordingly, the present invention does not alter, reduce or retract the weaning pacifier's rubber nipple.

Consequently, the present invention does not apply a formerly suggested method of weaning a child, namely to gradually reduce, retract, or remove, the physical presence of the pacifier's rubber nipple.

The main objective of the present invention of a weaning pacifier is rather to gradually reduce the child's need for stimulation through sucking on a pacifier. As such, when the weaning pacifier eventually is removed, the need for stimulation through sucking on a pacifier or on the thumb is gone. The child, therefore, does not become frustrated, and does not turn to thumb sucking as a substitute.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This and other objectives are accomplished based on the finding that in at least some instances it is not the presence of an object in the child's mouth, but the sensation of suction, through the creation of a partial vacuum in the child's mouth, between the tongue, the upper gum, the roof of the oral cavity, and the pacifier, that attracts the child. Via an air canal through the rubber nipple the weaning pacifier allows, over a period of up to several

weeks, gradually larger controlled amounts of air to enter the child's mouth, thereby negating at an increasing rate the partial vacuum that the child has created around the rubber nipple in its mouth. In its preferred embodiment the air canal is initially closed, allowing no air to enter and negate the partial vacuum that the child has created in its mouth. This situation remains for as long as the parents accept the child's use of the pacifier. When the time has come to wean the child, the parents allow a controlled minute amount of air to enter and negate the partial vacuum making the vacuum weaker and, hence, less attractive for the child. The minute air flow also makes the vacuum last shorter before the child has to recreate it by reapplying suction to the rubber nipple.

Through several stages, i.e. 2-4, over the next several weeks the air flow is gradually increased so that the vacuum in the child's mouth disappears faster and faster and also becomes gradually less intense and thereby less satisfying.

However, the child does not experience any traumatic frustration. The attractive sensation of a partial vacuum remains, although it is gradually being reduced both in intensity and in duration.

Towards the end of the weaning process the air flow has become sufficient for the partial vacuum to disappear almost immediately after the child has created it. By this time the child has become less and less dependent on the satisfaction from the sensation of a partial vacuum in its mouth. The constant need to recreate the increasingly faster disappearing vacuum also makes the use of the weaning pacifier less attractive.

The stimulating sensation of a partial vacuum is still present throughout the weaning period, although its intensity is gradually reduced. Hence, there is no

sudden change in the characteristics of the child's sucking pattern. This most likely will cause the child to stay with the weaning pacifier until the weaning is completed rather than cause the child in a sudden state of frustration to turn to thumb sucking as a substitute. Eventually the child will lose interest in its pacifier altogether and it may be removed without protest from the child.

Because the above mentioned weaning process eliminates the child's need to create a vacuum in its mouth, there is less chance that the child will turn to thumb sucking as a substitute during or at the end of the weaning period.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGURE I shows a cross section of the present invention of a weaning pacifier.

FIGURE II shows a detail of the membrane 13 at the end of an air canal with no air flow. FIGURE III shows a detail of an opening at the retention end of the air canal which provides air flow.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The preferred rubber (or similar material) nipple 1 is secured in a plastic shield 2, by the plastic plug 3. The stem 4 of the plug 3 fits into the base 5 of the rubber nipple. The body 6 of the plug 3 compresses the rubber nipple's collar 7 against the shield 2.

The cylinder wall 8 of the plug is locked in position in the cylinder wall 9 of the shield 2 by known means.

Such a mechanism might be a snap-in mechanism with a ridge on one of the two interlocking parts that snap into a groove on the other part or one or more protruding detents that fit into corresponding cavities or any one of other already known locking mechanisms.

The only requirement for the locking mechanism is that it is easy to assemble and disassemble for an adult, but impossible to disassemble for a small child. This may be accomplished either by making it too complicated for a child to disassemble the plug from the shield or by making it physically too demanding for a child to do it.

The cover 10 of the plug 3 forms an opening 11 between the cover 10 and the body 6 of the plug. Through this opening 11 may be inserted the handle of a teaspoon or similar to be used by an adult (parent) as a tool for removal of the plug 3 from the shield 2. By using the handle of a spoon or similar as a tool, the adult (parent) may fairly easily remove the plug 3 from the shield 2 for cleaning purposes, whereas the small child using only its fingers cannot exert the necessary force to pull the plug 3 and the shield 2 apart.

This makes the weaning pacifier easy for an adult (parent) to disassemble and assemble for cleaning purposes and it makes the weaning pacifier child safe both when it comes to choking hazards and hygiene.

The air canal 12 leads through the rubber nipple 1 from the sucking end 14 to the retention end 15. To prevent the rubber nipple 1 from collapsing because of the air canal 12, the rubber nipple 1, except for the air canal 12, is made of solid soft rubber or similar material.

In the most preferred embodiment the air canal 12 continues through the stem 4 and into the body 6 of the plug 3. Closest to the space 11, the center of the body 6 of the plug consists of a membrane 13.

The membrane 13 may be intact so as to seal off any air flow through the air canal 12 of the rubber nipple 1. This will be the case when the weaning process has not yet started. See FIGURE II.

When the weaning starts the membrane 13 will be equipped with an opening 14 to allow air flow. See FIGURE III. The opening 14 will be very small at first to provide suction to be sustained for a longer period. To gradually increase air flow through the nipple 1, an expandable increasingly larger hole 14 is provided. An alternative solution, rather than gradually expanding the opening 14 in the membrane 13, is to manufacture a set of two or more weaning pacifiers with successively larger openings 14.

The first pacifier in the set will have no air flow, as shown in Figure II. It will be used during the child's normal pacifier years, in order to familiarize the child with the physical characteristics of the weaning pacifiers so as to avoid rejection of these when the weaning starts.

The other subsequent pacifiers in the set will have gradually larger openings 14 through the membrane 13 so as to allow for gradually larger air flow. Going through the set of weaning pacifiers with gradually larger openings 14, will allow increasingly larger air flows through the air canal 12 of the rubber nipple 1.

Over a period of several weeks the use of these subsequent weaning pacifiers will be gradually less and less satisfying for the child as the partial vacuum in the child's mouth disappears faster and faster.

Eventually the child will be using a weaning pacifier where the satisfying partial vacuum only lasts as long as the child actively sucks on the rubber nipple to recreate the partial vacuum. As soon as the child stops sucking, the vacuum disappears.

At this stage, the child is likely to give up its pacifier voluntarily and the weaning is successfully completed. An advantage of this latter solution is that all the weaning pacifiers in such a set are identical

except for the size of the hole 14 in the membrane 13 that regulates the air flow.

Another advantage of using such a set of weaning pacifiers is that, except for the special nipple 1 and the membrane 13 with its hole 14, the manufacturing of the weaning pacifier can use existing technology presently applied in the production of ordinary pacifiers.

The weaning pacifiers have the same basic parts as ordinary pacifiers. The most significant differences are:

1. The special partly solid rubber nipple 1 with its air canal 12.

2. The membrane 13 in the center of the body 6 of the plug 3.

3. The variably sized hole 14 in the membrane 13.

4. The locking mechanism that allows adults (parents) to easily disassemble and reassemble the plug from the shield for cleaning purposes, but still makes it impossible for a small child to disassemble the plug from the shield.

Except for the size of the opening 14 in the membrane 13 used in the various stages of the weaning process the pacifiers are identical. This makes production simpler and less expensive.

Another advantage is that the child can use the same model pacifier from birth, since all the pacifiers in the set are identical and they feel identical, except for the air flow, e.g. the size of the opening 14. Hence, there is little chance of rejection when the parents almost unnoticeably switch the child from the pacifiers without air flow to the child's first weaning pacifier with an air flow. Variations from the above detailed description which make themselves apparent to those skilled in the

art are within the spirit and scope of the present invention and are fully intended to be covered herein.

The present invention is limited solely by the appended claims.