EP0313177A1

EP0313177A1 - Baby walker

Info

Publication number: EP0313177A1
Application number: EP88302194A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Mark Smith
Original assignee: SHARNA TRI-ANG Ltd
Current assignee: SHARNA TRI-ANG Ltd
Priority date: 1987-10-23
Filing date: 1988-03-14
Publication date: 1989-04-26
Also published as: IE883201L; GB8724858D0; GB8824894D0; GB2211428A; GB2211429A

Abstract

A baby walker (15) has an upright (16) with a handle (19), and on each side of upright (16) spaced apart wheels (23) are supported at a position spaced from the upright (16) such as to provide a stable support for a baby from either side of the upright.

Description

This invention relates to a baby walker for use in encouraging babies to walk. A conventional baby walker has a wheeled body having an upright with a handle at a rear end thereof. The body often forms a brick box or some other toy. This known baby walker has the disadvantage that if a baby holding the handle leans backwards the walker will often tip backwards, reducing the baby's confidence and possibly causing injury. An object of the present invention is to provide an improved baby walker.
Accordingly the invention provides a baby walker having an upright with a handle, first wheels spaced from one side of the upright and second wheels spaced from the other side of the upright and arranged to allow a baby to hold the handle from either side.
The wheels are preferably mounted on supports extending on each side of and from each end of the upright. The wheels are preferably shrouded.
The upright can be in the form of a frame or a wholly or generally solid panel.
The upright can mount one or more toys or an "activity centre".
The handle can be a single bar, a pair of bars, knobs, rings or the like.
The invention will be described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:-

Fig. l is a sketch showing a known baby walker in side elevation;
Fig. 2 is a front perspective view of a preferred baby walker of the invention;
Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but showing an activity centre attached to a cross-piece of the walker; and
Fig. 4 is a plan view sketch (on a reduced scale) showing the walker of the invention.

Referring to Fig. 1, a known baby walker 10 has a wheeled body 11 having at a rear end thereof an upright 12 with a horizontal handle bar 13. The body 11 can form a brick-box. If a baby (not shown) tends to fall backwards he pulls handle 13 in the direction of arrow 14 and the whole walker 10 can tip clockwise and allow the child to fall, possibly causing injury, but more likely reducing the child's confidence in the device.
Fig. 2 shows the basic parts of a preferred baby walker 15 of the invention which has an upright 16 consisting of stiles 17, a cross-piece 18 and a handle bar 19. The cross piece 18 can be used for mounting any desired additional item(s) such as a toy or toys or an activity centre 20 (see Fig. 3). Each slide 17 has attached to it a respective support formed by a pair of triangular wings 21 extending generally at right angles to the plane of upright 16. Each wing carries a hollow shroud 22 within which is a wheel 23.
As is best seen in Fig. 4, the baby walker 15 of the invention provides two operative positions indicated by circles 24, 25. Thus, a baby can approach the walker from either side.
The disposition of each pair of wheels level with or even further from the handle 19 than the baby's feet leads to great stability even if the baby tends to fall backwards.
As the baby is nearer to the wheel than in a conventional walker the shrouds 22 can serve to reduce the chances of the baby's feet curtailing the wheels.
The invention is not limited to the precise details of the foregoing and variations can be made thereto. For example, the walker is shown as being symmetrical in plan, whereas it can be asymmetric. The wings can diverge if desired. the upright can be a panel or a frame or a combination of both.
The handle can be a pair of bars, a pair of knobs, rings or the like.

Claims

1. A baby walker having an upright with a handle, first wheels spaced from one side of the upright and second wheels spaced from the other side of the upright and arranged to allow a baby to hold the handle from either side.

2. A walker as claimed in claim 1 wherein the wheels are mounted on supports extending on each side of and from each end of the upright.

3. A walker as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the wheels are shrouded.

4. A walker as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the upright is in the form of a frame.

5. A walker as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the upright is a panel.

6. A walker as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the upright mounts one or more toys or an "activity centre".

7. A walker as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the handle is a bar.

8. A walker as claimed in any of claims 1 to 6 wherein the handle is a pair of bars.

9. A walker as claimed in any of claims 1 to 6 wherein the handle is constituted by a pair of formations, one for each hand.

10. A walker as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the wheels are supported in positions laterally outwardly spaced from the upright to reduce the possibility of a using child falling sideways.

11. A walker as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the upright is generally planar and wheel supporting structure extends forwardly and rearwardly from lateral edges of the upright.

12. A walker as claimed in claim 11 wherein the wheel supporting structure includes a plurality of struts.

13. A walker as claimed in claim 11 wherein the wheel supporting structure includes wings extending from the upright.

14. A baby walker substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.