Bottle Sling : Baby Feeding Aid

Wasn't this in the movie "Meet the Fockers"?

That's alright, the judges weren't too hard on me, we just didn't have good chemistry.

Actually the US Patent and Trademark office says I invented one. They were dumb enough to give me Utility patent #5,873,551. If you go to the USPTO site, you can read the claims and check out the images. The great thing about the patent is that it covers a wide range of embodiments. This gives my sling designs much more flexibility to meet consumers' requirements and tastes. Unlike Mark's Sacmaster my bottle slings can be changed and improved as time goes on.

There are other types of bottle holders like the Bottle Booster right here in this gallery. I've found two on the web that are meant to be worn by the parent. Momo's Bottle Sling was basically a sock that hangs around your neck, but the bottle was not held in place securely and slides out (ironically MLboo-hoo pooh-poohed my "straps" saying a mom could wrap a sock around her neck and do the same thing). I don't think they are still selling them. The other is made by Parents of Invention and it is a hook with a clamp at the end. The large hook part goes around your neck and the bottle snaps into the clamp. I'll put mine up against any of them. Check out the Seven Essentials of a Quality Sling section on my website. I guarantee the hook and clamp "sling" doesn't match up to mine.

Please check out my invention at .

Why not make a sling to hold the baby and have two hands for holding the bottle and wiping the baby's milk mouth?

I've searched the internet for other bottle slings, yours is better made, adjustable, and I wish I had one when my sons were young. Hope it's available when grandkids arrive. (you have a few years to get it marketed, lol)
I'd think hospitals and perhaps some disabled folks would find this invaluable. Good luck!

I claim it makes bottlefeeding a "more" natural experience because it allows you to hold the baby more like a breastfeeding mom would be able to hold her. You are allowed to hold the child with two hands while feeding which is more natural than holding the baby with one and the bottle with the other.

Many other bottle holders market theirs as "hands free" so you can talk on the phone or read a book, some are even designed so that the parent doesn't even have to be there. That's not what my focus is here, I want to stress the importance of actually being there with the baby. They are not designed to free up your responsibility, but they do eliminate the need to hold the bottle the whole time while feeding, what a parent does with that time is up to them and out of my control. There is nothing wrong with answering a phone while the baby is feeding but I don't want to give the impression that my slings are a tool to separate you from your baby. That's why I claim it enhances the feeding experience making it more natural like someone who is breastfeeding. The posture is the same and the amount of free hands to tend to baby's needs are the same.

Please check out my invention at .

They were laughing at that fake boob harness?

But seriously, thanks for the input, it will definitely be taken into consideration. I don't want to make it seem as though I am encouraging people to ignore the baby by putting too much emphasis on the "hands free" aspect. I've seen pictures of people feeding a baby with a bottle holder, working on their computers and it just didn't look right to me. When we were building the website my stepson joked we should take a picture of a woman feeding the baby on a ski lift. It was funny but not something I'd like to attach to a product which I take very seriously. You should hear some of the vitriolic attitudes in the breastfeeding groups aimed at anything to do with a nursing bottle. Contrary to that, there is even an antibreastfeeding group on the web tired of being made to feel inferior because they bottlefed their babies.

Expert salesman, marketing whiz, I'm not. That's why I am looking to license the designs to an established company. I know my limitations. That's why I haven't given them a proper name, they are bottle slings just like a bra is a bra with names like Ipex, Crossyourheart, etc. This can be called whatever they want and marketed how they see fit. I'm just trying to get it seen by the right people.

Thanks again for your advice.

Please check out my invention at .

The reason why so many inventors are percieved as loons is becuase of a guy like you trying to overpromote a mediocre idea. Move on and try to ivnvent something to be proud of. Help the world not your wallet.

You've re-invented the wheel. Why??? There are soooo many of these devices out there already. Take that brilliant mind of yours and develop something NOBODY has thought of. Only then will you meet with success. I know you have it in you. By the way...I have bottle fed MANY children and know what I'm sqwalking about.

I don't think people seem to realize that there is a market out there for almost any product. Especially if its the best product on the market for that purpose. You have a bunch of different baby carriers - look at baby bjorn. It does not mean everyone else should stop making baby carriers because there is already one out there. In addition, there are baby slings. I have a couple of kids and would NEVER have used a baby sling but that does not mean no one else would. obviously someone else does because there are a bunch of different baby slings out there. My point is ... how many times have you walked through a store and said to yourself "who in their right mind would buy that product?" Someone does or else it wouldn't be in the store.

I took your advice and checked out your invention. Want to know one of the first things I noticed? That your ad boasts of having both hands free, but in your picture, you are HOLDING THE BOTTLE! Hello....dah....gotta fix that.

Who is being wacky?

You counted all US births. Not all birth parents bottle feed, some still breast feed their children. There are probably more than two and less than four million kids using a bottle at any point in time. Let's say three million?

So, 300K units per year. Cost to make slings- under $2 per unit. A sewing contractor with twenty sewers could make that many in two weeks. Packaging can be minimal as in simply a tag. You can ship hundreds of slings in a box weighing less than twenty pounds. Think bibs or bras. Let's say $2.50 - $2.75 per unit (I still think that's high though).

That's around $780,000 to make package and distribute three hundred thousand slings to let's say Babies R Us or Wal Mart. They could retail for around $12 ea. That's around $9.4 million. Give or take a few hundred thousand, juggle numbers around all you want, it still comes up as a pretty tempting venture for the right company.

I was just talking about this to a friend of mine. Thanks for the encouragement!

Bottle Sling - Invention Gallery .

What do you mean? Geeky how? Like only nerds would use it? I'm all for constructive criticism, I'm also a geek, so there you go. Thanks for looking. Actually the geekyness flaw you mentioned can be overcome by the broad patent claims. These cover many variations on the central theme of the bottle sling. Not only different fabrics, patterns and colors, but designs too. How's that for geeky?

Bottle Sling - Invention Gallery .

Hi Eduardo,

What are you to do when the mom decides (for whatever reason) not to breast feed her baby? Are you saying it's all or nothing? 

"The real difficulty in changing any enterprise lies not in developing new ideas but in escaping from the old ones." Maynard Keynes

Oh yeah! Please check out my  Bottle Sling - Invention Gallery .

Maybe they would be allowed if they were used in one of my bottle slings?  

"The real difficulty in changing any enterprise lies not in developing new ideas but in escaping from the old ones." Maynard Keynes

Oh yeah! Please check out my  Bottle Sling - Invention Gallery .