Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
Game #6: What were the inventors thinking?
This is a triple play edition. Your challenge: identify the function of the following three objects.
The three inventions are not related, but all pertain to young children.
Two winners will be named for each invention, one for the correct guess and one for the funniest guess.
Post your ideas for 1, 2 or all 3 inventions via the comment form.
No
links! If you discover a website describing this invention, keep it to yourself. All will be revealed in time. You are competing for the glory.
Object #1 Status: Correctly identified! Amber correctly guessed it’s a nursing cover! Or as the inventor calls it, a nursing shield. (Alternate explanations are still welcome.)
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Object #2 Status: Correctly identified, sort of! It’s a baby pillow! (Alternate explanations are still welcome.)
Okay, lots of people got close. Jenni was the first to guess it’s for stopping a baby from rolling over in its sleep. Bob guessed it was a vice-grip for a baby’s head related to feeding and Ticblog guessed a brace for stabilizing a head. Angelique guessed a “sleep positioner.”
The inventor explains:
“It is the inventor’s best knowledge that there has been not yet any pillow specifically designed for the baby. To prevent the baby from sleeping in a position other than the normal one, the parents usually stuff some soft materials around the baby’s head. The ill ventilation will therefore make the baby subject to prickly heat. [I invented this pillow so as to] lead the baby’s skull into a sound bone development.” He also states the pillow provides better ventilation around the ears.
Object #3 Status: Correctly identified! (Alternate explanations are still welcome.)
Christy correctly guessed that #3 is a neck-support training doll, in this case for teenage parents. The patent explains it is:
“An infant simulator comprising a doll equipped with a realistically
floppy neck and a means for sensing and recording or reporting
instances in which the head has not been properly supported during
handling and allowed to flop into an unacceptable bent position.”
Comments
15 Responses to “Game #6: What were the inventors thinking?”
First is either to strap your child’s arm down while he’s a sleeping so that he can’t…suck…that THUMB! or to use during diaper changning to strap child’s arm down to stop from touching things down there.
Second is the ultimate “now try rolling over in your sleep” device. I layed you on your side now STAY THERE.
Last, I’m thinking a doll for future doctors to pracitice their tracheotomy skills (Okay, I know I got the word completely wrong) or to show just how far back we can tilt a child’s head before it actually falls off.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:32 am
The first is a shield for baby gladiators (especially ones with ginormous thumbs).
Second is a baby compactor. You know how you want them to stay little forever…well now they can.
Third I think seriously is a doll to help teach people how to support the baby’s head when they pick up a newborn.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:41 am
1-Something to separate those unsightly webbed fingers or toes?
2-Something to attach to a carseat to prevent your toddler from kicking you in the back constantly while you are driving? Maybe that is just wishful thinking on my part…
3-A baby CPR doll?
October 21st, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I’m going to have to go with
1. fold over & snap for a baby oven mit
2. a vice grip for a babys head so you can wipe food off of their face without them turning away..
3. is obviously instructions on how to make your baby’s neck longer. duh.
October 21st, 2008 at 12:17 pm
#1) illustration from a crafting site how to convert a tea cozy to a burn-treatment device
#2) brace for stabilizing the head
#3) I thought it was a training device for young vampires myself…
October 21st, 2008 at 1:58 pm
#1 – Some sort of flotation device. Like water wings, but for the hands. Not very safe, there.
#2 – God, who knows? I think the #12 things are for sliding onto something and it’s obvious that the two other parts encase something that is cube or rectangular shaped. Hmm–something you attach to the dinner chair and use a vice grip to keep the child int he seat? Ugh
October 21st, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Object two is the godsend hard to brush toddlers parent’s have been looking for. Just tighten down the clamps and pry open the jaw, wala… clean teeth and cavity free tots.
Object one is a bathing pillow, the baby rests in your arms with his/her head floating on the pillow… (er… maybe?)
October 21st, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Object one is a bathing pillow, baby rests his/her head on one arm pillowed by the device and the other arm washes him/her (er… maybe?)
Object two was devised by angry dentists to allow parents to strap down hard to brush tots and hold their head immobile while they attend to dental hygiene.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Object 2 looks like a device that may have been used in pediatric or infant surgery to brace the surgical site (probably the head).
Hey, if you are creative, it could also be some board they strap little infant’s heads in for his or her 1st hair cutting of the bangs.
Object 1 – splint?
October 21st, 2008 at 7:12 pm
1) Seems like a baby carrier.
2) A booster seat you can slide over chair arms.
3) “Molly broken neck”. The newest doll from morbid toys.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:28 pm
#1 Fan to cool your baby :)
#2 to keep your baby on their back or side, no rolling over in that crib!!
or a head vise for dentist to use on a squirmy kid
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I keep thinking object 1 has something to do with shots or immunizations, or maybe taking blood. Not that you give babies shots in their arms…
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:50 pm
#1 an infant carrier strap design?
#2 first guess is sleep positioner, but maybe a booster seat sans straps.
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:04 am
Maybe object one is some kind of nursing cover? Folds in half and snaps for carrying, unsnap and slide onto the arm you’re holding baby to nurse, and the upper quilted part covers all unmentionables and baby’s face without the fear of it falling down like a blanket does?
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 am
#1 is some kind of lovey
#2 my husband thinks is a one-handed baby bottle opener.
October 23rd, 2008 at 2:01 pm