Method and apparatus for determining the temperature of an infant

#This invention relates to the field of temperature sensing apparatuses, specifically those specially adapted for use on an infant.

#The health of one's children has always been considered to be of the utmost importance. This is especially true of newborns and infants who, having built up few immunities to sickness and disease, are very vulnerable. Furthermore, serious disease or maladies early in life may lead to permanent physiological problems in the child's future. Therefore, many parents spend a great amount of time checking on their infants so that they may either prevent sickness from occurring or help eliminate it as soon as it does occur.

#One very important key to an infant's health is maintaining an infant's body temperature within a certain tolerance level of the average human body temperature. A high body temperature beyond a certain tolerance level may be undesirable. The third leading cause of death among infants 1 month to 1 year in age is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), the unexpected death of an infant typically under 1 year old, without explicable cause. While SIDS has no symptoms and provides no indication, parents can follow some precautionary measures to help minimize the possibility that their child may afflicted. One precautionary measure now being advocated by doctors is preventing a sleeping infant's body temperature from rising too highly and/or too rapidly.

#FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic representation of an embodiment of the temperature monitoring system;

#FIG. 2a illustrates the top side view of the top layer of the temperature monitoring station embodied as an adhesive patch;

#FIG. 2b illustrates the underside view of the bottom layer of the temperature monitoring station embodied as an adhesive patch;

#The present invention is a system for continuously monitoring the body temperature of an infant in order to promote health and comfort.

#FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention. The present invention may include a temperature monitoring station (TMS) 10 and a companion station (CS) 5. It may also include a single TMS 10 and more than one CS 5, or, conversely, it may include more than one TMS 10 and a single CS 5. Lastly, it may include more than one TMS 10 and more than one CS 5. The TMS 10 monitors the infant's current body temperature. It may transmit and receive information to and from the CS 5 through radio frequencies (RF). As such, a user may remotely control one of these devices by interacting with the other.

#FIG. 2 illustrates the TMS 10 embodied as an adhesive patch. The adhesive patch may be composed of two layers pressed together to form a single unit.