New device allows parents to feed babies while using smartphones
Photo from YouTube/Swipe and Feed
Virginia, USA, native Tim Causa found out the hard way that feeding a baby can be quite a handful, especially for parents who are always glued in on their smartphones.
His tough conundrum led him to design a device called Swipe & Feed— a simple clip that is attached to a smartphone at one end, with a perfectly angled baby’s bottle at the other.
“Swipe and Feed is a unique solution to a problem every parent experiences–doing anything while feeding a baby. Now you can catch up on those important work emails, share photos of your baby with loved ones, read the news and even buy diapers and wipes–the possibilities are limitless,” Causa wrote on the product’s website.
According to a Telegraph report, the 34-year-old father came up with the idea after struggling to feed his newborn son, Jack, for 25 minutes every hour, due to an acid reflux problem.
“For 25 minutes at a time, I was in a dark, quiet room feeding my son. It dawned on me that I could do some catch-up work while he fed, but I needed something to help me hold a bottle and my smartphone,” Causa described his frustrations on the website.
“I searched online for solutions, but nothing was on the market. That’s when I decided to seize the opportunity and solve the problem myself,” he said.
Aside from its unique take at modern parenting, his invention is also dishwasher-safe and is available to fit in various bottle and phone designs.
As expected, his device has already attracted mixed reactions from parents’ groups.
Screen Grab from Facebook/Swipe and Feed
One Facebook user wrote, ”I was just feeding my son and was trying to use my phone when I stumbled across your invention. What a great idea!”
Others, however, were not amused and expressed their disgust on the product’s views on parent-child feeding time.
“This is a very sick project. If a mother or a father are so self absorbed that they can’t spend 5 minutes to bond with their child while feeding then Child Protective Services should remove the child immediately,” one user commented. “Only a bunch of opportunists would even think this is appropriate and only narcissists would buy it.”
As of this writing, Causa is still awaiting donations from the crowdfunding site Kickstarter to be able to release his product to the mass market. It remains unclear how much Swipe & Feed will retail for. Khristian Ibarrola
