©2011 Galesburg Broadcasting Co.
| Emergency Baby Feeding Made Easier Through "BIG" Grant |
A Galesburg woman has invented a unique tool for anyone with an infant, but might not otherwise have had all the tools needed to feed the baby in an emergency.
Linda Lewis was one of the recipients of the city's first ever Business Innovation grants, all of whom were honored Wednesday. Lewis invented what she calls the "Flipple" -- an accessory that allows for a water bottle to become a baby bottle. Lewis says a funnel-type attachment is screwed on to the top of a water bottle to add formula, and then that funnel can be replaced with a screw-on nipple to feed the child.
Lewis tells WGIL in a way, the invention came out of necessity.
"We were out, and we left a (baby) bottle behind, and there was no place to buy a baby bottle" Lewis said. "We were lucky because my grandson was nine months old, so we were able to give him a little bit of water out of just a water bottle, but we had water all over the place. We thought, 'we need a way of adding a nipple to that, so we don't have a situation like this again'."
Lewis says her children encouraged her to invent the "Flipple" -- which is patent pending, and says while she's only sold about 2,500 of them, they're not just available at Galesburg retailers -- they're all over the country right now, even as far away as Washington State and the Denver International Airport.
And she says she wouldn't even even gotten to that point had it not been for the Business Innovation Grant she received.
(Linda Lewis, center, receives her Business Innovation Grant check Wednesday at Galesburg City Hall.)
(The "Flipple" is available at various locations in Galesburg, and is packaged through a contract with the Knox County Council for Developmental Disabilities. WGIL News Story and Photos by Will Stevenson.) |
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| 10 22 09 by Newsroom |
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