Pacifier

Claim 1

A one-piece, injection molded pacifier made of a flexible plastic material comprising: a generally circular, substantially flat lip guard having a substantially centrally disposed orifice, a one-piece handle integral with the lip guard, projecting outwardly from and substantially normal to one surface thereof with its base positioned between said orifice and the periphery of the lip quard, a hollow nipple integral with the lip guard, projecting outwardly from and substantially normal to the opposite surface thereof and with its interior communicating with said orifice and thence with the atmosphere, said nipple comprising, an imperforate, substantially semi-spherical outer end, a side wall which is substantially circular in lateral cross section and extends from said substantially semi-spherical outer end to said lip guard, a portion of reduced diameter adjacent to said lip guard, said side wall being of progressively increasing diameter as it extends from said portion to its junction with said substantially semi-spherical outer end, and at least six spaced, elongate ribs projecting radially inwardly from the inner surface of said side wall towards the longitudinal axis of the nipple, the longitudinal centerline of each rib being located in a plane which coincides with the longitudinal axis of the nipple, each rib extending from a locality adjacent to said portion of reduced diameter to a locality adjacent to said substantially semi-spherical outer end, the inner end of each of said ribs being substantially flat and the inner ends of pairs of said ribs being positioned opposite to each other, whereby the substantially flat ends of ribs contact each other under severe gumming or sucking by the infant and prevent collapsing of the nipple by substantially the combined heights of the ribs which contact each other but the intervening walls of the nipple continue to allow resilient resistance to gumming and sucking by the infant.