Baby car seat danger

Car seats and swings not for sleeping

A Canadian study has pointed to leaving your young baby in a sitting position for long periods of time as a sudden infant death risk factor. Researchers at McGill University Health Center in Montreal report that deaths among infants in a sitting position accounted for about 3% of the infant deaths they reviewed as part of their study.

The study findings are based on a 10-year review of sudden infant deaths that occurred in Quebec province in babies aged from birth to one year of age. Medical and coroner records were used to identify 99 explained deaths, caused by heart-related problems or infections; and 409 unexplained deaths. Of those cases, 10 babies in the unexplained death group and seven in the explained death group died while sitting in a car seat or other sitting device; 9.4 percent of the infants who died at less than 1 month of age were in a sitting position at the time of death. By contrast, just 2.4 percent of older infants died while in a sitting position. All other deaths occurred while infants were lying down.

Previous research has indicated that a slumped seated position such as that assumed by babies in car seats and swings may cause respiratory problems and lead researcher Dr Aurore Cote notes that airway problems “may have contributed to the death of the infants in a sitting position”.

The message from safety experts is that parents should avoid leaving young babies in car seats and other sitting devices, no matter how tempting it might be to use these as props to settle a fretful or colicky baby into sleep. Parents should also take the recommendation into account when planning long car journeys.

The study is reported in Archives of Disease in Childhood, May 2008.

 

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