A new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics and reported by Yahoo News, found that letting babies alone unattended in the car seat can be deadly and many deaths have been attributed to this. The study was based on 47 cases of children under 2 years of age that died in devices designed for them to sit in or in which they could be carried. Two-thirds of the cases involved car seats, whereas the remaining deaths occurred in slings, swings, bouncers and strollers.
“When the baby is asleep, and you don’t have eyes on the baby, they should be ‘ABC,'” meaning they should be alone, on their backs, and in a crib, said study author Dr. Erich K. Batra, of Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. He added that there should be no loose bedding in the crib.
This means that car safety seats and other sitting devices are not recommended for sleeping, the researchers wrote in their study. In general, sleeping infants and young children should not be left unsupervised in such devices, whether they are awake or asleep, the researchers said.
In the vast majority of deaths in the study, the children were either strangled by something such as a strap, or died because they could not get enough air due to the way their bodies were positioned. The time that had elapsed between when the children were last seen alive and when they were found deceased ranged from 4 minutes to 11 hours. The study is timely in view that there have been many instances of toddlers dying while they are left unattended in vehicles.
