Car seats danger to sleeping babies, coroner says

[Praxius]

CTV.ca | Car seats danger to sleeping babies, coroner says

MONTREAL -- Allowing infants to sleep in car seats can lead to serious breathing problems and should be discouraged, a Quebec coroner said Wednesday, a year after a two-month-old boy died after his mother placed him in the seated position in an effort to prevent colic.

The youngster was laid to rest in a car seat inside his crib after feeding last Feb. 23 and was found unconscious, pale and glassy-eyed about three hours later.

Efforts by the parents to revive the infant were fruitless and he was cleared dead in hospital.

A coroner's report released Wednesday has linked the death to "positional asphyxiation."

Coroner Jacques Robinson said it's common for a baby's head to slump forward while in a car seat and that can diminish a baby's ability to take in oxygen.

"The car seat is for the car," he said. "It's not for a bed or sleeping."

And do you expect kids to stay awake the whole time during a long trip?

Sounds like a design flaw and the company should be sued.

Robinson added, however, he has nothing against car seats when they are properly used.

Robinson encourages parents to put their babies to sleep on their backs on a firm surface and to avoid placing obstacles like toys, dolls or blankets around them.

Fair enough, and what do you do on long trips in the car? They have to stay in the seat the whole time. Is everybody now expected to keep looking back every few seconds and once they see the kid falling asleep, steer the car erradically to jerk them awake, or to pull over and wake the kid up again?

Redesign the damn things if it's such an issue.

He's also calling on Quebec health and social services to ensure members know about the danger of car seats and sleeping babies and that they relay that information to parents during post-natal visits.

The Canadian Pediatric Society also discourages parents from using car seats during nap time and Quebec public health officials also recommend frequent stops during travel as infants should never spend more than an hour in a seat at a time.

Well there you have it.

 

[karrie]

One kid? One kid? Positional asphyxiation? Isn't that essentially what SIDS is? And why you're not supposed to let kids sleep on their backs lest they choke on vomit, or their tummies lest they smother in their sheets, or on their sides because you need to prop them up and they'll smother on whatever you propped them with. And you can put a blanket in with them cause they might smother in it. And you sheets can pop off the bed and strangle them. And mattresses might spontaneously combust and kill them.

Fuh-rick.

Being strapped into a car seat to sleep is hard on their spine. But never have I heard of babies suffocating all across the country from being buckled into their car seats for a trip.

 

[VanIsle]

I have to wonder if this was a very over-weight baby whoes head dropped forward while sleeping in the car seat, causing him to stop breathing.

 

[Praxius]

One kid? One kid? Positional asphyxiation? Isn't that essentially what SIDS is? And why you're not supposed to let kids sleep on their backs lest they choke on vomit, or their tummies lest they smother in their sheets, or on their sides because you need to prop them up and they'll smother on whatever you propped them with. And you can put a blanket in with them cause they might smother in it. And you sheets can pop off the bed and strangle them. And mattresses might spontaneously combust and kill them.

Fuh-rick.

Being strapped into a car seat to sleep is hard on their spine. But never have I heard of babies suffocating all across the country from being buckled into their car seats for a trip.

I guess we'll just have to launch our infants into space every night in order to let them sleep in safety

I can picture it now..... a giant cloud of millions of baby pods orbiting the earth. Of course then the real problem is their re-entry through the atmosphere and then trying to catch the right pod.

 

[Praxius]

I have to wonder if this was a very over-weight baby whoes head dropped forward while sleeping in the car seat, causing him to stop breathing.

Well my sister's trips are over a year old now so I don't think their in the same risk category (I dunno) but the boy of the three is pretty chubby, she's used tilting car seats that turn into a carry crib thing for them to sleep in since she's had them and there's been no problem.

Then again, maybe I should send this to her to read and hear what she has to say.

Added:

Oh and maybe for those car seats, they'll end up adding another strap to go accross the head to keep them from drooping. :roll:

 

[karrie]

Then again, maybe I should send this to her to read and hear what she has to say.

she'll likely tell you that you do what works, and put the kid to sleep where it's willing to sleep. Otherwise the baby still suffocates because mom has snapped and done it herself.

I have friends whose babies have rolled off couches, fallen out of beds, slept every night for weeks in their car seats, because those were the only places they'd sleep. You do what you can, you do your best, and you tell know it all docs to shove it up their backsides.

 

[VanIsle]

Well my sister's trips are over a year old now so I don't think their in the same risk category (I dunno) but the boy of the three is pretty chubby, she's used tilting car seats that turn into a carry crib thing for them to sleep in since she's had them and there's been no problem.

Then again, maybe I should send this to her to read and hear what she has to say.

Added:

Oh and maybe for those car seats, they'll end up adding another strap to go accross the head to keep them from drooping. :roll:

I mentioned this only because over-weight people often have sleep apnea. If you have slept beside even an adult with sleep apnea and listened to how long it can take for the next breath to come, it is scary. There are lots of over-weight babies out there. My two grand-daughters were very good examples and yet now as two little girls they are both quite skinny. Am I wrong in believing that depending on the car seat and the size of the child, are they not adjustable in the slant of the seat so that suffication probably would not be a result of a child sleeping in a car seat? I'm not suggesting the parents would have foreseen this. Horrible accidents happen all the time.

 

[karrie]

I'm not suggesting the parents would have foreseen this. Horrible accidents happen all the time.

And sometimes, without even an 'accident'... no matter if a parent does EVERYthing perfectly right, a child will die in their sleep. I'm no coroner, but, I don't really buy his assessment. There would be way more children dying this way, as pretty much every mom I know puts their kid to sleep in the car seat at some point or another.

 

[Cannuck]

One kid? One kid? Positional asphyxiation? Isn't that essentially what SIDS is? And why you're not supposed to let kids sleep on their backs lest they choke on vomit, or their tummies lest they smother in their sheets, or on their sides because you need to prop them up and they'll smother on whatever you propped them with. And you can put a blanket in with them cause they might smother in it. And you sheets can pop off the bed and strangle them. And mattresses might spontaneously combust and kill them.

Fuh-rick.

Being strapped into a car seat to sleep is hard on their spine. But never have I heard of babies suffocating all across the country from being buckled into their car seats for a trip.

Don't burp them either. Almost 100% of infants that have died in Canada in the last 20 years were burped at one point in the 24 hours leading up to their deaths.

 

[hermanntrude]

dont let them breathe either. 100% of babies who died this year breathed before they died.

 

[Praxius]

dont let them breathe either. 100% of babies who died this year breathed before they died.

Well that depends on if you're pro-choice or pro-life.... the pro-lifers claim they don't need to breath first in order to be considered alive

But that's another topic.

 

[tracy]

Babies who are properly placed in their car seats (and in my experience few parents actually know how to do that) are fine in the car. It isn't meant to take the place of a crib though. In a crib, a baby can't really change positions and decrease its airway significantly. A baby in a car seat can, which is why you are supposed to look at them on occasion and have to be more careful when putting them in it. What part of this is new? I've been giving the same car seat and crib instructions upon discharge for the last 10 years or so.

 

[#juan]

I have eight sibblings and twenty nine nieces and nephews and they have God knows how many great nieces and so on and there are also quite a few great greats as well, along with my own children and their offspring..........All spent some time in a car seat with out a problem. I read this as an indication that car seats are fairly safe.