Baby #CarSeat Naps Are Dangerous – Research Proves – Why it is never safe to leave your baby asleep in a car seat

Baby car seats are supposed to be the safest for your baby while being driven around in a car. Utilising a car seat is the best protection you can give your baby when travelling in a vehicle. There’s no doubt that the adequately installed child safety seats in the back seat are designed to protect a child from injury during a collision. So, an infant seat for a child safety seat should not be replaced or substituted in a car. However, it can be quite dangerous for your baby to sleep in these baby car seats when not travelling.

Parents often use these baby seats as an alternative for cribs and bassinets that ultimately results in infant sleep-related deaths in these sitting devices. According to research published recently in Pediatrics, including strollers and bouncers, the majority of fatalities in sitting devices occurred while the babies were in car seats. Spanning ten years from 2004-2014, the study used fatality data and included almost 12,000 infants. The research was aimed to examine the risk factors involving sleep-related infant deaths in car seats, strollers, bouncers, swings and other infant seats as well as cribs and bassinets. The research also included facts such as the place of death, the primary caretaker at the time of death and the environmental factors responsible for it.

The result was devastating as out of the three per cent infant deaths that happened in sitting devices, 63 per cent of these took place in car safety seats and ninety per cent cases show that the seats were not used as directed. Maximum deaths occurred in the infant’s home with an average age group of just two months. While 2 per cent of fatalities occurred in strollers, the bouncers, swings or other devices were responsible for 35 per cent of infant deaths. Another shocking thing is that the maximum number of deaths that happened in these sitting devices took place under the supervision of a child care provider instead of a parent. The result concluded that “using child safety seats for sleep when not travelling may pose a risk to the infant.”

Hence, it is imperative to use such devices as directed. Never put your baby in an infant seat on a table, counter, or other elevated and soft surfaces such as beds or sofas, or the washing machine or any other vibrating surface with any chance of it falling and causing harm to your child. Don’t forget to use the safety belt every time you place your baby in the seat. When the car journey is over, make sure that you remove the baby from the car seat or capsule because it is not safe for the baby to spend long periods in car seats. Also, infants should not sleep unsupervised in sitting devices like car seats or strollers. Your child’s safety is in your hands, don’t risk it for anything, or it’ll be a regret forever.