A news story that I have been hearing on the radio all morning…
Dangers of infants sleeping upright in carseats
The death of an infant in West Island Pointe Claire almost a year ago is prompting a Quebec coroner to warn against the risks of putting little babies to sleep in car seats.
A two month old boy in Pointe Claire died last February 23 after his mother put him to sleep in a carseat placed in his bassinette, hoping that would calm the crying colicky infant. An autopsy revealed that the baby died of asphyxiation. Quebec coroner Dr. Jacques Robinson says putting an infant in such an upright position to sleep is dangerous, since the baby’s head tends to fall forward.
“The upper airways are obstructed.”
Robinson says about 17 such deaths have happened over the past ten years and they could have been prevented.
“It’s not frequent, but when it happens, it’s very dramatic.”
He warns that car seats should be used only in the car since they help prevent deaths in accidents.
“We recommend to go with this but not for sleeping or using the carseat as a bed.”
And Robinson advises parents should take care to check on their babies in the car seat if they’re sleeping, to make frequent stops on long trips and to take them out at rest stops.
Read here…
The carseat along with so many other devices (the swing, bouncy chair, bumbo seat) are so overused… parents use the carseats in the car then clip the carseat from the car into the stroller, then back in the car…. many times I have seen babies being bottle fed with the bottle propped up so the baby is not even taken out to be fed….
It is not in the printed version of the article but the coroner says something like this… “use the car seat in the car and then pick them up” and that babies should be not be in carseats for more than 1 hour…
Great advice!
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update… here is a new article that just came up on the CBC with more details…
Parents should not leave young infants sleeping in car seats for long periods of time, said a Quebec coroner who looked into the death of a two-month-old boy who suffocated when his mom placed him in a car seat after a restless night.
The recommendation comes two years after Montreal researchers warned very young babies are vulnerable to sudden infant death syndrome if they spend too much time in a seated position.
“The car seat is for the car. It is not for the bed or sleeping. It is for a car,” said coroner Dr. Jacques Robinson on Wednesday.
‘The head of the baby is heavier than the body. The neck muscle is not straight enough to let the neck rise. So, it falls.’—Dr. Jacques Robinson, Quebec coronerThe case that prompted the coroner’s recommendation happened in February 2008 in Pointe-Claire on Montreal’s west island.
A mother woke at 3 a.m. to feed her baby who was crying. She put the baby back to sleep in his crib. At 6 a.m., the baby started crying again.
The mother used a trick she had used before: she placed the baby in his car seat and then put the car seat in the crib.
An hour later, the mother checked in on the baby and found that he wasn’t breathing. His eyes were glassy and his skin had a white, waxy appearance.
The mother called 911, and the parents started CPR on the baby. The baby was pronounced dead in hospital.
Robinson determined the baby died of asphyxiation due to an obstruction of his upper airway and blamed the baby’s cramped posture in the seat for reducing his ability to breathe.
“The head of the baby is heavier than the body. The neck muscle is not straight enough to let the neck rise so it falls,” said Robinson.
In his report, Robinson notes there are risks to leaving a child sleeping in any seated position. He encourages parents to put their children to sleep horizontally at all times, preferably in a crib.
He also advises parents to move their babies frequently when they are in a car seat in a vehicle. He recommends parents take their children out of the seat every hour while on a long trip.
read here…
I agree, for the most part. I hate to see babies carried around in car seats all the time. But what would you say to people whose babies need to sleep upright because of reflux? I didn’t read the whole article, but it sounded like that was the situation when the baby died.
Great post Paxye. I always find it so sad with how overused car seats and strollers are and how little some parents actually touch their own babies. 🙁 Very occasionally if she was asleep in her car seat when we got home we would unclip it and bring her in the house, because she has trouble going back to sleep when she’s woken up from a nap, but we’d keep her next to us and remove her as soon as she woke up. And to be honest I didn’t even like that, I much preferred to have her cuddled into me napping in the mei tei.
Vicky, my daughter spent the majority of her naps until she was well over a year old sleeping upright on us in her mei tei. She didn’t have reflux, but I don’t see why that couldn’t be a great solution for a baby who did have it. No worries about the head falling forward in that case.
Wow. I can’t agree enough that these baby devices are very over used. I hadn’t heard of people using carseats overnight, although I have heard of people using swings. It seems obvious to me that this is not a good idea.
With both kids I didn’t have a infant carseat that clipped in and out. Asleep or awake I always took the kids out of the carseat and straight into the sling, upright like the mei tei.
The baby was said to crying and colicky but reflux was not mentioned…
If you are not co-sleeping… and baby needs to be more upright…. then An Amby bed or other hammock bed designed for sleep would also be safer than a car seat (which is designed to keep a baby safe in the car)
A quick search on the Internet also says that tummy sleeping and sleeping on the left side help a great deal… (tummy is even better than propping it seems)
Honestly though I think that Lindsay has the best suggestion… especially for naps…
What about cars though? I often found that the car holds the baby even more upright than when I just lay the car seat down? Do they just hope the bumping around will keep the baby able to breathe?
I think that in the car you tend to be in closer and more attentive… I know that when I was in the car with an infant I would always keep my eye on them… but putting a baby in a carseat, in a crib and then going to bed yourself is just not the same thing…
But I find that I can’t tell if the little one is sleeping or not breathing. I used to stick my finger in its mouth just to ensure they were responsive.
I would move their leg or yeah stick my finger in their mouth if they were really conked out… but really their colour would be an indicator…
The thing is… you check…
But if you are using it for them to sleep in you are most likely not checking on them every 5 min… or use them like from car to stroller to car to crib etc then they are on there for so much longer then they should be…
I really hate those infant car seats anyway… We used them for a while but mostly left them in the car…and with Khéna we used a convertible seat from the time he was an infant and I much rather use that… just put them right in from the wrap in the car and then put them in the wrap when you get back in…
I’m not sure if we will buy a bucket seat or not for the next baby since we don’t have Meredith’s old one anymore. I like them because they’re smaller and made for smaller babies, and from talking to a car seat tech at length and reading the car seat forums we decided we wanted to start with a smaller one this time. But we only liked it because of the size, we rarely took it out of the car. We were all much happier with her in our arms or in the mei tei.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/02/09/bc-nanaimo-baby-death.html
I gave birth to twin boys a couple of months ago. They were born prematurely at 4.7lbs and 4lbs. Im not going to play it down it is difficult tending to two babies at the same time when you’re trying to get a schedule in for them that they will eventually get used to for napping, sleeping, feedings, etc.. And because of the SID scare I was afraid to put them in the crib while sleeping incase they spit up/ throw up and they choke on it, there’d be no way I would know and that is infact my biggest fear. So I had them sleep with me in my bed for awhile. But I barely got any sleep I went for weeks with 1-2 hours of sleep a day to sometime no sleep at all and they weren’t getting much sleep either. Then I found that leaving them in their car seat made them sleep longer which made them well rested. I also found that theoretically speaking that just maybe the tightness of being in their car seats helped them feel like they were still in my tummy since they were born prematurely…I didnt keep the seat belt buckled or anything and Ive always kept a close eye on them while asleep. It baffles me to read that their airway is constructed when sleeping in an upright position. This statement actually makes me feel 10xs more tired because we’ve tried everything and using the car seat as beds is the only thing thats worked for all of us. To be honest I immediately took the car seats out of the crib after reading this blog….Im guilty of doing that and put them to sleep on their crib mattress. They werent asleep for 5 minutes theyre already awake as Im typing now crying their little lungs out…its 4:20AM and my husband and I hadnt slept. The crib hasnt worked for them and Im wiped out. My husband is tempted to result to the car seats again. What do we do????????? Sleep deprived, we both work, its hard on folks like us with this type of scenario….we’re not as bad as you gals make us sound. I work from home and my hubs runs a construction biz….plus..we have twin newborns. Help!!
Alaki… I agree that must be so hard…
first, I would toss out the schedule and let them regulate when they are hungry, sleepy etc… kids go through so many phases (sleep patterns change, feedings change in growth spurts etc) that schedules can hinder more than do good…
You are right that the tightness helps babies feel secure, but it is not only for premature babies but all babies that have that need. This is the reason that babywearing and co-sleeping are so important. It is only recently in history and in only in our culture that babies are put down in cribs apart from the warmth of their parents beds or arms. The response that they have when we put them down is a survival response that is deeply ingrained. So yes, the car seat is giving them a bit more security so that they sleep better… but unlike being in a parents arms where the parent can adjust them and shift them naturally, they are stuck in a position that can be dangerous.
I mentioned in the comments here the “Amby bed”… it is a great alternative to sleeping in a crib because they feel more secure because it almost simulates the feeling of being in arms… without them being in such an upright position… http://www.ambybaby.com/
Also, if you are near them while they sleep, babies do sleep better and more deeply while on their tummies. You said that they are a few months old.. have you tried putting them on their tummies to sleep? if they are able to turn over or push up then tummy sleeping should not be a problem at all….Because they go into a deeper sleep on their tummies, (and can’t move out of the way of bedding etc) the SIDS risk is augmented in newborns/young babies but once they get older the risk is lower… especially if you are near and can keep an eye on them… (by co-sleeping, or having them nap in the same room as you are in)
Personally co-sleeping is very important for our family and we believe that babies should not be sleeping in another room until they are ready to do so at a later age.
Anyway, I am not sure about your parenting style but because you mentioned schedules and cribs etc I would suggest that you could pick up “The baby Book” by Dr. Sears and check out the website http://www.askdrsears.com/ for ideas and suggestions… Here is the page for sleep http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070100.asp
I will have to try them tummy sleeping. I was afraid of doing that for awhile now because of SIDS. They are able to push up now but not turn over yet. My family also co-sleeps. I dont believe it’s logical to place an infancy or even a toddler to sleep in another room if they can’t help themselves. Im thinking 3 to 4 yrs of age is a more appropriate age to incorporate teaspoons of independency into my child’s life. I also looked up the amby bed…that’s so awesome!! However, I decided just an hour ago after getting off the phone with my nurse that I will have to retransition them from car seat to crib. I put them to sleep in the car seat first and now they are both laying on their backs in their cribs….yey!! I suppose I will have to do this for awhile until theyre able to put themselves to sleep in their cribs without the help of the car seat…don don don. Well Im glad that Ive been able to keep them asleep in their crib for an hour now and thats a great accomplishment…oh you have no idea. Thank you Paxye for your advice I will definitely look into those links you provided…you’re a great help!!
My mom had twins and they slept in bassinets in a separate room from her at first. She said it was so tiring because one would wake up and want to nurse and usually the other would wake up while she was nursing and she felt like she got no sleep. She actually ended up putting a twin bed in their room (my dad didn’t want them in their room) and cosleeping with them, and she found she got more sleep that way once she got used to it. It may be something for you to try again too. Especially if you get used to it and can nurse while dozing.
I also wanted to comment on the tummy sleeping. Meredith was a tummy sleeper from day 1. The first day it worried me so much I stayed up all night watching her and then talked to my midwife and asked on the MDC forums about it. Both made me feel a lot better about it, especially in cosleeping babies. The MDC ladies pointed me to some sites that show that around the same time as they started their “back to sleep” campaign, they also made autopsies mandatory for SIDS babies. The result was that many babies who would have been considered a SIDS baby were actually discovered to have other problems and weren’t considered SIDS, resulting in the number of SIDS cases dropping drastically. Because of this and because we were cosleeping, we decided we were comfortable with her tummy sleeping since she was obviously happier that way and she slept far better on her tummy. Even if you’re not cosleeping, if they can lift their heads I personally would be comfortable with tummy sleeping, but it’s up to you. I would definitely check out the amby baby too that Paxye pointed you out too. It might be a good option for you.
Thanks for your help Lindsay. I should just trust my inner feelings more than what statistics say…afterall they’re my minnie me. =)