Don't leave babies in car seats for too long

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Don't leave babies in car seats for too long, experts warn

FRIDAY, Dec. 8 (HealthDay News) — Babies should not be left alone to sleep in car safety
seats, especially if they were born prematurely, New Zealand pediatricians report.

Their warning, published in this week's issue of the British Medical Journal,
is based on a study of nine infants, aged 3 days to 6 months, who were
referred to the Auckland Cot Monitoring Service by parents alarmed by
what they described as infants who were "blue," "scrunched up" or "not breathing."

"All but one case occurred when the infants had been left in the car seats indoors,
allowing them to fall asleep unrestrained in an upright position," said a report by
the group, led by Dr. Alistair J. Gunn, an associate professor of physiology
and pediatrics at the University of Auckland.

All the infants survived, but the parents were given advice on better positioning
to prevent future problems, and warnings about not leaving the babies in
the car seats for excessive periods of time.

It's a "fairly important paper," said Dr. Christopher Greeley, medical director
of the newborn nursery at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, because
it demonstrates the potential dangers of car seats, which are regarded as essential
for protecting children if accidents occur.

"The take-home message is that parents should not leave babies unattended
in car seats," Greeley said. "If you leave a very young baby in a car seat, the
structure of the head, bigger in the back, can cause the airway, the trachea, to
be narrowed." Vanderbilt follows the recommendation of the American Academy
of Pediatrics — that all babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy get a car seat
test before they leave the hospital, he said.

"They get the test for the potentially longest duration of the ride home, so that
they don't have this kind of positional occlusion," Greeley said. "The test is done
for premature babies or full-term babies who have issues with their airways. If they
are born really small, have poor nutrition or have poor neck control, we do the test."

When the children do get home, leaving them in car seats for a prolonged period is not
a good idea, Greeley said. "The more they are left in, the more predisposed they are
to have partial blockage of the airways," he noted. "Sleeping in a car seat is not necessarily
a cause of death, but there is a higher likelihood that a baby somewhere will have
difficulty with breathing."

"Car seats should only be used for transportation purposes," said Linda White, i
njury prevention coordinator at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
"Bringing one into the house and leaving a child in it, that is not what they are intended for."

Parents sometimes bring a car seat into the house and leave a baby in it "because
they don't want to disturb them," White said. "But you don't want them [the babies]
to be at that extended angle for a long period of time. We encourage families even
when they are traveling to stop often and take the baby out of the car seat. The
extended period of time is the key."

Marjorie Marciano, director of the safety education office at the New York City
Department of Transportation, offers this advice: "We do know that using a car
seat that is installed correctly can reduce the risk of injury significantly, for example
by 70 percent for children under 1 year old," she said. "Installed correctly means that
it should be at an angle of 45 degrees. When working with parents, we always say
that it is important that the seat be at the right angle to keep the airway open."

-- Ed Edelson, HealthDay News