A lot of parents are putting infants in car seats — or letting them stay there — to sleep, but a new study shows that’s a dangerous practice.
Researchers from Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, reviewed 10 years of data on sleep-related infant deaths from the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention, and found that 62 percent of the deaths that occurred in sitting devices happened in car seats.
Bouncers, swings and strollers were also high on the list.
More than 90 percent of the sleep-related deaths in car seats happened while the infants weren’t being transported anywhere.
The study emphasizes that sitting devices such as car seats, bouncers and swings are no substitute for cribs or bassinets. Children need to sleep in a supine position — flat on their backs — until they’re at least a year old.
