New Report Warns Of Serious Risk For Babies Left In Car Seats

Parents are being warned not to leave young babies in car seats for more than 30 minutes at a time after a groundbreaking study found that they experience heart and breathing problems when left in car seats for longer periods. Researchers at Bristol University found that the upright position of rear-facing seats, when combined with a vehicle’s movement, could cause serious breathing difficulties when infants were left for longer periods, The Mirror reports.

There have never been any studies that studied infants in car seats that were in moving vehicles before, so this simulation was designed to better determine how safe car seats are for babies while traveling.

A total of 40 babies under the age of two months were recruited for the study — 21 premature infants and 19 full term babies. The researchers monitored the babies’ heart rates, blood oxygen levels, and carbon dioxide levels breathing while spending 30 minutes in three different seating positions.

When the babies were angled at the 40-degree position of a standard rear-facing car seat, they were found to have significantly higher heart and breathing rates and lower blood oxygen levels than those at 30-degree positions.

New research warns of risks to babies left in car seats for long periods https://t.co/TNk8y31HRS

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Researchers concluded in the study, which was published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood Fetal & Neonatal Edition that both full term and preterm babies showed negative heart and respiratory effects at the more upright angle, especially when motion simulation was added.

“Term and preterm infants showed significant signs of potentially adverse cardiorespiratory effects in the upright position at 40°, particularly with simulated motion, not identified in the standard challenge.”

Researchers say that because the babies’ neck muscles haven’t fully developed, this upright seating position can make it harder for them to support their heads, causing breathing difficulties. Young babies also don’t have neck muscles strong enough to keep their heads from flopping forward, which can cause them to stop breathing.

The effects were the most noticeable in the premature babies, according to the UK’s National Health Service, who recommend taking regular breaks when driving longer distances.

Alarmingly, the researchers had to stop the study several times to intervene because they became so concerned about the response rates of two or three of the babies.

Dr. Peter Fleming, professor of infant health and developmental physiology at the University of Bristol, led the study. He said that he is “concerned” about the findings and called for a larger study to learn more.

In light of the findings, Dr. Fleming cautioned parents to be careful with longer car trips with young babies. “Half an hour is not an issue but beyond that we can’t say,” he said, and cautioned parents to think carefully about longer journeys.

Dr. Fleming designed the study after carrying out studies into Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) where babies had been in car seats before they died unexpectedly.

“We could not answer the question whether these deaths were caused by the car seat,” he said.

Car seat manufacturers already advise that babies should not be left in the seats for more than two hours, but now scientists would like them to point out these possible additional risks linked to younger babies.

Did you know that the maximum time a baby should be in a car seat is no longer than 2 hours at any one time https://t.co/tbW1m2d6lH

— Knowsley CCNS (@KnowsleyCCNS) October 27, 2016

According to PubMed, a British Medical Journal study from 2006 found that in one 18-month period, a total of 43 babies who had been traveling in car seats required hospital admission for serious breathing difficulties.

The researchers recommend that parents remove babies from car seats once they’re taken out of the car. In addition, they caution that parents should stop the car and adjust their babies if their heads fall forward in car seats while traveling, or have someone else in the car adjust them. Still, the researchers stressed that babies should still always be in car seats while traveling in vehicles and properly secured.

Scientists now plan to meet with the car seat industry’s top manufacturers to see if new designs could be designed to reduce the risks for babies.

[Featured Image by herjua/Shutterstock]

New Report Warns Of Serious Risk For Babies Left In Car Seats is an article from: The Inquisitr News