(Alexandria Hein/ Fox News) — A decade-long study of sleep-related deaths in infants has found that in more than 90 percent of cases involving car seats, the safety devices were not being used as directed. The study, which was published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, analyzed 11,779 sleep-related deaths in infants and found 3 percent of those fatalities occurred in a sitting device, with car seats being the product most commonly reported.
“While car seats are always the best place for babies when they are being transported in a vehicle, that doesn’t mean they are the safest place when they’re sleeping outside of the car,” Dr. Jeffrey D. Colvin, study co-author, said in an American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) news release about the study.
Strollers, bouncers, swings and other infants seats were also classified as sitting devices in the study. Researchers found that the majority of deaths involving sitting devices occurred at home under the supervision of a parent. But when compared to deaths involving non-sitting devices, babies who died while in a sitting device had higher odds of being under the supervision of a babysitter or child care provider. (…)