Lisa smith tragically lost her daughter mia – but the 17-month-old’s death could have been prevented.
Smith remembers the phone call she received from mia’s babysitter three years ago. The baby had not woken up after a nap in the child car seat. two days later, mia died in the hospital as a result of positional asphyxia.
With this sad story, smith now wants to warn other parents about the dangers that can result from the incorrect use of a child safety seat.
Sleeping in car seat led to mia’s death
Mia’s babysitter ran a licensed daycare in iowa. But mia’s parents didn’t know that their child occasionally took her nap in a booster seat.
"we assumed she was sleeping in a crib. "The day she died, she was just a few steps away from an empty crib where she could have been sleeping," smith tells the hearty soul platform.
Apparently, the babysitter would often put the infants in car seats to sleep, thinking it would help them sleep better.
But letting children sleep in these seats can be fatal. In mia’s case, it even led to her death.
Children should not sleep in car seats
Child seats should be secured in the car and stay there. Because the backrest was designed in such a way that children should not be able to fall asleep in the steep position.
If children still fall asleep in a seat without it being secured in the car, their neck muscles, which are not yet developed, cannot hold their heads upright and tilt forward.
Mia’s death was also related to the position of the seat. Mia slipped down while sleeping and got into a position where her airway was blocked.
Parents regularly educate about it
Mia was taken to hospital but died two days later from "positional asphyxia syndrome" (PAS) – a positional asphyxia death.
This occurs when a person is in a position where breathing is obstructed, which can cause the person to suffocate. Infants in particular have an increased risk of dying from it.
Smith and her husband regularly educate about the risk of positional asphyxia in infants.
"when we see children sleeping in unsafe positions, we say something. "We want to share our story so that others can make better decisions for the safety of their children," smith tells "the hearty soul".
"we had no control over mia’s sleeping position and it devastates us, knowing that her death could have been prevented so easily."
In infants, suffocation is the leading cause of accidental death. Children from one to four years old are also at risk.
Every second child who died in a car seat was strangled by a seat belt. The others suffered positional asphyxiation deaths.
In the years 2009 to 2013 alone, 197 children died from suffocation in germany, according to the federal statistical office.
Under no circumstances should children sleep in car seats outside the car, and they should never be unbuckled or only partially buckled up in the car.
Most deaths could have been prevented by proper use of seats and adequate care, authors of american study warn.