Study finds too much time in car seat dangerous to baby

Car seats are crucial for infant safety. AP Photo

Pediatrics published a new study this week reporting too much time in restrictive car seats can lead to low oxygen levels and breathing problems in babies.

Car seats are absolutely essential for safe infant travel in vehicles, but researchers say the seats should not serve as substitutes for cribs.

The study looked at 200 healthy 2-day-old newborns and found that after an hour strapped in a car seat, these infants had lower average oxygen levels than infants who had been laying in hospital cribs.

"The use of these devices should, therefore, be restricted to protection from injury and death in traffic accidents, and they should never serve as a replacement for a crib," according to Lilijana Kornhauser Cerar, MD, of University Medical Centre in Ljubjana, Slovenia, and colleagues in the study's report.

According to Dr. Iley Browning, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, there are parents who do not have any type of baby bed and have their infants sleep in the car seat all the time. Browning said in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "That's not a good choice. And dropping oxygen levels are going to get worse when children have colds so you're making your child worse by putting them in a car seat when they're sick. And I guarantee that parents do this more when their child is sick."

The car seat secures the child in an upright position, the best placement if a crash should occur. That position, according to the study, can also compress an infant's small chest and restrict his or her airway.

The study was funded by Japanese company Aprica, which manufactures children's products including child seats and strollers.

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