Mum, Lisa Smith Reiterates Experts Views On Dangers Of Car Seats After Losing Her 18-Month-Old Daughter

This may or may not come as news to you, but experts say nothing about car seat designs includes suitability for sleeping. Everyone already knows that many parents rely on car journeys to get their baby’s to sleep, but experts warn that you could be risking your child’s life leaving them in the car seat for longer than 30 minutes at a time.

One mum finally got up to share her experience three years after tragedy claimed the life of her 18-month-old daughter, the Texas mum is issuing a warning to other parents about the very real dangers of letting babies fall asleep in car seats. Doctors said that her daughter died of positional asphyxia which is when a person’s breathing is restricted by the position of their body.

“I got a call while I was at work,” the baby’s mom, Lisa Smith, told WFAA. “Worst call I’ve ever had in my life. ‘Drop everything. Mia didn’t wake up from her nap.’”

Meanwhile, Lisa is not the first parent to raise public consciousness to the risks of letting children fall asleep in car seats, after losing their child.

READ ALSO: Heartbroken Mom Warns Parents Against Hot Car Deaths After Losing Her Baby Girl

While it’s not well known among parents, it is extremely dangerous to let kids sleep in car seats. A study in the Journal of Pediatrics found that 31 children have died from sleeping in car seats over a four-year period. Often, the straps from the car seat suffocated the child, or they fell asleep causing their heads to slump forward and block their airway.

“There’s nothing about the car seat that’s designed to sleep,” 

explains Sharon Evans, a trauma injury prevention coordinator at Cook Children’s Hospital in Texas.

According to reports, Smith knew the danger so she made sure to never let her daughter fall asleep in a car seat. However, it wasn’t something that her very qualified childcare specialist, who was watching Smith’s daughter at the time of her death, was aware of, and that’s why Smith is speaking out.

“I walk around town and see people using a car seat on the seats at restaurants or putting them on the floor at tables,”

she said.

“I literally walk up to people and I say, ‘You know, I had a daughter who was seventeen-and-a-half months who passed away and I just want you to be really careful.’”