WASHINGTON — The government warned Friday that those chic baby slings that hip moms and dads are sporting these days can be dangerous, even deadly for their little ones.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission said it has investigated at least 13 deaths associated with sling-style infant carriers over the past 20 years, including three deaths last year. One other case involving a fatality is still being investigated. Twelve of the deaths involved babies younger than 4 months of age, the agency said.
The commission is advising parents and caregivers to be cautious when using infant slings for babies younger than 4 months. It said that many of the babies who died in slings were a low-birth-weight twin, were born prematurely or had a cold.
In its warning, safety panel said slings can pose a suffocation hazard in two ways.
• A sling’s fabric can press against a baby’s nose and mouth, blocking the baby’s breathing and suffocating a baby within a minute or two, the agency said.
• The other scenario involves slings where the baby is cradled in a curved or “C-like” position, nestling the baby below mom’s chest or near her belly. That curved position can cause a baby who doesn’t have strong neck control to flop its head forward, chin-to-chest, restricting the infant’s ability to breathe. “The baby will not be able to cry for help and can slowly suffocate,” warned the commission.
Slings are made of soft fabrics that wrap around the chest so that on-the-go parents can carry their babies or just stay close as they bond with their infants. Slings have been promoted by baby experts as a way to calm fussy babies or for nursing moms who can breast-feed their little ones in the sling.
Safety advocates have been particularly worried about so-called “bag style” slings, in which the fabric wraps around the parent’s neck and cradles the child in a curved position.
