Strollerderby
Consumer Reports Responds to Sling-Hate Outrage
When Consumer Reports issued its warning against five products they thought should never find their way onto a baby registry, the response was one of outrage. Especially with regard to two issues: baby-wearing and co-sleeping.
The venerated watchdog group warned of serious injury and death from both, adding that co-sleeping products pose their own set of risks, but got hammered by co-sleeping baby-wearers. So in a follow-up post to all the angry comments, here’s how they defended their findings.
On slings:
Slings can be very difficult for some people to tie, position and
wear securely. Not all are intuitive and it
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12 Comments
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI don’t recall anywhere in the CR article where they mentioned actual testing of the baby carriers! That is the part that has many of us babywearing advocates frustrated- the CR article has a lot of opinions in it, but not much in the way of research. Yes, positional asphyxia can occur in a sling (to which the poster whose baby had low oxygen in the sling can attest) if proper positioning technique is not used. But when I did a google search on positional asphyxia, slings and carriers hardly came up at all – the massive majority of the cases of positional asphyxia were from car seats, infant swing/rockers and babies getting their heads caught in things (between crib and mattress, bed and wall, etc).
It is vital, as with any baby item, to use a baby carrier correctly! For that reason, you might want to check out this article, written by a nurse. http://www.carrymeaway.com/PDFs/Correct%20Positioning%5B1%5D.pdf
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amgpgirl – Well said. I agree with you completely
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amThese are the warning based onm the consumer reports.It is really appreciating for providing these details.But I do remember that when my daughter was infant clearly stated that head and foot-boards were a danger, and the bed should be low to the ground.
Damion
Baby Shower Invitations
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amWhat Alice says about co-sleeping is very valid. Parents who co-sleep need to subject their bed to the same rigours they would subject a crib to: No places for the baby to get hir head stuck!!!
Of course, most advocates of co-sleeping I remember from when my kids were infants clearly stated that head and foot-boards were a danger, and the bed should be low to the ground.
diera commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI once took my young infant to an emergency room (he had pinkeye and we were traveling so I couldn’t see his regular doctor) and was keeping him calm in the sling while we wated. When we were called in to see the doctor, the nurse clipped an oxygen monitor to his toe, studied the readout, and said, “OK, take him out of there and we’ll try this again.” I asked why, and she said, “Because if I write down this number I’m going to have to initiate measures to resuscitate him.”
That was the end of slings for me.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amVery nice.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amMost mother in third world countries dont use those slings. They use back carriers or baskets on their backs or hip carriers for older babies. Common sense. Slings are big money in this country though with the stylish designs. They are unsafe to an infant who cannot support their head. You would never let your childs’ head flop over while sleeping in a swing or carseat.
I know of a couple here in my town who let their 7 month old sleep with them. He died when he rolled to the end of the bed and got his face caught between the foot board and the mattress after his mother had gotten up to get ready for the day. She did not roll over on him.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amMy friend trained as an emergency neonatal pediatrician; he was the one in the flight suit on the helicopter conveying dangerously ill newborns to hospitals. He told me that he had removed two asphyxiated infants from baby slings and he’d never use them.
Manjari commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amgpgirl, I agree with you 100%.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI remember reading an incredibly alarmist study on co-sleeping years ago (?) by a very respected mainstream source (JAMA?). A closer look revealed that the ‘fatal’ cases had parents who were unconscious (from drugs or alcohol) or morbidly obese & rolled onto their babies without noticing, or had a 5-gallon bucket full of water RIGHT NEXT TO the bed which the infant mysteriously fell into (my girlfriend said “THat’s infanticide made to look like an accident”) or so much garbage piled next to the bed that the baby suffocated in it when it fell off. Yeah, not scenarios I’m familiar with.
gpgirl commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amAlso, I am curious as to what you found so startlingly defensive in CR’s response. I thought it was pretty clear headed. I think the fact that people are using the term “sling-hate” is pretty defensive.
gpgirl commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amThese are warnings based on testing from Consumer Reports. They are not saying these products should be taken off the market. They tested the products and reported on the results. If they found these results and did not report on them, that would be a major ethical issue.
Each family can then make their own choice. For example, I gave my son toys that were meant for “3 years plus” when he was 2 because I felt he was ready for them. I did not write a letter of complaint to the toy company to say they shouldn’t provide an age limit.
As for the crib recall, it is not like there were hundreds of kids who were injured, but even a few will result in a recall, as they should. (There were 31 incidents of slats breaking, and 2 incidents of children getting trapped, without major injury.) I know there have been at least a few babies who have fallen out of slings, but since slings are not regulated to the same extent as cribs, they weren’t recalled.
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