another thing for paranoid parents to obsess about

Why do I call myself Science Genius Mom? I'm a mom and I was once a scientist. The "genius" part was inspired by a cute song by local Boston band, Freezepop, called Science Genius Girl, which I highly recommend. Besides, SciMom was already taken.

It can be interesting when motherhood and science collide. For example, this story based on an article in this week's British Medical Journal recently caught my eye. Paranoid parents already obsessed about SIDS are now being chastised for allowing infants to sleep in their car seats.

The recommendations stem from a report of 9 infants in Auckland, New Zealand, ranging in age from 3 days to 6 months, who apparently stopped breathing and turned blue when they were allowed to sleep restrained but unattended in their car seats. Earlier studies had shown that infants who slept in car seats had lower oxygen levels than those who slept in a crib. Based on these results, parents are now being told that they shouldn't allow their babies to sleep unattended in car seats.

Now, as a former scientist, I can see the sense in this advice, though I must point out the data aren't conclusive. How do we know those infants in the Auckland study wouldn't have scrunched up and turned blue even if they had been in a crib? Obviously, this kind of retrospective analysis can never really prove whether sleeping in car seats is dangerous for babies. Also, in the second study, even if the oxygen levels were "lower" in infants who slept for an hour in their car seats, it's not clear whether those lower oxygen levels are worth worrying about. Still, my science genius brain tells me, "It's better to be safe than sorry."

Then my mommy brain weighs in: "Are you kidding me? I'm driving the car and my baby falls asleep. What exactly do you people expect me to do? Pull over and wake the baby up? Are you insane? And what's this nonsense about leaving the car seat in the car? Many infant seats are designed so you can bring the whole thing into the house without waking the baby! That's the whole point of these detachable seats that fit on a base! What desperately sleep-deprived parent is going to wake a happily sleeping baby in an ill-conceived attempt to transfer said infant to a crib?! You people must be out of your minds!"

My favorite part of the press release for this story was the claim that "the frequency of leaving sleeping infants in car seats is low..." Um, no. I've done it. Just about every mother I know has done it, too. In fact, one night when my daughter had a horrible cold, her pediatrician recommended that I let the baby sleep in her car seat all night. The pediatrician said that sleeping upright might actually help alleviate nasal congestion and allow the baby to breathe more freely.

A lot hinges on whether this practice is common or rare. If it's rare, as the authors of the study contend, it isn't surprising that only 9 infants could be found who seemed to have trouble breathing while sleeping in car seats. But if the practice is common, as my own experience suggests, you would expect to hear about many more cases like this. In the end, I'm not convinced at all and I'm left feeling, once again, that researchers who study things like this are completely out of touch with what's it's like for parents in the real world.

One thing we can all agree on: it would be nice if car seat manufacturers could fix the seats so babies wouldn't slump forward while sleeping. At the very least, it has to be uncomfortable for the baby.