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Drowning of babies in bath seats: do they provide false reassurance?
1Department of Child Health, Cardiff University, Penarth, UK. sibert@cf.ac.uk
Insights
Baby bath seats can create a false sense of security, leading to rare but definite drowning deaths. Unsupervised bathing remains the primary risk for infant drowning incidents.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Safety
- Public Health
- Accident Prevention
Background:
- Infant drowning is a significant concern, particularly in domestic settings like bathtubs.
- Bath seats are commonly used to aid bathing infants and young children.
Observation:
- Two case reports highlight potential dangers associated with infant bath seats.
- A review of UK drowning data (1989-2003) identified six fatal incidents involving bath seats in children under two.
- These cases predominantly involved male infants, with five out of six under one year of age.
Findings:
- Bath seats may foster a false sense of security among caregivers, potentially contributing to unsupervised bathing.
- While rare, infant drowning in bath seats is a documented cause of death.
- The existing literature on this specific topic is limited, with few studies published since 1966.
Implications:
- Further research is crucial to quantify the actual risk of drowning associated with bath seat use compared to non-use.
- Caregiver education on the limitations of bath seats and the paramount importance of constant supervision is essential.
- Public health initiatives should address the risks of infant bathing, emphasizing constant vigilance regardless of equipment used.
Aims:
To investigate the problem of children drowning in bath seats by examining case reports, by looking at the epidemiology of bath drowning in children under two years of age and by reviewing the literature.
Methods:
We describe two babies: one who drowned and one nearly drowned in the bath whilst in a bath seat. We examined the RoSPA/RLSS UK database of cases of children under two years drowning in the bath for the years 1989-2003. Cases are ascertained through a press cutting system. We conducted an all language literature search of original articles, references, textbooks and conference abstracts 1951-October 2004 in 11 standard databases.
Results:
The two cases illustrate how parents can have a false sense of security with bath seats. We found six cases of babies under two years drowning in the UK associated with bath seats in the time period 1989-2003. They were all boys: five of the six were under one year of age. This compared with 47 children of similar age drowning in the bath not associated with a bath seat. The literature is sparse with only four papers since 1966.
Discussion:
A baby drowning after being placed in a bath seats is a rare but definite cause of death. Bath seats appear to give a false sense of security (even if not encouraged by the manufacturers). It is unclear whether putting a baby in a bath seat represents an increased risk of drowning compared with a baby without a seat. Without knowing the numbers of mothers that use bath seats it is difficult to come to firm conclusions on the risks to babies. New research is needed to clarify this issue. Whether in a seat or not it is clear that the main risk to babies in the bath is being left unsupervised.
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