Mum’s urgent warning after baby dies in car seat

When her little girl was just 18 months old, U.S. mum Lisa Smith got the phone call of every parent’s worst nightmare.

A panicked babysitter told the mum that her toddler, Mia, wasn’t waking up.

After rushing to the hospital, Smith was told her daughter had died from positional asphyxia after taking a nap in her car seat.

She had slumped into a position that restricted her airway and stopped her from breathing.

The little girl had been sleeping in her car seat, which had taken out of the car and put inside the house.

"[It was the] worst call I’ve ever had in my life," Smith, of Aledo, Texas, told US TV station WFAA.

Each year since the death of Mia, the mum works with media organisations to share her story and warn other parents.

“How many parents do you think might not know this?” Smith said.

“Probably a lot.”

“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.’”

Unfortunately, infant deaths from positional asphyxiation aren’t uncommon due to the weak necks of babies. Because an infant doesn’t lie flat when in a car seat, their heads tip forward and block the airway. Adult supervision doesn’t help either due to the silent nature in which babies die.

Trauma injury prevention expert Sharon Evans stressed the importance of not using a car seat as a place for your baby to sleep in.

“There’s nothing about the car seat that’s designed to sleep. Of course, if the straps aren't tight, the child can kind of slump down,” trauma injury expert Sharon Evans told WFAA.

To add to the tragedy, Smith was actually well aware of positional asphyxiation and never let Mia sleep in her car seat.

But she wasn’t aware that the babysitter, who ran a licensed daycare centre in Iowa, allowed the little girl to sleep in the seat.