“I promise whatever happened to you in 2016 mine was crazier.”
Police are investigating an infant’s death after the baby was found unresponsive in a baby lounger.
According to WRAL, the baby was laying on its back in an infant lounger in the middle of the parent’s bed when the mother fell asleep. Upon waking up, on Jan. 13, the mother found her child laying on their side.
Her baby was reportedly unresponsive with a bloody nose, according to detectives.
The mother then called 911 and performed CPR on the child, who was later pronounced dead by first responders.
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Cary police have not charged the mother and are not treating it as a criminal case, but they did list involuntary manslaughter as the potential offense under investigation, according to WRAL.
Investigators will wait until the medical examiner completes their review of the case before making a final decision.
The incident comes amid a string of product warnings and recalls by the Consumer Product Safety Commission linked to baby loungers.
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A baby lounger is a soft, cushioned pillow designed to give babies a cozy, reclined spot to lounge or play.
But they are not intended to be slept in.
"These infant loungers are squarely not safe for infant sleep," Oriene Shin, manager of safety advocacy with Consumer Reports, told WRAL. "They lead to unsafe sleep environments, suffocation hazards."
"In the first year of life, they need to be protected as much as possible and that means putting them into a bassinet," she added. “It's painful. I understand how hard it is, especially if baby can't sleep without you.”
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Dauline Singletary, the Maternal and Child Health Section Manager for Wake County Public Health, also urged parents to understand the risks that come with co-sleeping.
"I always tell parents, you know, if you want to buddy up that pack and play or that bassinet right next to your bed, go for it, but just make sure that the child doesn't stay in the bed with them," she told WRAL.
"Depending on how people sleep, rolling over onto a child could become an issue [of] suffocation because of pillows and blankets and all of those things that also can create a hazard,” she added.
