This common bottle habit is one to avoid
There are many parenting books around, but for the most part, when you’re a new parent you learn as you go.
None of us are born perfect parents but it caught me off guard how things that seemed innocent enough could have serious consequences.
One of these is not to drape a blanket over your child’s face to block out the sun, which while done out of kindness can actually lead to suffocation.
The other was not to prop up your child’s drinking bottle and here is why.
Bottle propping is when you or a caregiver use an object to prop up a child’s drinking bottle so that you or the caregiver can remain hands-free.
While propping up your child’s bottle might seem like a harmless hack at first, it can actually be incredibly harmful.
In 2015, a case of bottle propping tragically led to the death of Chloe Masters’ four-month-old son Alex.
According the BBC, baby Alex was left to sleep in his car seat with a bottle of milk propped up on a blanket while his grandmother who was looking after him napped.
When his grandmother awoke baby Alex was hunched over his car seat and was unresponsive.
He was sadly pronounced dead after arriving at the hospital and was found to have inhaled milk into his lungs.
Bottle propping is something that most parents would never realise has such dangerous consequences.
I know I had no idea how harmful it could be when I first became a parent until an older relative warned me never to do it with my baby.
It’s so important that parents and caregivers are aware of the dangers of doing it.
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