Please allow your baby to sleep on his/her back until the age of six months, in order to ensure that the abdomen is free from compression.

Babies are often seen as a miniature version of adults but they have several life-supporting functions which are not yet fully developed and if mishandled they could suffer aftereffects later in their lives.

For instance, a baby’s head is relatively heavy and the neck muscles supporting the head are still weak, making the head susceptible to receiving stronger impact than other parts of the body during an accident. In addition, the skull, which protects the head, and cerebral blood vessels are incomplete in terms of structure and function. Babies under 12 months, particularly babies up to six months old, must be cared for with special attention; when you hold your baby up, it is okay to gently bounce him/her up and down during play, but if violently shaken back and forth, your baby could suffer a cerebral hemorrhage, which might cause permanent injury and in a worst-case scenario, it could result in loss of life.

Babies, regardless of their sex, exercise abdominal breathing* so it is essential not to interfere with their action of inflating their abdomen. Even a baby in good health is susceptible to nasal congestion and if left sleeping on his/her stomach or in a position that puts pressure on the abdominal area, it could result in a lack of oxygen. Under such circumstances, the baby could suddenly suffer from cardiac arrest.

Taking these facts into consideration, please allow your baby to sleep on his/her back until the age of six months, in order to ensure that the abdomen is free from compression. Even after reaching the age of six months when babies can move actively, for the reasons already mentioned, I recommend that babies should continue to sleep on their back.

With regard to child car seats, they should genuinely offer adequate protection, giving thorough consideration to the physiological characteristics of babies. The Consumer Product Safety Association of Japan provides the SG (Safe Goods) standards for strollers. Their standards for the backrest angles and hours of use of Type A and Type B strollers can be used as a good reference guide for selecting suitable child car seats. The use of strollers coincides with the use of child car seats and, therefore, you can refer to the standards and apply them to child car seats.

Young human beings of different ages are collectively called children but I think that a “child” is a human being in the early stages of childhood and a “baby” is a human being under 12 months old. Therefore, I think it is more appropriate to call a “child car seat” a “baby & child car seat.”

Baby products must be easy to use, but also these products must not interfere with the physiological and physical development of the baby.

Author : Jushichiro Naito M.D.


[Annotation] Abdominal breathing*
The lungs, which control respiration, and the heart, which controls circulation, are located in the chest. The ribs protect these vital organs in the chest. A baby’s ribs are positioned almost parallel to the diaphragm – very similar to the inflated rib cage of an adult during normal inhalation of air. This means that with this kind of chest structure, a baby cannot breathe in much more air by costal breathing, simply using the chest and ribs alone. Therefore, a baby exercises abdominal breathing by inflating and deflating his/her abdomen.

Editorial Supervisor : Noboru Kobayashi M.D.