Babies should not be left in car seats for more than thirty minutes, according to new research carried out by the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Bristol and the University of Southampton.
In the study, which monitored the heart and breathing rates and blood oxygen levels of 40 newborn babies, babies in car seats with an upright seating position (40-degrees) had significantly higher heart and breathing rates and lower blood oxygen levels than those that were lying flat.
The research indicates that the upright seating position of standard infant car seats may make it difficult for younger babies to support their head, which can cause breathing difficulties.
Until now car seat manufacturers have generally recommended that babies should not sit in carseats for more than two hours, but in light of this new data, it is now being advised that babies under four weeks old should not sit in a car seat for more than 30 minutes at a time.
Playpennies was asked to discuss this story on BBC Radio Two with Jeremy Vine this afternoon so if you happened to be listening you'll already have heard my view.
While I welcome this kind of research and value its importance for ensuring the health of safety of babies in car seats, I think it's unhelpful to launch this sort of data in the direction of parents - it's car seat manufacturers who have the power to do something meaningful with it.
There can be no denying the evidence that it's safest for babies to lie-flat when they're sleeping, so I'd love to see more lie-flat car seat options on the market. Lie-flat car seats do exists, of course, and plenty of car seat manufacturers are making innovative infant car seats which are both practical and safe.
For many parents the thought of reducing your baby's time in her car seat to no more than thirty minutes is completely unworkable. I live a half hour drive from most of the places I tended to drive to when my babies were little. And if you factor in the ten minutes I generally spent swinging my child to sleep in the car seat before we left the house, and the fact that they all fell asleep whilst in the car seat and I was in no rush to wake them when we got to our destination, you'll see why the thirty minute limit strikes me as impracticable.
So what should you do in the light of this latest research? Most importantly, don't panic. As Jeremy (I like to think we're on first name terms now) pointed out on his show, we don't know how many babies have died as a result of sleeping in car seats as the data doesn't exist, so this is very much information informed by interesting new research, not something anyone is suggesting you adhere to rigidly.
That said, if you can avoid long journeys in the car with a young baby, it may be best to do so. If you're in the position to have an adult sit in the back to keep an eye on the baby's breathing that may also be advisable.
And if you're in the market for a new car seat, it may be worth considering one with a lie-flat recline feature that can be used in the car.
Aside from that, I'd say carry on with life as normal and try not to stress about the endless stream of conflicting advice that gets thrown our way.
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