MOST parents will know never to leave their little one unattended in the bath, even to grab a towel or answer the phone.
But you might think your little tot will be fine if you leave them in a bath seat while you pop out of the room for a sec.
But ex-paramedic Nikki Jurcutz warned parents that babies are just as vulnerable to drowning when perched in one of these nifty seats.
In a recent post, the first aider behind the baby and child first aid page Tiny Hearts Education wrote: "Never leave your child unattended in one of these.
"Even if it's to 'pop outside to get the towel'. Even if it's to 'quickly answer the front door'. Even if it's 'just for a second'."
She added: "Please remember, baby baths were designed to be used with ACTIVE supervision, all the time, every time."
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The former paramedic shared a message from one of the mums following the page as a stark warning to other parents.
In her message to Tiny Hearts , the mum wrote she'd had a 'big shock' after her little one tipped out of his bath seat when she took her eyes off him to speak to her husband.
She explained that her son Ziggy – then eight and a half months old – has hypotonia, which causes decreased muscle tone in babies.
The parents had been relying on a bath seat to give their little one a bath until he grew out of it.
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In a pinch, they decided to use his feeding chair to keep him upright while they bathed him and help his posture.
The mum wrote: "Tonight I was bathing him, my husband came in to ask me something, I turned away for literally five seconds and out boy managed to tip himself forward and out of the chair into the water.
"My husband pointed and rushed towards me, so I turned and grabbed our son so quickly and, thankfully, he's OK."
The shocked mum stressed that she didn't even step out of the room during the scary incident.
"I was beside him the whole time and it still happened!" she wrote, explaining that she only took her eye off Ziggy for a few seconds and "it happened so quickly".
Though "it could have been a lot worse", the mum said she had received "a huge scare and a big shock".
Nikki emphasised that babies are still at risk of drowning when left unattended in a bath seat, referring to statistics published by the UK's National Child Mortality Database.
She said the agency had reported the drowning of seven infants in a bath between April 2019 and March 22.
"In five of these cases, bath seats were being used," the ex-paramedic stated.
While the nifty seats can be a useful tool to making bathing easier and help prevent your baby slipping, parents should never be complacent when using them, Nikki went on.
She shared three bath seat safety tips parents should keep in mind when placing their little ones in them:
- Always be within arms reach of your baby
- Actively supervise your baby when they are in the bath water
- Never leave your baby unattended in the bath, not even for a second
Ex-paramedic and founder of first aid education platform Safer Little Steps,Ross Smith has previously shared a step by step guide for what to do if your baby does swallow bathwater.
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He walked parents through when to call an ambulance and how long to do CPR for.
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