One womanâs warning about a common car seat accessory is the message we all need to see before heading out on our next car trip. Annie Yankova of London, England, recently went viral for a post she wrote encouraging parents to throw away car seat head support straps meant to give kids neck support when they fall asleep in the car. The warning comes after her young nephew was fatally choked by the band during a recent car accident.
Yankova could only find the strength to write her post ânow that the shock and denial has passed.â
"I have been asked to post this by my cousin and best friend to spread awareness," she wrote in the post from August 21 that has since bubbled up again on Facebook.
Three weeks before the post, Yankova lost her nephew "who was just 8 months old."
"They got into a car accident where the car flipped," she wrote.
"They had literally popped round the corner to a shop which is like a 2 minute drive," she explained in the post.
Thankfully, her nephewâs car seat "did its job," but the head support strap did unforeseen damage.
"This car seat add on that's pictured below is what suffocated and killed him as it slid down and out of place," she wrote. "This is just a warning to please THROW THIS SHIT OUT! (DO NOT SELL IT)."
Yankova bought one for her own daughter when she was just 3 weeks old nearly a year ago.
"My cousin loved it and so when my nephew was born I got him his one too," she explained.
"I'd be lying if I said I don't feel responsible," she added. Yankova's daughter is now 11 months old "and we've used this with her and to even think what might've happened makes me feel sick.â
Most of her family lives abroad, and with Yankova soon returning back to London where she lives, she feels awful for leaving.
"I donât know how I'm going to do it. I feel horrible," she wrote.
That is why she's taking action and trying to use this horrible tragedy to do some good.
"If you use this or anything similar, please please get rid [of it]. It's not worth it," she continued before adding that anything that doesn't come with a car seat "shouldn't be used!"
"Things such as bibbs, hats, headbands and coats also shouldn't be worn whilst in a car seat in the car," she added. "Please share to make others aware!"
The post has been shared more than 10,000 times â and there is definitely truth to Yankovaâs message.
According to Erin Baughn, an injury prevention specialist with Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who spoke with Today, "You should definitely not use products like these. They are definitely not safe for babies and children to use in car seats.
"It looks uncomfortable to us … to have our childâs head flopping forward in their car seat if they fall asleep," Baughn continued. "However, they are completely safe to have their head flopping forward as long as they are old enough to have that head control."
Car seats are specifically made to protect babyâs necks â so head support straps are simply not needed.
"If you restrain your child's head … the car seat is no longer going to perform the way that the car seat manufacturers have designed it," Baughn explained. "Potentially, that childâs neck could actually separate from their spinal cord. We call that internal decapitation."
Of course, it's understandable why parents buy these straps, but they need to make sure their car seat is installed properly, first and foremost.
"Correctly used child safety seats can reduce the risk of death in as much as 71 percent," Courtney Gleaton, injury prevention coordinator at Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, told Today. "Just using your car seats the correct way, you can reduce the risk of death."
