A 2-day-old boy in South Australia has died in a sling hanging on his mother’s body, police say. The mother noticed that the infant felt cold and stopped breathing.

The infant’s death caused experts to warn parents that such carriers can cause suffocation.

Though the autopsy didn’t confirm a cause of death, the sling is suspected of being implicated.

Slings Can Cause Suffocation on Babies

Roger Byard and John Gilbert, two of the best-regarded doctors in Australia, wrote to the Medical Journal Australia to warn that baby slings can lead to suffocation. There are no international manufacturing standards in producing baby slings.

This drew the attention of organizations like KidSafe South Australia.

''I'd like to see all products come with clear, specific instructions for use on or in the packaging with diagrams on how they should and shouldn't be used and to make it clear what the potential risks are,'' said Helen Noblet, the group's chief executive.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission responded that it already had issued safety standards.

''The ACCC is working with the product safety regulators in the U.S., Canada and Europe on the development of the safety standard for baby slings as a result of concerns in a variety of countries about the risk that they pose, in particular for very young infants,'' said Peter Kell, deputy chairman. “If it doesn't appear that voluntary standards will deliver adequate protection, then we will certainly consider the mandatory standard option.''

Byard, a professor of pathology at the University of Adelaide, and Gilbert, a senior forensic pathologist at Forensic Science South Australia, also warned that the position of the baby on the sling can also cause suffocation. The positions to avoid are the chin to chest position or any positions where nose and mouth are covered.

Both doctors suggested parents to keep an eye on their babies and make sure that their heads are facing outwards and that they can breathe freely. Parents should also avoid anything that covers the face.

The death was the first reported in Australia, but there have been 16 deaths associated with slings in the U.S. and Canada.