The State Institute of Health warns against the use of pillows for infants that hold the bottle by themselves while drinking. According to experts, they can be dangerous for the child, there is a risk of inhaling the contents of the bottle and suffocation. The sale was already banned in Ireland, for example. According to the institute, they are not available on the Czech market, but they can be ordered online.
The product resembles a well-known travel pillow hugging the child’s neck and head, but in the part lying on the child’s chest, it is supplemented with a place for attaching a baby bottle. “Thus, the child loses the natural ability to push away or let go of the bottle with food when he no longer wants to drink,” explained Jitka Sosnovcová, head of the National Reference Laboratory for materials intended for contact with food and for products for children under three years of age under the State Institute of Health .
It only takes a moment without adult supervision and suffocation can easily occur, and in the worst cases, even a child can suffocate. “If the child falls asleep during feeding, he can suffocate completely silently, even crying or a loud cough will not alert the parents,” added Sosnovcová. The pillow is designed so that the child can feed itself even without the presence of an adult. Therefore, the child lies on his back with the pillow and the bottle is attached to the pillow with a rubber band or a bag.
The warning and ban on the use of the pads was originally issued by the Irish Competition and Consumer Commission. “They are dangerous and directly contradict the principles of safe bottle feeding,” said the commission’s director of product safety, Clara Thornton.
According to information from the Czech control authorities, there are no self-feeding pillows on the Czech market. However, parents could order them from international online stores or bring them from abroad.
