LONDON, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The popular cardboard boxes for babies have raised concerns about its safety, media reported on Thursday.
In a letter to the medical journal BMJ, Professor Peter Blair from the University of Bristol in Britain warned there was a lack of evidence into how safe the boxes are for sleeping in.
According to the expert, parents could not observe their babies easily when they are sleeping in baby boxes instead of cots, bassinets and Moses baskets.
Besides, some cardboard boxes might be flammable or expose babies to pets and young siblings. They are also probably fragile if they become wet or dirty due to their materials.
"One of the things we've been encouraging in the last 25 years is just a bit more closer contact, closer observation," Blair said. He also pointed out that baby boxes went "slightly against that" because parents were harder to observe sleeping babies.
The boxes should only be used as a temporary bed if nothing else is available, Blair said in his letter.
Cardboard baby boxes have been provided for new parents in Finland since the 1930s. Now they are also offered to pregnant women in Scotland and parts of England. Sometimes it was claimed that the boxes helped Finland to decrease rates of sudden infant death syndrome while Blair and his colleagues doubted there is no evidence.
