July 23 : Young babies are vulnerable to death not only when they are lying down in car seats but also when they are seated, Canadian scientists said.

The researchers said a study done by them indicated that the rate of deaths among seated babies was relatively small at just over 3 percent but extra care should be taken by parents for very young babies in any type of infant seat, reported health portal The News medical.

Previous studies had found that very young babies were at risk of dying while sleeping unattended in standard car safety seats.

Researchers at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal analysed all sudden unexpected deaths occurring among babies up to 12 months of age in the Canadian Province of Quebec between 1991 and 2000.

The researchers found that 17 percent of the 508 deaths had occurred in babies who were seated, predominantly, but not exclusively, in car seats and 10 percent of these deaths were unexplained.

The finding of the research published online by the British Journal Archives of Disease in Childhood found that though premature babies were not at greater risk, those aged under a month were almost four times as likely to die suddenly while seated as were older babies.

In the group of unexplained deaths, babies less than one month old were more than seven times as likely to die while seated.(IANS)