because airport security tampered with my babyharness and did not tell me?

[Ionama]

On a recent attempt to go on holiday, I took off my Baby Bojorn harness and put it thru the xray, I put it on the way I had taken it off and plugged my baby back into the strap I had opened. 5 minutes later may baby fell out of the carrier resulting in a serious injury and I have come to find that 2 side buttons of the harness had been undone. The trip ended up being a 5 day stay in hospital for my baby (and us). No-one told me to come while they 'inspected' my carrier and it was simply in the tray with my hand bag etc. Am I being unreasonable in wanting them to inform parents if/when they do this?.. so that another child's safety is never again compromised..? I am still very much in shock and recovery from my baby's injury... :(

hobgoblin she said step mother in law - Is that ok for you?

SJB - I really was not trying to be offensive it honestly just occurred to me and I thought it would explain some of the terms and stuff that the OP used - like plugged the baby into the carrier, even using babyharness in the title of the post.

In no way was I remotely trying to be offensive.

I have been lurking on this thread for a while.

I really feel for the op and hope her and her family are getting some rest now and looking to the future.

But I can see why all the questions have been raised and think its in response to not wanting to put YABU without explanation as to why people think that.

Yes Botty, it comes across to me as maybe how someone who has learnt English in America would write - in the long posting it says something about leaving the airport straight "onto a street" which I don't think is a phrase that I would expect to be used.

To the troll hunters.

If you think this story isn't genuine please can you just leave the poor woman alone, for the chance that it might just be true - however slim you perceive that chance to be?

Because what you could well be doing is adding to the distress of someone who's already had a terrible time, which is really pretty shameful.

I disagree, lowrib.

Mumsnetters have been universally kind about the baby's injury and the stress/anguish caused to the parents.

What is contentious is the culture of blame - let's blame the security personel as if they are not real people.

What the collective experience on this thread has shown is that it is highly unlikely to have anything to do with security.

Not aware of any troll hunters. People have simply responded to the AIBU which the op posted.
Everyone has expressed total sympathy for the family .
I don't think the op is a troll. I think this accident happened, and I don't think there is any clear evidence how it happened. There doesn't always have to be someone to blame.

She said step mum in law. i don't think its confusing to use step mum in law and MIL interchangably.

To all you posters saying this can't be right as security always call people over before inspecting property I have a question. Airport security are humans just like the rest of us and just like OP, and just like the OP (and us all) they make mistakes. Is it not in the least bit conceivable that one of them inspected something and forget or omitted to establish the owner first? I am sure it happens. Or that one of them moved or lifted the BB in such a way as to undo the buttons? I don't find either of these scenarios unlikely.

Of course in hindsight we can all say that OP should have checked the sling. However I am sure we have all made mistakes in the past that could hae resulted in serious injury to our children and it is only pure luck that it didn't.

I don't think it was unreasonable for the OP to extrapolate that the cause of the baby's fall was the buttons being undone? If that the case then they must have come undone before the fall and not in the 5 days after. It would be an amazing coincidence that the baby fell from a perfectly secure sling that's buttons happened to have come undone in the time after (aspecially when these are buttons that have never come undone before).

Most importantly OP I am so sorry for what happened to you and your DS. I hope he is OK. Please don't blame yourself too much, us mothers cannot think of everything and eliminate all errors and accidents. It or soemthing similiar could happen to any of us. I am sorry you could not get more understanding on this site.

Finally I don't think YABU to expect airport staff to let you know if they unbuttoned the sling, but I do think you should view it as an unfortunate series of events that led to an accident rather than one were blame needs to be attached.

This thread is diamonds.

Ionama - I am wearing mine now and if you only undo one bottom clips only its quite hard to get the baby back in (I have never taken mine off that way, always unclips both sides and top) - did you put their arms back through the arm holes when you put them back in? How old were they? As imagine unless it was on very loosely a baby wouldn't fall out if they were in securely other than one of the bottom clips undone. Just trying to imagine/visualise how it happened.

Also back to your OP - although I am very sad your baby was hurt, I don't think the staff "tampered", (which suggests breaking)rather they might have "undone", and either way its your obligation as a user to check its all on safely.

Poor you and your baby Ionama.

I think you should write to the airport as others have said upthread.

Also I think posters should show a bit of compassion. If you don't think the OP it true- fair enough. Either report it ignore it or hide it. But a first time poster looking for other experiences shouldn't have to face a kangaroo court ffs!

Anyway, the lesson here is that those baby carriers have got a catastrophic failure mode, in that it can be in a state in which the baby will fall to the ground without the using immediately noticing before letting the carrier (not) take the baby's weight. Which is a lesson for all users, I suggest. Most safety-critical systems are designed to make being in an unsafe condition immediately obvious, but perhaps baby slings aren't considered safety critical.

Tokyonambu - I have read all the posts on this thread again and I have to say I disagree with you.

I have no experience of these carriers but the overwhelming concensus of opinion from the other users of this carriers is that they cannot understand how this could have happened.

It was an accident. Just an accident. Terrible for the family, but no one was to blame.

Very few things are "just an accident".

really?

Seems from your previous post that maybe the OP should be suing baby bjorn then - perhaps since you seem to have some knowledge of the area you could contact her and help her out.

Tokyo do you work for one of these "no win no fee" companies perchance

I have nothing but contempt for suing, and the only substantial injury I've had I put down to experience. However, aviation a couple of generations ago dismissed almost every incident as "just an accident" or, alternatively, "pilot error", and it's only with recent, detailed investigations that real problems have been analysed and eliminated.

It's unlikely that a child dropped out of a correctly fastened baby carrier. It's also unlikely that a mother completely failed to place their child into a baby carrier and dropped it headfirst on the floor the moment they released their arm,. although it is possible. Between those two point lies mis-use, mid-understanding, bad installation, wear and tear, a whole stack of other things. I don't mean "there's no such thing as an accident, so sue", but I do mean "there's often a systematic reason for what is seen as an accident". If there's a way to put a carrier on such that it's not really fastened, it would be as well to make sure that it's as hard as possible, yes?

"If there's a way to put a carrier on such that it's not really fastened, it would be as well to make sure that it's as hard as possible, yes?"

Thats exactly what a number of posters on this thread have said - they find it very difficult to imagine how a baby could be placed in the carrier in such a way that it would fall out so fast that the mother would be unaware.

My baby bjorn carrier is what I would call old, as in dd1 is 9,
and unless they have changed the design considerably, I really can't see how it could happen,
there are 2 buttons plus a slide and lock attachment IF these were undone and also on the side were the op took her baby out the whole thing would be open and impossible not to miss,
if just the buttons were undone, the slide and lock would still keep baby in, I really struggle to see how it happened

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