The grandfather of a five-week-old boy who died in a sling during a 10-minute walk with his mother today paid tribute to a “wonderful, beautiful” grandson.
Eric Matthews was accidentally suffocated as his mother, Marianne, took him for a walk on Christmas Eve.
At his inquest last week, Coroner Richard Brittain raised concerns about the safety of slings, which have become popular with celebrity mothers such as Gwyneth Paltrow, but have caused six baby deaths in the UK and 16 in the US and Canada.
Richard Medcalf, 66, Eric’s grandfather, said: “He was a wonderful, beautiful little boy who loved doing all the things that little boys love doing, like playing and things. He was adored. It seems so strange that something that has been used for generations has gone wrong like this, it must have been some kind of defect. It really is tragic. I was very upset and of course my daughter has been too, it’s very hard to take.”
Mrs Matthews, 35, from Harrow, told the inquest that she learned how to position Eric in the sling from a parenting manual. She also warned parents, saying: “I don’t want to scaremonger but I think it isn’t known about. All the books say slings are good for babies.”
Mrs Matthews and her husband Robert took Eric for a walk last year after he began crying. When they got home he had stopped breathing, blood was coming from his nose and they performed emergency CPR. He died in Great Ormond Street Hospital eight days later. The type of sling was not identified. Dr Mary Malone, who carried out the post-mortem, said such deaths are usually caused by the child’s position leading to asphyxiation. The coroner ruled the “tragic death” was caused by the airways being blocked.
Mrs Matthews set up a fundraising page on website Justgiving under her son’s full name, Eric Laser Matthews, which has raised £2,832. She wrote: “Eric’s short life made us want to give back to those who helped in the difficult last days. The amazing people at Great Ormond Street showed great care and dedication.”
