Joy-Anna Duggar And Austin Forsyth Accused Of Putting Baby Gideon In Danger After Showing Off Shredded Tire

Joy-Anna Duggar and Austin Forsyth recently experienced a scary blowout while they were on the road with baby Gideon, and it wasn’t of the diaper variety. After seeing Joy-Anna and Austin’s Instagram post about the ordeal, some of the couple’s followers criticized them for potentially putting their tiny son in danger.

On Friday, Counting On stars Joy-Anna Duggar, 20, and Austin Forsyth, 24, let their fans know that they blew a tire while they were out working together. In a video included in a Instagram slideshow, Joy-Anna talked about the terrible luck that she and Austin have been having with trailers lately. According to the Duggar daughter, she and Austin had just completed a “dozer job” and were heading home when they “blew a tire pretty terribly.” She said that they’d only been on the road for 15 minutes when the blown trailer tire forced them to pull over. Joy-Anna also revealed that she had experienced a blowout while towing a different trailer just one day earlier.

Joy-Anna’s video was shot on the side of the road, where she showed Austin Forsyth crouched down on the ground surveying the damage. Her Instagram slideshow also included a photograph of the completely shredded tire, as well as a snapshot of four-month-old Gideon sitting in the backseat of his parents’ truck. It was the latter image that attracted the most attention.

Some fans simply commented on how cute Gideon is. He has a wide smile on his face in the photo that Joy-Anna shared, and he looks totally chill. The little boy is rocking a onesie featuring a pattern of tiny dump trucks and excavator trucks.

“At least the baby is happy and totally adorable!” read one response to the Instagram post.

There were also numerous comments from fans who were concerned about Gideon’s car seat. They pointed out that the chest clip on his harness appears to be too low, and they suggested that this put the little boy in danger of getting seriously injured.

“Pull that chest clip up or he’ll fly right out of that car seat,” remarked one follower.

“His chest clip needs to be higher, if y’all were in a crash his internal organs could be injured with the way you have it now,” another wrote. “Please move it up onto the chest, armpit level!”

Other fans fired back at the “car seat police,” calling their comments “annoying” and “aggravating.” It was also suggested that the way Joy-Anna Duggar chooses to strap Gideon into his car seat is no one’s business but her own. In response, many of those who were discussing Gideon’s harness argued that they weren’t trying to mommy-shame Joy-Anna Duggar; they just wanted to make sure that her baby boy was kept out of harm’s way.

“Car seat safety is a matter of LIFE or DEATH!! It’s never rude or condescending to tell people that the chest clip is messed up,” wrote one fan. “Sometimes moms get overwhelmed and forget to move the clip up! No judgment only love!!”

According to the Car Seats for the Littles website, a chest clip should be placed over a child’s sternum. However, it’s a myth that the purpose of the clip is meant to keep a baby from being ejected from a car seat during a crash; this is the function of the crotch buckle. The site says also that there have also been no documented cases of improperly positioned chest clips injuring babies’ internal organs. However, a chest clip that is positioned too low may cause the shoulder straps on a car seat harness to be too widely spaced, and this can result in “increased head excursion, spinal, internal, and brain injuries, or even ejection from the car seat.”

Some Duggar fans suggested that Joy-Anna could have loosened Gideon’s harness while they were stuck on the side of the road so that he would be more comfortable, or maybe she simply hadn’t readjusted them after taking the baby boy out to feed him. One fan joked that this might be why Gideon has such a big smile on his face in the photo.

However, Gideon’s car seat harness wasn’t the only concern that some fans had. Others criticized Joy-Anna Duggar and Austin Forsyth for taking their baby to work with them in trailer-truck rigs with bad tires.

“Those tires are not drivable. That crap would not fly in the north… you dont drive your baby in a vehicle with unsafe equipment,” remarked one commenter.

“I would be more concerned with their desire to save money and having old tires on their equipment along with having the baby in the vehicle while towing a trailer with whether rotted tires,” another wrote.

However, Gideon probably won’t quit riding in his parents’ work rig anytime soon. As reported by Radar Online, Joy-Anna has said that Austin is “excited” to have a son that he can bring to work with him, and he’s looking forward to teaching Gideon “all the skills” that he knows. Hopefully, one of those skills is how to change a tire.