Spears stumbles, nearly drops her baby

updated 12:50 p.m. ET May 19, 2006

NEW YORK - Britney Spears stumbled outside a Manhattan hotel, nearly dropping her 8-month-old son and further fueling the ever-growing media scrutiny of her parenting skills.

In photos splashed across the front page and inside the New York Post on Friday, the 24-year-old pop star is shown exiting The Ritz-Carlton hotel with Sean Preston in one hand and a glass in the other.

As her bodyguards walked Spears to her car, she stumbled — her long pants apparently getting tangled in her open-toed shoes — and bent low as Sean Preston’s head flung backward, knocking off his orange hat.

Spears, though, was able to keep her balance and hold on to her son, with help from a bodyguard, who reacted quickly.

A call to Spears’ publicist Friday seeking comment was not immediately returned.

The baby bobble was the latest public incident involving the safety of Spears’ child. Earlier this week, she was photographed driving with Sean Preston in a car seat facing forward rather than facing backward, which some safety regulations say is best.

Spears, who recently announced that she’s pregnant with her second child, was visited by a sheriff’s deputy at her home in Malibu, Calif., last month after Sean Preston slipped from his nanny’s arms as she was lifting him from a high chair and something in the chair snapped.

In February, authorities visited Spears’ home after photos showed the singer in a car with her son in her lap, instead of being strapped to a car seat in the back seat. She first blamed pursuits by the paparazzi, but later said it was a “mistake.”

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