4-Month-Old Baby Left in Car Dies From Heat
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In light of the tragic death of a 4-month-old baby who was left inside a hot car, Mom Logic interviewed Janette Fennell, founder and president of Kids and Cars, a national nonprofit group that advocates for child safety. Roughly 36 infants and children die annually in the US from being trapped in hot cars. 22 children have died already this year.
How can a parent forget their child? “Everyone thinks these parents are bad or strung out on drugs, but parents who’ve lost their kids in these types of accidents include pediatricians, doctors, school principals, lawyers, and NASA engineers,” she says. “For the most part, these are highly educated, extremely loving and doting parents.”
She says these accidents have little do with how good a parent is, and everything to do with how a memory functions — or doesn’t function. “In the early ’90s, these cases were rare. But then in the mid-’90s, front passenger airbags were installed in cars and there was a huge campaign to get kids to move to the back seat. An unintended consequence of this was kids dying of hyperthermia in cars — because children were out of sight, out of mind.”
In many of the cases, forgotten children are under the age of 1 in rear-facing car seats. Their parents are not sleeping much, which comes into play. “And in an overwhelming majority of cases, there has been a change in routine,” Fennell explains.
She says the biggest mistake parents can make is thinking this cannot happen to them. “That’s what these parents probably thought, too,” she says. Fennell shares three ways to help prevent these deadly accidents:
1. Starting today, put a teddy bear or stuffed animal in your child’s car seat. When your child is in his or her car seat, put the stuffed animal in the front passenger seat as a visual reminder your child is in the back seat.
2. Keep your lunch bag, employee badge, or purse in the back seat. That way, you’ll always reach in your back seat or open your back door when you arrive to your destination.
3. Have an ironclad policy with your daycare provider that if your child does not show up, that person will call a provided list of contacts to confirm his or her whereabouts. “In so many cases, if the daycare provider would have called, tragedy could have been averted,” says Fennell.
Kids and Cars is working hard to pass legislation that would require lawmakers to install weight-recognition sensors in cars that would alert parents who’ve left their kids in the back seat. “We won’t give up until it’s passed, because it would save countless lives,” Ferrell concludes.
Read the full article here, along with a timeline of other tragedies involving infants left in cars.
Comment by Tiffany on Jun 13 2009 03:56:22:
I’m sorry jus because ur a doctor ,lawyer, or a principal doesn’t mean u can “Just forget about ur child in a vehicle” Thats just an excuse!!!! No matter how busy i was, i NEVER forgot my child in a vehicle, NEVER.
Comment by Deidre on Jun 18 2009 03:21:42:
Tiffany…
But for the grace of God… until you’ve walked a mile never say never. May you never have to experience tragedy to only have someone judge you.
Comment by james on Jul 03 2009 04:23:54:
a parent who allows this to happen is not a parent at all and you are evil for defending them.THE FIRST THING ON A GOOD PARENTS MIND IS THE CHILD…..NO EXCUSES>>>ITS MURDER. all the people you mention have too much money and no common sense.how often do you see middle class parents doing these things? they love their children and dont give birth just to live up to societal expectations. Dont use GOD to defend evil.
Comment by Bronte on Sep 14 2009 05:04:02:
I agree with the above comments. How can you forget your child???? When you become a parent your child becomes an appendage of yourself! Except in cases when the parents have a career focus rather than family and the child is dumped with a nanny from the moment it is born. But then the question to ask is, “Why even have kids if you’re not going to be a parent to them?”
Comment by La Tosha Headley- Resident Mom on Sep 30 2009 11:28:55:
Maybe I read the article wrong but I took it like she was giving an example saying you don’t have to be on drugs to forget a child but that some examples of people forgetting their children were in the class of doctors lawyers, principles etc.
I do not see how I personally could NOT forget my son (5 months yesterday!)… I guess because I am naturally checking on him in the backseat and talking/singing to him when hes not sleep! When I get out of my vehicle I have to pass the backseat when I am walking so I see him I mean how could you not. I think these were cases where people believed.. ” HEY ILL JUST RUN IN THAT STORE, BUILDING ETC SINCE THE BABY IS PERHAPS SLEEP AND HE WILL BE FINE ILL LOCK HIM/HER IN AND KEEP THE WINDOWS UP” I think that is how those people may have been thinking … which yes ladies to us is not logical but to them they were ensuring safety of their child by keeping them closed up…thus dying of hyperthermia… I am not defending these people… but it is not my place to set judgement upon them … in reality they know what they did and so does God so may they get what they deserve if the intention was to end these innocent babies lives.
Comment by Lucy Glick on Nov 09 2009 09:42:35:
I have a solution! it will not require any effort in anyone’s part. You won’t have to remember to do any thing. It will just be there and work every time efficiently. Why can’t I get anyone to hear me? Do we need to loose more of our babies, before someone says “lets hear what this woman has to say”?
Comment by Apalled on May 01 2010 03:17:04:
I’m flabbergasted at the vindictive, better-than-thou attitudes of the comments here! The ignorance of some of the comments are mind-boggling. It’s people like you that think you would NEVER do it that are setting yourselves up for it to happen.
This isn’t murder. This is a tragedy.
I read a much more in-depth article on this kind of event happening, and a person whose life was devoted to studying memory was asked how someone could possibly forget their kids. He explained how memory functioned (and he has far more authority on the subject, than any emotional diatribe I am seeing spewed out here) and that it doesn’t matter what class you are.
It has happened to rich, middle class, and poor and there is no political correctness in who this happens to.
The whole point is that it CAN and DOES happen to anybody because of the way our brains function, especially compounded with laws like having the seat in the BACK of the car. If the kid was making noise, I’m sure no one would forget, but not all kids are noisy and a lot of them fall asleep while riding around in a vehicle. If the child seat were next to you, it would be nigh on impossible to forget your child, but they are now in the back.
Your memory can play tricks on you, no matter how superior YOU might think your brain or parenting skills are. This also harkens back to long ago, to when a teacher of mine was showing us a video of a deck of cards flashing through. Everyone in the class thought it was a full, correct deck, but it was not. Our brains tricked us into seeing what we would expect to see.
If our brains were perfect, than “magic” shows wouldn’t be successful. Magicians rely on trickery of both eye and brain.
That being said…
The teddy bear trick might work if it weren’t done routinely. Routines can trick your brain. If you are use to seeing a bear up front, no matter whether you put it there only because your kid is there, then you could easily just glance at it and get out and still forget the kid.
The purse? How many people forget their purses in the car and only realize that they did when they need something out of it? You could STILL forget the purse AND the kid in the car and only realize you forgot the purse in the car when you need it, only to go get it and realize your kid is in the car. That could still end in tragedy. Still, it might increase the chances that you WON’T forget the kid, so by all means, try it.
Sure, there might be some cases where the parent was “just going to run in” but all the examples I read were all parents going to work, including the NASA scientist referred to in this article. You can even forget them when you get home. And not everyone walks by the back of their car to get to where they are going. I know I don’t. And if you do, what if you don’t think to look in the back seat? How many people walk by their cars and look in the back on a routine basis, when you get to work?
People, lose the attitude. It might be YOU next. Show some compassion to these parents. These were loving, attentive parents, just like you think YOU are.
My heart goes out to those victims of tragedy, both child and parents.
Comment by Teddy bear in carseat on Jun 15 2010 12:43:23:
I think the suggestion to keep a teddy bear in the car seat is great, you keep the bear in the car seat, except when your child is in it, otherwise it is in the front seat, then put it back in the car seat when you get your child out of the seat…This kind of tragedy does happen and can happen to anyone when there is a change in the normal routine of things…but the teddy bear can be a cue to you that you haven’t dropped off your child if you can see it.