Car safety for babies is extremely important – especially during the summer. Today I’m sharing summer car safety tips for Moms with babies, inspired by recent events.
How could a parent leave their child in the car for the entire work day? Don’t you remember putting your baby in the car? Don’t you talk to your little one the whole ride? Even if they are asleep, don’t you check your mirror to see they are okay during your ride? I never really thought it could be possible until I read about it in Parents Magazine last month.
This happens though. Just yesterday, here in Georgia, a father left his 22 month old in the car for 8 hours while he went into work. It was well over 90 degrees outside. Last year over 43 children died of heat stroke after being left in a vehicle. This year – the number is already up to 14 (kidsandcars.org).
Supposedly, parents forget to drop the baby at daycare because they are tired/zonked out/doing something out of routine. While I have no idea how I could ever forget Annabelle in the backseat of my car, there are parents who have done it.
KidsAndCars.org is making July 31st Heat Stroke Prevention Day. The organization will be handing out educational pamphlets all over the U.S. On that pamphlet will be some Look Before You Lock safety education tips.
Here are a few summer car safety tips:
- Get in the habit of always opening the back door of your vehicle every time you reach your destination to check to make sure no child – or pet – has been left behind.
- Keep a large stuffed animal in the child’s car seat. Right before the child is placed in the seat, move the stuffed animal to the front passenger seat as a visual reminder that your child is in the back seat.
- Put something you’ll need on the floorboard in the back seat in front of your child’s car seat (cell phone, handbag, employee ID, briefcase, etc.). This ensures you open the back door of your vehicle to retrieve your belongings.
- Make arrangements with your daycare provider or babysitter to call you within 10 minutes if your child does not arrive as expected.
- Never leave children alone in or around cars, not even for a minute. Instead, use drive-thru services when available.
- Since the group began tracking data, at least 675 children have died in these preventable tragedies.
- Keep vehicles locked at all times; even in the garage or driveway and keep car keys and remote openers out of reach of children.
- When a child is missing, check vehicles and car trunks immediately.
Help share these summer car safety tips to your family and friends.
Always remember to look before you lock your doors. Tragedies are preventable if you follow summer car safety tips!
Even before I became pregnant, I wondered how parents could EVER forget about their babies?
Before I had Beckett, I thought it would be impossible to leave my precious baby in a hot car. I also thought people who shook their babies were INSANE. Now? I know how forgetful Mom-brain can make you (my late paid bills and forgotten appointments can attest). I also see how people can get so frustrated with their crying babies that they’d shake them… not that I ever would, but I see how easy it is for people to snap. It makes me so sad to think of the babies that fall victim to both things. 🙁
A woman my husband used to work with accidentally left her 1 year old daughter in the car after arriving at work. Thankfully it was cool out and the valet person noticed her about 10 minutes later, so everything turned out okay. She was soooooo upset with herself afterward. So scary. I actually have the opposite happen sometimes….i’ll go shopping without the baby and on the drive home i’ll see the empty base and momentarily freak out before remembering i don’t have him along 🙂
How scary for that woman! I am the same way though – I check when she isn’t with me!
Stories like these make me feel sick inside. I cried reading about the story out of Georgia earlier this week. It’s so heartbreaking! I don’t have kids of my own yet, but when I was a nanny I would take as many precautions as possible to ensure this NEVER happened. I made it a habit to always keep my purse in the backseat. When they baby wasn’t in the car, I would keep it in her car seat. When she was in the car, I would put it in the back floorboard underneath her. This ensured that no matter what, I always had to look in the backseat before getting out of the car. I like to think that I could never leave her back there without knowing, but I still wanted to take as much precaution as possible.
By the way, I’ve been reading your blog for months, but I think this is the first time I’ve commented. Your little one is so adorable!!!
Thank you SO much for commenting Morgan! I love how you have always been proactive to make sure that nothing like that could happen while you were a nanny. I think I will keep my purse in the car seat when she isn’t with me!