apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

A child in the Bay Area died just this past week. This gizmo could prevent a horrific tragedy and save a parent or caretake horredous grief and guilt.

The demand for this device has to do with a change in how car seats are mounted. They used to be mounted facing forward, sometimes even in the front passenger seat. Now -- to protect the baby from inflating airbags -- they have to go in the back seat, facing backwards. A sleeping baby is invisible and inaudible.

Infant car seats are in the back seat, rear-facing not just because of air bags. It's also because (1) the rear seat is safer in general than the front seat and (2) in an accident, babies' necks and spines can't handle the force of an impact if they face forward.

It's unfortunate that people forget their babies. If this device helps them remember, all the better. I just hope they don't rely solely on this device and then the moment the battery dies in either unit, they leave their baby behind.

I suspect, however, that the baby-forgetters are not likely conscientious enough to use such a device.

i guess i'm not as sympathetic to these parents maybe becaus i'm not one yet, but WHO IN THE HELL FORGETS THEIR BABY IN THE CAR?! i saw this on the news and wanted to vomit. i bet they wouldn't forget their ipods and cell phones in the car....

ah, yes, one more gadget to gelp STUPID people out....
it's bad enough that they keep reproducing but now their stupidity is affecting a helpless soul. I think a better thing would be a test for Parental Fitness; if you pass, you are allowed to reproduce, if you fail you're sterilized on the spot.

oh, that's help, not gelp.

Being sympathetic to the parents isn't the point -- I'm in favor of people who want the security of a gadget buying one because I'm sympathetic to the baby. Death should not be the penalty for being born to parents who aren't always firing on all cylinders.

you're absolutely right, wende. i was really just commenting on the fact that parents are forgetting their kids in the car (i.e. the problem is there regardless, so we have to finde a way to fix it). i was just so stunned the other day watching the morning news that when this was brought up i had to express it. but, by all means, save the kids. i just still can't see how someone could forget. do they think "oh, my stroller seems to be empty." or "oh, it really feels like there should be something in this baby bjorn." or "oh, why do my arms feel so light and empty?" it's just amazing to me.

I recall a case in the UK (I think) where the baby was left on the roof, in the child seat, and was stopped on the motorway by the police.

The firm where I worked came up with this concept years ago. However, we could never sell the idea because the companies we approached did'nt believe that anyone could be so stupid- therefore no need for the product.

Condemning doesn't change the fact that it is a regular occurrence. This gadget only addresses infants left in cars. It doesn't address all the other times in a child's life when a parent forgets to pick them up or drop them off. Modern life includes a lot of multi-tasking that makes dropping a baby off one in a list of things done against the clock. A woman in my hometown, Rochester NY just lost her baby the same way. She didn't realize until after work that she had never dropped the baby off at daycare. Poor thing expired in the hot car.

It happens. And as long as parents have to work and deliver their children to caretakers, it will continue to happen. The loss of a child is a high price to pay for a swamped life.