To think there is no excuse to leave a baby in a hot car?

[FIS2016]

Especially when there are two adults available!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-36482405

I don't understand why anyone would think this is acceptable. Poor baby.

[bumblefeline]

Poor baby :-(

It was absolutely roasting here in Stoke yesterday as well.

[weeblueberry]

My baby (4 months) was accidentally locked in the car when I was getting everything in the car after her second set of inoculations. I must have hit the lock button then closed the boot not realising the keys were still in the buggy where I'd chucked them in my sleepless haze.

I am a very cool, calm and collected person and properly freaked the hell out as soon as I realised I couldn't get to her. She was asleep but it was June and about 20 degrees. My phone was in the car as well - luckily I was at the doctors surgery and they had my partners contact information. Unluckily he was across town and about forty minutes away.

I properly panicked like I've never done in my life. The doctor's receptionist called the police and they were there in less than five minutes. She wasn't distressed so they asked what I wanted them to do. We called our breakdown cover people because they could have accessed the car without breaking a window but they said twenty minutes.

Obviously I got the police to break one of the front windows. They do it with a touch force hammer so it didn't explode all over the seat.

Even thinking about it now makes me shudder. It was probably about fifteen minutes from beginning to end and she was asleep the whole time until the car alarm went off but it was probably one of the longest fifteen minutes of my life as I watched her getting clammy, sweaty and hot.

The thought of someone intentionally doing this and not giving it a second thought makes my stomach lurch.

[Lilicat1013]

I have a tool on my key ring for breaking car windows so I would use that if I was concerned about a baby or pet locked in a hot car
www.amazon.co.uk/Resqme-Escape-Tool-Clip-Black/dp/B000IE0EZO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465469084&sr=8-1&keywords=res%20q%20me&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21
I would make reasonable attempts to try and contact the parents/owner and contact the police but is the child/animal was visibly suffering I would break the window and deal with the consequences later.
I don't have it on the off chance I come across a baby in a hot car, I got it in case of an accident (it has a seat belt cutting thing on). It is small enough to go on a keyring so my husband and I both have one on our keys.

[thrillhouse]

In fact I even get really worried if DD is even napping in the car. I never ever leave her alone, obviously, but I do just park up sometimes. I always open the windows though.

[thrillhouse]

Need I guess if you're so used to the daily routine, you're sleep deprived, it's hot... I can sort of see how it would happen.

I am really glad that my drop off at childcare routine is only two days a week. I keep bags in the boot and I leave the car at the childminder's rather than driving to work so I feel that helps. But even then I'd never say that it would never happen to me. You just don't know.

When DD was a couple of months old we went food shopping and I put her in her car seat to come home but didn't fasten the seat to the car. I realised halfway home and luckily nothing happened but if we had crashed I dread to think what could have been.

[Buckinbronco]

It's basically the same as leaving your baby at the shops though isn't it? It's not common and I don't expect most people understand it when they haven't experienced it but it happens to other people and they are not neglectful

[NeedACleverNN]

Those links are awful

I don't understand it though...how can you forget your own child in the back of the car?!

I don't drive so maybe I am more concious of my children being there..

[YouAreMyRain]

Yes bibbity, I read your post and agreed with you and summarised my similar thoughts.

[Scotinoz]

Not leaving children in hot cars is a massive thing in Australia, and there's a pretty interesting You Tube video of Matt Moran (celeb chef) cooking a leg of lamb on the dashboard to prove the point. Nuts!

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

Yes. As I said at 19:59.

[YouAreMyRain]

The big difference is children being forgotten in a car and children being deliberately left.

One adult, child forgotten, mistake.

Two adults, child deliberately left, neglect.

[Oysterbabe]

This is it.
www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html
Makes my blood run cold.

[Oysterbabe]

No she meant non-neglectful. I read an incredibly moving article about it. I'll try and find it.

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

www.bundoo.com/articles/forgotten-baby-syndrome-why-parents-leave-children-in-hot-cars/

It is such a well known syndrome it has a name. In the UK we have fewer hot days and, fortunately, it does not happen so often!

It is a serious issue in hot countries and has sparked prevention campaigns (much like the campaign against SIDS here) so don't be writing it off as sheer lunacy!

[Ichta]

I doubt they will be caring for a child much longer.

[TheVillagePost]

"Sadly many children have been forgotten and died in hot cars by non-neglectful parents. Same with dogs."

Are you serious? You mean neglectful, surely? What could possibly be non-neglectful about a parent who forgets their child? Sheer lunacy.

[BeBopTalulah]

You have legal protection if you have to cause damage to property in order to save a life. Car windows would shatter completely into pieces that are not particularly sharp, not like pane glass which breaks into shards.

[YorkieDorkie]

No excuse EVER!

I watched a programme last year where people were offered money to sit in a hot car for 10 minutes. No one managed more than 5. Babies and toddlers should NEVER be left. Not for 30, 20 or 10 minutes. There is absolutely no way of knowing how hot the car is or will get. Dispicable!

Same goes for poor pets.

[mizuzu]

there is no excuse, It is baking in my car i could not imagine leaving a child in that absolutely awful

[Arborea]

given that time is of the essence in these situations, don't you think that there would be a legal process that would protect a good samaritan who saved a child's life?

Yep, it's the doctrine of necessity.

[Buckinbronco]

I doubt they'll release their names until the trial and No one will remember it by then

[Andrewofgg]

These two are going to get press-lynched, aren't they?

[gonetoseeamanaboutadog]

If it's hot. You're staking your baby's life on nothing happening to detain you.

[gonetoseeamanaboutadog]

No, there is no excuse. Ever. At all.

[BitOutOfPractice]

There's no excuse for leaving a baby in a car that long at any time, let alone a hot day. And of course half an hour is how long he was in there before he was resvued. Fuck knows how long he's have been left otherwise