05-06-2025
Baby in back? Ways to remind yourself that your child is buckled in the back seat
Summer is near, and temperatures will be rising, with heat intensifying faster inside a vehicle.
If you have a baby or young child buckled in the back seat, this is a good time to find the best way to remind yourself that your precious cargo is strapped in behind you, especially if your vehicle doesn't have warning technology to alert you to check the back seat.
Kids and Car Safety; the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offer some tips:
Put the child's diaper bag or another item in the front passenger seat as a visual cue that the child is riding with you.
Put something in the back seat (next to where the child is buckled) that you can't start your day without − your work badge, cellphone, laptop, purse or briefcase.
Keep a stuffed animal or toy in the car seat and move it to the front passenger seat after you've buckled in the child in to remind you the child is riding with you.
Write a note to remind yourself to check the back seat.
Set an alarm on your cellphone or computer calendar, one that is different from all other alert sounds, to remind you to drop off your child at child care.
Open the back door every time you park, and look around inside before you lock your vehicle.
Announce and confirm who is getting each child out of the vehicle if you are riding with others.
Ask your babysitter or child care provider to contact you if your child hasn't arrived as scheduled.
If someone else is dropping off your child at child care, communicate with them that the drop-off was made.
There have been at least 1,129 children who have died in hot vehicles in the U.S. since 1990, according to Kids and Car Safety, an advocacy group devoted to saving the lives of children and pets in and around vehicles. It indicates 7,500 more children survived being in a hot vehicle, with various degrees of injury, according to its website.
Four children have died in hot vehicles this year, according to the group, with the latest being a 1-year-old boy in Albuquerque, N.M., on May 25. The other deaths were in New Jersey, Maryland and California, according to the website.
In Michigan, there have been 13 hot car deaths involving children under age 14 from 1990-2024 and two prior to 1990, according to the group. In August, a 3-year-old boy died in Vicksburg in Kalamazoo County when his father left him in a vehicle.
Several West Michigan television media reports indicate the man left his son in a rear-facing car seat in the driver's side back seat when he went to work. The reports indicate he dropped off his daughter at daycare, but forgot to drop off his son. He found the boy later that day after returning to his vehicle after a stop at a grocery store. He was charged, pleaded guilty and in March was sentenced to probation and a delayed jail sentence, according to the media reports.
Kids and Car Safety indicates that in more than half of hot car deaths, the person responsible for the child unknowingly left them in the vehicle. The majority of children who died in a hot car death was age 3 or younger, according to the group.
Having ways to remember to the check the back seat is important as Michigan's updated child passenger safety laws took effect April 2, with children needing to be secured in a car seat that is appropriate for their weight and height as indicated by the seat's manufacturer. All children under age 13 must ride in the rear seat, if the vehicle has one.
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Infants to children age 2 must be in a rear-facing car seat until they reach the maximum weight or height allowed by the seat's manufacturer or the child is 2 years old. Those age 2-5 can move into a forward-facing car seat until they reach the maximum weight or height allowed by the seat's manufacturer or the child is 5 years old.
Those age 5-8 can move into a belt-positioning booster seat using a lap and shoulder belt until they are 4 feet, 9 inches tall or 8 years old.
The National Weather Service indicates that the interior temperature of a vehicle can rise almost 20 degrees within the first 10 minutes, even with the windows cracked open.
A child's body temperature rises three to five minutes faster than an adult's, so their temperature can rise quickly when left in a vehicle. Heat stroke begins when the core body temperature reaches about 104 degrees, and death occurs at a core body temperature of 107 degrees or above, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Contact Christina Hall: chall@ Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ways to remind yourself that your child is buckled in the back seat
