TX baby left in car overnight is found dead

[Marina-Del 10]

I remember a story from an Oprah episode a few years back. The shows topic was actually about sleep deprivation and how it affects people. The father forgot to drop the baby off at daycare in the morning. When the wife called her husband asking where the baby was when she went to pick him up- that's when he found the baby dead in the backseat.

He and a co worker took his car through a drive through for lunch and neither of them noticed the baby in the back. How horrible.

Whoa....how could they have not noticed the baby in the back at lunch?! Crazy. I guess that means that in this case, the baby had to have been dead or at least heavily asleep even by lunch time!

This is very horrible and I agree with others about not understanding how she could have gone all night without noticing. As others have stated, wouldn't the other kids presence, minus one, have alerted her that one was missing???

[EasyRider 3]

I read about a case years ago about a woman who got out of work one day and went to the day care center where she left her baby, as she did everyday, only to find out that the baby was not there. She was understandably irate. She demanded that people find her baby and that she was going to sue everybody in that damn day care center and wouldn't rest until all of them and their relatives were put in jail. The staff scrambled to look for the missing infant but they insisted that the baby was not dropped off that day. After looking around they found the baby, dead in the mother's car. She had been in such a hurry to get to work that morning that she forgot to drop off her baby at day care. I'm not sure what happened to the mother after that. But does it matter? Nobody comes back from that.

[Nagishkaw 510]

A few years ago here in Detroit a woman left her infant in the car while she went and got her hair done. It was 90 something degrees and of course the baby literally cooked inside the car.

[Marina-Del 10]

A few years ago here in Detroit a woman left her infant in the car while she went and got her hair done. It was 90 something degrees and of course the baby literally cooked inside the car.

I can partially understand being in such a hurry to get to work that you forget to drop your child off at daycare...but I feel like when you pull into your work parking lots and grab your things out of the car, that you would have to notice the baby. I just don't understand getting out of the car and not noticing that your baby is still in it....or in the case mentioned above, driving back to the daycare without noticing that your child is still in the back.

[mkg265 2]

I remember a story from an Oprah episode a few years back. The shows topic was actually about sleep deprivation and how it affects people. The father forgot to drop the baby off at daycare in the morning. When the wife called her husband asking where the baby was when she went to pick him up- that's when he found the baby dead in the backseat.

He and a co worker took his car through a drive through for lunch and neither of them noticed the baby in the back. How horrible.

This is horrible and makes me worry about myself when I have kids. I hope to God no matter how little sleep I get I'll remember my child!

[EasyRider 3]

A few years ago here in Detroit a woman left her infant in the car while she went and got her hair done. It was 90 something degrees and of course the baby literally cooked inside the car.

I can partially understand being in such a hurry to get to work that you forget to drop your child off at daycare...but I feel like when you pull into your work parking lots and grab your things out of the car, that you would have to notice the baby. I just don't understand getting out of the car and not noticing that your baby is still in it....or in the case mentioned above, driving back to the daycare without noticing that your child is still in the back.

Actually, the one posted on the first page is the same case as the one I posted, I think. I didn't read the post because I was writing mine when it was posted.

But I agree. I also heard of a man that was baby sitting his child or step child, I can't remember, and went inside a casino to play the slots for a while. Well, it turns out the a while was several hours later. The baby died.

[Eveline 9]

It is hard to understand how you can forget to drop of your child at daycare and go to work but when you are in a hurry in the morning, it is plausible. BUT at any point during that day...don't you start to think about your kid? Don't you start thinking that you have to go to pick it up and THEN don't you remember that you didn't drop it off in the morning? I don't know...I hope it never happens to me. So far, I'm only freaked out when I leave my kids with my MIL or my husband to go somewhere and I look in the rear view mirror and see two empty seats. For half a second I panic before I remember that they are with somebody and I didn't forget them somewhere....

[meowmeowmeow 1]

[EtherealVocalist 0]

That is such a horrible situation - It really tears my insides out

[caybee 21]

I think part of it is that babies are no longer allowed in the front seat, for good reason, so in a larger car or a minivan, they're no longer right there to remind you. I can't imagine ever forgetting the baby, but the number of times it'####### the news, it scares me (the hormones have everything scaring me these days). I'm tempted to get a separation alarm or hook a strap between my wrist or purse and the car seat any time I go somewhere, if only for the peace of mind.

[jhcruz18 3]

why would she do that? that is so sad. :angry: :angry:

[Caladan 19]

Terribly sad.

I can almost understand how someone could forget to drop a child at daycare on the way to work, then get wrapped up in the work routine, but when this woman fed the other kids and put them to bed, how could she not realize the littlest one was missing?? The kids are right there, and surely there's a routine for them, formula or baby food for the infant, and wouldn't the older kids have said something if they were old enough to talk? Makes me wonder if she was indeed incapacitated in some way, putting all of the kids in danger. Truly heartbreaking.

There was a recent article about this in the NYT. Most of the time when a parent forgets a child in a car, alcohol and drugs are involved. But in a significant number of cases, it's something like simple exhaustion, and it's to an otherwise good parent. And the reason the researchers thinks it happens is that the parent is tired and the usual routine is something where he or she wouldn't see the kid. Daycare is the most common one (sometimes the parents even drive to the daycare afterwards with their dead kid in the car, to pick up the kid.) E.g., take the baby out of the car, put the baby in bed for the night. The brain doesn't think "where's the baby?" because as far as the brain is concerned, that task has already been completed and filed. (Just like after you put the baby down to bed, you don't think "is the baby still in the bed?"; you *know* that you've done it.) It's the same sort of auto-pilot that can make someone, for example, accidentally take a turn towards the office while driving on the weekend.

One suggestion I've heard is to leave something like a briefcase or purse in the backseat next to the baby. Something, basically, that forces even a tired brain to look.

[Niels Bohr 72]

At that point in time, she probably was thinking that she has to get the hair done. And, totally ignored the fact of her life.

[*Robert* 2]

Anytime something like this happens it is just simply tragic.

for the poor baby.

[Mina76 0]

I really have no sympathy for these people. I have never forgotten my daughter in the car. Neither has my husband. It just simply does not happen. I don't care how otherwise distracted I have been. I am really skeptical if it isn't used as some kind of socially acceptable post-term abortion.

Same here!!!

There is no excuse for a parent to forget their child being left in the car no matter how busy or distracted they were! My children were always with me and not once have I ever left one of them in the car no matter what I was doing or where I was at the moment.. With children being reported missing everyday I always kept my children close and protected and always knew where they were!