re: ATL - Toddler Left in Car

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I have an 8 year old and a 2 year old, but when they were both infants, I developed an OCD habit of checking the carseat in the back seat of my car to make sure I had not left them in there.

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Very smart. I know I read somewhere that you can stick a small stuffed animal that always rides in the car seat when it's empty. When the child is in the seat, you place the stuffed animal in your front passenger seat.

But again, the 8-5 monotonous routine that changes 1 day out of a 100 days seems to be when this is most likely to occur. People just get on autopilot with the routine nature of going to work at the same time and make mistakes.

Eta:

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Keep a large teddy bear in the child's car seat when it's not occupied. When the child is placed in the seat, put the teddy bear up front in the passenger seat. It's a visual reminder that anytime the teddy bear is in the passenger seat, the child is in the back.

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Yup.

quote:

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I developed an OCD habit of checking the carseat in the back seat of my car to make sure I had not left them in there.

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I made it a habit to start putting my bag, etc in the back seat, that way I had no choice but to open the back door(s).