We have all read the heart-breaking stories of children being left in cars – intentionally or unintentionally, they are tragedies that could be avoided.

The tips listed below are from an article entitled, “Temperatures soar in hot car demonstration” from the Alice-Echo News Journal, a newspaper in Texas.  That is another place that knows all to well the soaring temperatures of the hot summer months!

• Never leave your car keys where children can get them.
• Keep car doors and trunks locked at all times, even in the garage or driveway.
• Teach children not to play in or around cars.
• Never leave your child unattended in a car, even if the windows are down and a wind shield shade is in place, not even just to run a quick errand.
• Make sure all children leave the vehicle when you reach your destination.
• Don’t overlook sleeping infants!
• Make sure that the seat belt and seat surface are not too hot before buckling up your child.

Read the whole article:  http://bit.ly/16ygIb9

We used to use a cool-seat car seat cooler in our kiddos car seats to keep the buckles cool.  I never thought of the fact that it ensured that we took them out of the car.  How?   By leaving the cooler in the front seat when I left the house, it reminded me to put it in the car seat when we got to our destination, thereby reminding me there was a baby in there!

Not that I would like to think I could forget them!  The reality is that it’s not always the “bad parents” who make that mistake.  Sometimes it’s the “good parents” who have a change in routine that day; it throws them and they very regretfully forget that their child is along for a ride with them.

We have misplaced our cool seat, and I ran across another idea that I wanted to share – it was buried in the comments of another car seat article, so I couldn’t post it easily.  Here it is with my own twist:

• Place a large stuffed animal in each of your children’s car seats – make each one individual so you can associate the toy with the child, or label it.  I will be labeling mine since we have four car seats and I know I won’t remember name associations on busy days.
• As you put your child in their car seat, or they seat themselves, place their stuffed animals in the front seat of the car.
• When you get to your destination, trade back…as you take a child out, put their stuffed animal back in their car seat.  This way you know that all children are safely out of the car with no risk to being left alone and overheat in your parked car.
• The added benefit of this tip in our hot weather is that the stuffed animal can absorb the heat beaming in through the windows, keeping the buckles and straps cool until our return from running errands.

This is definitely a tip we will be implementing.  While the point of the cool seat was to keep the car seat cool to the tough, I also had to try to remember a towel to keep the car seat from getting moist as the ice packs defrosted in the cool seat.  Don’t ask me how often our kiddos had a moist car seat after we got back from doing our grocery shopping :/

Do you have any hot car/ hot car seat safety tips to share?