Don't be subjective, anyone can suffer from 'Forgotten Baby in the Car Syndrome', even the most attentive parents!

In 2017, an Australian court acquitted a mother who left her child dead in a car from criminal liability, thanks to the expert testimony of a scientist who presented evidence and convincingly argued to the judge that: In that situation, anyone could accidentally leave a child in the car, even the most responsible and thoughtful parents.

So, if you consider yourself a responsible parent and think that because you are responsible, you will never be able to leave your child in the car. Advice for you is: NEVER BE SUBJECTIVE!

Professor David Diamond, a leading expert in cognitive science and neuroscience at the University of South Florida, USA, said:

"People think only irresponsible or extremely negligent parents leave their children in the car. But no, it's a matter of the situation. Anyone, in any given situation , could potentially leave a child in the car."

That's why on average in the US , each year there are up to 37 cases of children dying from being left in cars. That number means that every 9 days there will be an unfortunate incident like this.

In China , incomplete statistics in the press also show that there are 4-5 cases of children dying in cars each year because of neglect. In Israel, it's 3-4 cases and Australia it's 2-3 cases. Even that is just the tip of the iceberg.

There is a syndrome called: "Forgotten baby syndrome" or "Forgotten baby syndrome"

The Victoria Ambulance Service each year receives more than 1,900 calls related to children left in cars, nearly 30 cases requiring hospital medical care.

If you include cases of children being promptly rescued from locked cars, Scott Phillips, executive director of the non-profit organization Kidsafe, said the number could be higher. up to more than 5,000, and that's just the number for Australia alone.

The prevalence of this type of accident has led scientists like Professor Diamond, who has spent more than two decades listening to hundreds of tearful confessions from parents who unknowingly forgot his child in the car, had to come up with a unique name for him.

They call it: " Forgotten baby syndrome" or "Forgotten baby syndrome"

Left-in-the-car syndrome is simply defined as: " the phenomenon of leaving a child in a parked vehicle ," according to research published in the US National Institutes of Health library. But don't let that simplicity fool you.

Behind that seemingly basic and absurd definition (Who can imagine leaving their own child to die in a car?) is an extremely complex mechanism of brain activity. .

" I have been researching the subject of the human brain and memory since the 1980s. I have talked to many parents who have lost children. I have listened to recordings of their painful calls to the general public. station, when their child was found dead. I realized that, in the majority of cases, this was not a lack of care or negligence on the part of the parents ," Professor Diamond said.

"Based on my research and expertise as a neuroscience and cognitive biology scientist, I have developed a hypothesis that explains why this tragedy could have occurred."

Professor David Diamond, a leading expert in cognitive science and neuroscience at the University of South Florida, USA.

Professor Diamond's hypothesis revolves around two concepts: One is "habit memory" and the other is "future memory".

Habitual memory is what helps you perform frequently repeated tasks, such as remembering the way from home to work, driving from work to your home.

Habit memory is also what helps you do many tasks in a series, unconsciously, without spending a lot of energy. For example, when you take your phone out of your pocket, unconsciously press the password, remember the location of the Facebook app, tap it and start swiping to kill time in a boring meeting.

Because it doesn't expend as much energy on habitual memory, the brain can save that energy for another type of memory. That is future memory.

This type of memory involves tasks that you plan to do in the future, for example, remembering that you need to take your child to daycare when you go to work, pick your child up when you get off work, and go to the supermarket above. way home.

Prospective memory often helps you do the things you thought you were going to do, you have to plan and invest energy into it.

No one plans to pull their phone out of their pocket, find the Facebook app, and start scrolling during a meeting. That is the behavior of habitual memory. But when you know in advance that meeting will be boring, you plan to open Facebook to read a specific article you're in the middle of reading. That's prospective memory at work.

Habitual memory is processed in the basal ganglia, which manages unconscious actions. Prospective memory is located in the hippocampus, where information is stored, and the prefrontal cortex, which is important for planning.

In the most lucid state of the brain, these two types of memory operate completely independently of each other. Habitual memory is processed in the basal ganglia, which manages unconscious actions. Prospective memory is located in the hippocampus, where information is stored, and the prefrontal cortex, which is important for planning.

But in many cases, habitual memory can override future memory, and that's what causes the disasters of children left in cars.

Anyone can be forgetful

" The brain system responsible for habit memory is a wonderful gadget that allows us to switch ourselves into autopilot mode. The beauty of it in this state is that we don't have to remember every single thing anymore, but The problem is that it can manipulate our behavior, it blocks other parts of the brain that remind us of additional information . Monk Diamond said.

Let's take an example of a specific case:

One day, while working at the company, you accidentally broke your beloved cup. At that moment, you decided that after work, on the drive home, you would stop by the supermarket to buy a new cup. This is when your hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are activated to run programs for future memory.

But when you actually get off work and drive home. Ironically, you forgot to pass by the supermarket and just went straight from work to home. This is when your basal ganglia activates your habit memory and it overwrites your prospective memory.

As a result, the next day, when you return to the office and see the broken cup still in the trash, you remember that you forgot to go to the supermarket to buy a cup yesterday afternoon.

We often encounter similar situations in life. People often laugh it off and call it "forgetful". But Professor Diamond emphasized: " This forgetfulness is not always as benign as we think. Sometimes, it can create disaster."

The level of severity can increase gradually, from forgetting to go to the supermarket to buy a new cup, to recorded cases such as: police leaving loaded guns in public restrooms. Plus, doctors leave surgical instruments in patients' bodies, pilots forget operations while flying, and as we've seen: Parents leave their children in the car.

"This forgetfulness is not always as benign as we think. Sometimes, it can create disaster."

"There are brain imaging studies that show that when you do something out of habit, it can actually inhibit your conscious memory system, so you lose awareness of your upcoming plan." to yours ," Professor Diamond said.

His 20 years of research show that this override effect is especially likely to occur in certain situations, such as when parents are stressed, sleep deprived, or when they have an unexpected event that disrupts their routine. Daily routine is changed.

For example, a child in a typical family is usually taken to school by his father. But that day, the father is busy so this task will be transferred to the mother. Even though the mother personally took her child to the car. But during travel, with some disturbance, such as a phone call from the company or an accident on the road, the mother's brain can switch from prospective memory mode to habit memory.

She drove from home to the company unconsciously, forgetting her child when the child was sleeping in a hidden corner of the backseat. At this time, if you are lucky, a signal such as seeing the child's backpack may bring back the mother's future memory.

But without anything strong enough to extinguish the habit memory, the mother will continue to go to work all day as usual and disaster will then occur when the child is locked alone in the car.

" We have to accept the fact that our brains have to take on many tasks during the day. And as part of that multitasking process, awareness of a child's presence can be lost " , Professor Diamond said.

" We must accept that human memory has many flaws. That includes loving, attentive parents not paying attention to their children while they are in the car."

How to prevent?

Studies based on statistics and surveys of parents show that 1 in 4 people admit that they have forgotten their own child's existence in the car. This is especially true for parents with children under 3 years old and those who are new parents for the first time.

This is also especially true in cases where parents suffer from insomnia, stress or changing habits as Professor Diamond said.

For example, in 2015, a case of forgetting a child in a car occurred in the state of Victoria, southeastern Australia. The victim was Noah Zunde, a 22-month-old boy whose mother took him to the nursery that day.

However, his mother then forgot about Noah's existence in the car and just drove to work. Even when she returned in the afternoon, she still drove to the daycare to pick him up, convinced that she had dropped Noah off at daycare in the morning.

"I guarantee 100 percent that she believes she brought her child here that morning," the child care worker said of the mother's reaction that afternoon. She later collapsed when she discovered her child had been left in the back seat of the car from morning until afternoon. And the boy died.

Two years later, the mother's trial was opened. Investigation records show that within 1 week before the accident, this mother had insomnia due to stomach pain. She then experienced severe stress when her eldest daughter fell ill, and then baby Noah also fussed a lot because of teething.

The mother's defense lawyer said she was in an "exhausted" state due to fatigue. She also faced some changes in her usual morning routine that day, when she drove her husband to the train station.

Lack of visual and audio cues – the mother couldn't see Noah in the rear-facing child seat, he held his lunch box instead of keeping it in the front passenger seat, and he remained very quiet, noticeably so. possibly sleeping.

Matthew Mundy, an associate professor of psychology at Monash University, gave expert testimony to the court that in this "perfect storm" case , any mother could suffer from abandonment syndrome. Forget your child in the car.

He provided research evidence, including Professor Diamond's work and two expert reports on the physiology and neuroscience of the human memory system, to defend the mother in the case. this case.

The trial judge was later convinced. The mother was then exempted from criminal liability.

" I don't think it's appropriate to imprison parents for the deaths of their children in cases like this ," Professor Diamond agreed.

"The fact that habitual memory can usurp and overwrite future memory, causing parents to lose awareness of their child's presence in the car, is a tragic example for us to learn about what's wrong." damage to the brain when it operates in a multi-tasking memory mode. There is no indication in the cases I have studied that these parents exhibited intentional recklessness or gross negligence. for the welfare of the child".

However, the haunting conscience will certainly not forgive any parent who has ever forgotten their child in the car. The question is: " How can we prevent these tragedies from happening in the first place?".

According to Professor Diamond, the first step to avoid these tragedies from happening is for us, every father, mother and caregiver, to understand that human memory can make fatal mistakes. We must never be subjective, even if we consider ourselves to be the most responsible and thoughtful people.

Then some of the strategies below may help:

1. Establish procedures to ensure child safety: For example, parents can agree with the daycare that they will always let the daycare know when their child will be late or absent. . In return, the kindergarten will commit to informing parents if the child does not come to class on time or is not present as usual. Additionally, you can set a reminder on your spouse's phone, to make sure they get their kids to class.

2. Create your own visual reminders: Place your child's diaper bag, coat, teddy bear, toy or hat in the front seat or dashboard to always remind yourself of your child's presence in the car.

3. Force yourself to check the back seat: Keep the habit of leaving your child's lunch box, backpack, or school bag in the back seat to force you to go there and check every time you pick up or drop off your child.

4. Always lock your car:  And keep your car keys out of reach of children.

5. Never leave your child alone in the car: Under any circumstances and at any time, regardless of the outdoor temperature, never leave your child alone in the car because you may become absent-minded. mind and fall into child neglect syndrome at any time.