Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem possible for one week to pass this summer without a child dying of heat exhaustion or hyperthermia in a hot car.
A 23-month-old girl was left strapped in her car seat in front of her family’s home in suburban Baltimore for more than eight hours on Saturday. Police said a change of routine caused the parents to forget about the child, but didn’t specify details, the Baltimore Sun reported. The parents, who were not publicly identified, will not be charged in the incident, police said.
Most parents wonder how to keep their children from getting hooked on smoking. This dad taught his two-year-old son to smoke in hopes that it would help him deal with the pain from a hernia, according to the Daily Mail.
Tong Liangliang puffed his first cigarette at the age of 18 months. He now smokes a pack a day, and throws a tantrum if he’s not allowed to light up.
“The father wasn’t aware of how serious the toddler’s habit became until the child began to increase the number of cigarettes he smoked per day,” China Radio International reported.
Even the President of the United States admits to the occasional cigarette. Tips on preventing your child from developing the habit are here.
Photo from the Daily Mail
Two-year-old Elise Nelms unbuckled herself out of her booster seat and opened the sliding door of the minivan being driven by her grandmother. She then fell out and was run over by a rear tire, police said.
Elise died a week after the June 17 accident, when she was taken off life support, the Peoria Journal Star in Illionis reported. She had multiple injuries to her head and chest.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that kids should not be in booster seats until they are at least four years old. Younger children should be in a car safety seat with a five-point harness.
The babysitter had taken other kids into a store with her on Wednesday, but forgot about the 2-year-old boy in her truck. Two hours later, Shantel Wilcher returned and apparently discovered little Bernard Davis unconscious, police said. He was later pronounced dead of hyperthermia. The high temperature in Jacksonville, Fla., was about 90 degrees.
Bernard’s family told reporters that they want Wilcher, 38, charged with murder. So far, police have only charged her with running a daycare without a license, a misdemeanor, the Florida Times-Union reported. Police said the investigation is continuing.
Wilcher had been caring for Bernard and his 3-year-old brother for the past four months, while their mother attended school. On Wednesday, Wilcher had taken Bernard’s brother and her two teenagers into the store with her.
A Las Vegas babysitter accused of burning a three-year-old boy with a curling iron has had her bail set at $20,000.
Tina Ciccheti, 28, appeared in court Wednesday morning, according to FOX 5 Vegas. She is charged with child abuse for allegedly inflicting second degree burns on a boy who she was babysitting.
The child’s family discovered two burns, one on his left foot and another on the back of the boy’s neck. According to Rebecca Rampa, the child’s mother, the family suspects that the abuse had been going on for some time, since the tot would react with fear whenever he saw a curling iron.
The two-year-old girl was being cared for her grandparents on Saturday while her father was at work. April Knight and two other kids had been out and had returned to the grandparents’ home in Lexington, Ky., the Herald-Leader reported.
The grandparents took one of the girls, 12, into the home to deal with “an issue,” and apparently thought the other older child would take care of the toddler. She did not. About two hours later, April was found dead, still strapped to her car seat, police said. The high temperature on Saturday was 89 degrees.
So far this summer, at least one child a week has died in a similar situation.
Maureen Lee and her 3-year-old daughter, Maya, were walking on a trail near their home in British Columbia, Canada, when the cougar appeared in front of them. The 88-pound animal pushed little Maya down and got on top her.
Lee didn’t have time to feel scared. She was angry, and her maternal instincts took over. She says she pushed the cougar off her little girl, picked up the child and ran, the Vancouver Sun reported. She didn’t stop running until she got to a neighbor’s house. Maya suffered cuts to her head and left arm and required stitches.
Later on Tuesday night, conservation officers scoured the trail and found the cougar suspected in the attack. The animal was then killed. Experts say that cougars are usually elusive and avoid people.
Lee says that her daughter seems to have recovered from the attack, and they won’t let the incident deter them from enjoying nature. “I don’t want her to be afraid of the forest,” Lee says. “I don’t want her to be afraid of picking berries. I want her to understand that this was a unique situation.”
Photo by Digital Art 2
Again, it’s a tragic reminder for busy parents to check their cars. A Florida man drove his wife to work on Sunday, but didn’t realize that she had put their one-year-old daughter in her car seat, police said. It wasn’t until four hours later that the father, then at home, realized that the girl wasn’t in her crib. He found her unconscious in the car. She was pronounced dead at the hospital, WOKV TV News reported.
No charges have been filed, but the state’s Department of Children and Families is investigating. Last week, an infant in the San Francisco Bay Area died after his father parked at a transit station, headed to work and forgot about him. Prosecutors decided this week not to charge the man, saying that he had suffered enough for his mistake. Read about a California mom who left her daughter in a hot car in 2007 and her ongoing guilt about the child’s death here.
In recent days, three parents have been charged with leaving their kids in hot cars. Thankfully, the children were rescued — sweaty but unharmed — after being spotted by passersby. On Monday, a Houston-area mom was issued a citation after her toddler girl was found in a car parked at an apartment complex, KTRK TV News reported. The mother, who told authorities that she had run inside an apartment to get some documents, was not punished more severely only because the windows had been rolled down.
A Fresno, Tex., mom was arrested and charged with child endangerment over the weekend after leaving her five-year-old daughter in a Wal-mart parking lot. And on Saturday morning, a University of New Hampshire professor was charged with endangering the welfare of a child after his 16-month-old son was found alone in a parked car in downtown Durham, N.H.
While mom was getting a tan, her kids baked in the car. Yolanda Kruse, 24, of Racine, Wis., allegedly left her one-week-old son and her 22-month-old daughter in her car while she visited a tanning salon, WKOW TV News reported. Even though the windows were rolled down, the temperature inside the car reached up to 102 degrees, police said.
A salon employee apparently heard the toddler crying and called cops. Kruse has been charged with two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment of minors and could face up to 15 years in prison. It wasn’t reported how long she had been in the salon or how her tan looked.
Sure, it’s easier to shop without the kids. But that’s no excuse to leave them in the car.
A Long Island mom shopped at a Costco for at least 45 minutes on Tuesday while her twin toddler were left in their car seats with the doors locked and the engine running, police said. One of the kids has Down Syndrome. A police officer broke a car door window to rescue the kids, ages 2 and a half, Newsday reported.
When Lynn Hoenig, 40, returned to her car, she was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. She was lucky. Her kids weren’t hurt. Other children left in cars have died from hyperthermia.