Every summer brings recurring news of children dying after being left inside cars locked under the sun's heat. In many cases, the cause isn't deliberate neglect, but rather what is known as "forgotten baby syndrome" — a temporary memory lapse that can lead to tragedy.
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Bryce was nine months old when he died of heatstroke inside a car. His mother, Lyn Balfour, hadn't dropped him off at daycare — she had unintentionally taken him with her to work and forgotten him in the car. This happened in 2007 in the United States. Since then, hundreds of infants and young children have died this way, most recently just a few days ago in Germany.
Nebras Nami says: "This poses a potential risk to anyone." He is a doctor specializing in pediatrics and adolescent medicine and a resident physician at the West German Center for Pediatric Hematology in Herdecke. "But a child strapped into a car seat by a seatbelt simply cannot free himself from this situation."
After a 20-month-old child was forgotten in a car in mid-June and died from the extreme heat inside the vehicle, Nami described a possible explanation in an Instagram post: what's known as "forgotten baby syndrome" — the unintentional forgetting of a child in a car. This can affect parents who are fully mentally competent, attentive to their children's care, and who love them deeply.
What Is Forgotten Baby Syndrome?
The pediatrician says that, of course, there are cases where parents neglect their children, leading to them being left in a car for a long time. But doctors and psychologists are certain this explanation isn't sufficient in many cases. David Diamond is a psychologist who has spent decades studying the question: how can parents simply forget their children?
Diamond described the case of the American child Bryce mentioned above in a specialized article. His mother, Lyn Balfour, was charged with manslaughter after her son's death, and a trial was held. During the trial, it emerged that the day Bryce died differed from the norm in several ways.
Balfour had barely slept and was dealing with a family crisis. Her routines were different from usual. The diaper bag — which typically serves as a visual reminder of the child's presence in the car — wasn't placed in its usual conspicuous spot on the front passenger seat.
All of this, as David Diamond writes, affected what's called prospective memory, also known as intention-related memory — the memory responsible for actions planned for the future. This could be taking medication before bed, a planned call to a coworker after lunch, or stopping at the supermarket on the way home.
Diamond identifies six factors that impair prospective memory and can lead to forgetting a planned action: lack of sleep, chronic or acute stress, distraction, multitasking, the absence of memory aids, and automatic routines.
Roya Daniela Kokalevent, a psychotherapist in Berlin, says these factors increase internal tension. When stress becomes too intense, rational behavior becomes extremely difficult. Kokalevent says: "In that state, we either act impulsively or rely on 'autopilot.' The result is forgetting the planned action — taking medication on time, remembering an appointment, or the child who is still sitting in the car."
Intent or Neglect: When Does "Forgotten Baby Syndrome" Come Into Play?
Kokalevent says: "We can never be 100% certain what's going on in someone's mind." To assess whether parents intentionally exposed their child to a fatal risk from a car's rising temperature, psychologists look at, among other things, the parents' prior behavior, educational background, and life history. "Past behavior is one of the best predictors of future behavior."
In this way, it's possible to determine whether deviations from routine or external stress factors led to this fatal mistake. Whether such behavior warrants punishment is ultimately for the courts to decide.
It could not be proven during the trial that Lyn Balfour intended to harm her son. Her brain had stored a memory of something as fact even though it hadn't happened: that Bryce was, as usual, safely in the care of the babysitter. Such memories — extremely vivid yet false — have occupied cognitive psychology for decades.
Child Car Seats With Alarm Systems to Prevent Forgetting
After Nebras Nami posted his video about "forgotten baby syndrome," he received many messages. Parents recounted that something similar had happened to them before. Nami says: "One mother wrote that she forgot her two-week-old newborn in the car after dropping off her older child at daycare and returning home." She realized her mistake quickly, the weather wasn't hot, and the baby was fine.
In Italy, they don't want to rely on luck to remember in time. Since 2019, only child car seats equipped with a built-in alarm device have been permitted there for young children up to age four. If a child is forgotten in the car, the parents receive an alert on their smartphones. While no such regulations exist in Germany, there is a growing range of alarm systems that parents can add to car seats.
Placing a mobile phone or work bag on the back seat, or creating a visual reminder on the front passenger seat using a child's toy, are among other options for countering "forgotten baby syndrome." But none of them offer 100% protection.
There are no official figures on how often parents forget their children in cars. It's likely that "forgotten baby syndrome" doesn't explain all such cases. In the end, a young child dies. And this must remain the focus of attention, says psychologist Kokalevent. "We must not forget that the affected parents, if this truly was a tragic memory error, will be punished for the rest of their lives."
