What You Need to Know About the Risks of Hyperthermia for Kids in Vehicles

You're out running errands and your child falls asleep on the way to the store so you decide to leave her in the car. You have three children and you just need to run in and get some milk and bread and getting all the kids out of the car and into the store would take more time than just leaving them in the car and running in. You lock the doors and crack the windows, you'll only be ten minutes, so you think you're safe. Unknown to you the temperature in the car will go up nearly twenty degrees within that ten minutes. Twenty degrees in which might result in the death of your child.

As of August 2010, 39 children have died due to hyperthermia. 51% of the deaths were because caregivers forgot children in the vehicle, 30% are from children playing unattended in the vehicle, 18% were because a child was left intentionally in the vehicle. All these deaths could have been prevented, but those left in vehicles intentionally are the ones most easily prevented.

A vehicle can heat up by nearly twenty degrees in the first ten minutes that a child is left unattended in a car and goes up nearly ten degrees for every ten minutes after. Within sixty minutes a car can go from 80 degrees to 120 degrees. Whether or not the windows are cracked or not doesn't matter in how fast the vehicle heats up or how hot it gets inside.

Children's bodies heat up three to five times faster than an adult's and children do not regulate their internal temperature as effectively as an adult. It takes a shorter amount of time for a child to develop heatstroke than it would for an adult.

Children as well are typically unable to escape from a car when it starts to get too hot. Be it disorientation from the heatstroke, the inability to get out of a car seat, or the inability to figure out how to unlock a car. Children are vulnerable and need an adults to be responsible and protect them.

Only 15 states have laws regarding children being left in vehicles unattended. Those states with laws regarding children being left in vehicles have punishments which could result in hefty fines or loss of your children.

The question to ask yourself if you decide to leave your child in a vehicle unattended is:

Is this worth the risk of my child's life for a little convenience for myself?

If the answer is no, then don't do it. Take your children with you at all times. Even if you think your child is old enough to understand how to escape from a vehicle or you feel you won't be long in a store, the safest option is to take your children with you always, no matter how inconvenient it may be. They depend on you to make the correct decisions.

If you see a child left unattended in a vehicle please call 911 right away.

Visit www.4rkidssake.org for more information on vehicle deaths and hyperthermia and ways to prevent children from dying..