Forgotten baby syndrome refers to a phenomenon in which young children are mistakenly left in vehicles.

Analysis

Over 25% of parents with children under 3 have lost awareness of the child being present in the car at any point during the drive. Each year, around the world, dozens of children die of vehicle-related hyperthermia. Because these numbers began to rise after the popularization of air bags and rear-facing child safety seats, researchers began to suspect that memory may be the culprit. According to David M. Diamond, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida who has been studying the phenomenon since 2004, the phenomenon is a consequence of tension between the brain's habit-memory and prospective-memory systems, which is resolved when basal ganglia "habit memory" suppresses the "prospective memory" system of the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, resulting in a false memory and what he calls "autopilot". Other psychologists have suggested the phenomenon is functionally similar to forgetting keys in a car or forgetting to post a letter. Diamond has identified common factors of the phenomenon as "stress, sleep deprivation, and change in routine". Stephen Cowen, a psychology professor at the University of Arizona, has said that stress can render a person "more attentive to the immediate sensory stimuli or threats in your environment but not as attentive to your more distant memory of leaving your children in the car".

Prevention efforts

There have been several efforts to address the phenomenon through technology, including back-seat alert systems (which note when a backseat is opened prior to driving), car-seat alarms (which detect whether a child is buckled in), and end-of-trip reminders. The Association of Global Automakers and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers have committed to the standardization of rear-seat-occupant alert systems by 2025. Italy and Israel have enacted laws requiring such safety systems.