How long can a baby stay in a car?
Traveling with a baby
Of course, if you’ve had children, that doesn’t mean you can never go on a (car) vacation again. Babies often don’t mind a ride at all. But is it good for them to sit in a child seat for hours at a time? And is that allowed at all?
Rules and legislation
The law says nothing about how long you can leave a child in the car while traveling. However, research has shown that babies sometimes have difficulty breathing after a long time in the car. Of course, you want to avoid this at all times. Specialists conducted research on how long a baby should be allowed to stay in the car at most, this turned out to be two hours. Note that this is not just about sitting in the car, but sitting in general. So it’s best to stop once in a while and let a child crawl on a flat surface so they can stretch and stretch. Sitting bent over can also cause the still-developed vertebrae to grow crooked, according to doctors.
How long can my child stay alone in the car?
It is common knowledge: on a hot summer day, you should not leave pets or children in your car. However, there are no specific regulations for leaving your child alone in the car. However, you can be sued by the prosecution if you put your child’s life at risk. This can be done, for example, when it is extremely hot. A general advice is, don’t leave small children under 8 alone in the car. This has to do with how “mature” the child is. So you will have to judge for yourself as a parent if your child can handle this yes or no.
Furthermore, it is of course important that it does not get hot in the car. With an outside temperature of 30 degrees, the inside temperature in a car rises to 50 degrees or higher within half an hour. If it’s even hotter outside – in the Netherlands we’ve hit 40 degrees again this summer – then it can easily get 75 degrees or hotter inside a car. Our advice: in the summer, just never leave your child in the car. Even if you’re just going for a quick errand.
Also read: