workingmom I am lucky to be married for 8 years to my high school sweetheart. We had our first child in Nov. 2007 and are expecting #2 in July 2009. My husband and I both work full time for large companies and are hoping to someday own our own business so we don't have to do that anymore. View all articles | Contact author

For some reason I am afraid that something will happen to my daughter when I am not around.  I don’t know if it is because I am paranoid or because of all of the statics out there to scare you.  Probably a little of both.

When my husband and I took some parenting classes at the local hospital one of the things that they gave us were “CHAD” cards to put on the car seats.  We were told that if our child is ever involved in an accident that it is required that the ambulance take the car seat and the child to the hospital.  We were told that as a good practice they will take the diaper bag as well.

If you don’t know what the Chad stickers are or how they started I will do my best to explain them.  The Chad stickers started a few years ago (not sure on the exact time frame) after a child was with his babysitter and they were involved in a car wreck.  The babysitter was killed, but the baby survived.  They took the baby to a local hospital, they were only able to identify the baby because a nurse knew the baby. 

These stickers are something that you attach to your car seat on the bottom or under the right hand side of the cover where the babies head goes.  This sticker has your child’s name, parents name, address, phone #, emergency contact and insurance information on it.  We have a car seat for each vehicle and we are on our second car seat because we have moved from infant to forward facing, but we have put this sticker on every car seat we have owned!

This made me think, so I keep a clear sheet protector in my daughters diaper bag with basically the same information.  I just typed out the information on a word document, a little more detailed listing her doctor’s name and phone number, additional emergency contacts, allergies, date of birth, etc.  But I also keep in there a copy of her insurance card and a current record of her shots. 

I figure that if something should happen to my daughter when I am not around I want to give the people treating her all of the information I can.  Hopefully we will  never have to use it, but I do feel better knowing that it is with her at all times. No matter who has her, the diaper bag and car seat shouldn’t be too far behind.