Sure there are exceptions, but if you spend some time with your dog, you know what kind you've got.
Throughout my life we have owned many large dogs, none of them ever showed any aggression to a child- me or any other child. It was just always instilled in me that the size difference meant if things do go wrong they will be really wrong. My mother was adamant that big dogs and small children need direct adult supervision until dogs are adjusted to children and children learn how to treat animals and I have always thought that was a good idea as well.
I have heard more and more stories of dogs mauling babies and toddlers and I think back it just didn’t seem to happen years ago. I never knew anyone that had a child mauled/seriously bitten by the family dog. I know several it has happened to in the past few years, not just in stories but personally know a couple- not deaths thank goodness but serious bites.
People used to have more common sense about babies, toddlers and dogs. Our dogs were trained to mind, respect people, not to beg and my parents spent time teaching us to treat animals with respect and kindness and until they felt dog and child had been properly trained interactions were directly supervised.
That is not what I see happen now, and even reading many of these “dog mauls toddler” stories it amazes me. Details are usually few, but I have been to homes where babies/toddlers and large dogs are wandering around both are unsupervised- have seen dogs no one bothered to train and children no one is teaching to be kind to animals- then to top it off child is alternating between torturing the dog and packing around snacks at mouth level to the dog. To me this creates a pack situation and at some point dog decides to be leader of the pack.