Should I be worried?

[hefner]

DD (11 months) started nursery a few weeks ago. She's done about 5 half days so far, building up to four full days a week when I start work in late July. It has been going quite well, staff seem nice, one worker in particular is brilliant with her and she seems to be settling in ok - still cries when I leave her but she's usually playing fairly happily when I get back.

There were a couple of problems this morning and I need help to decide whether they are anything to worry about. I don't know much about nurseries so I don't know whether these things are fairly normal. When I dropped DD off this morning there were 9 babies and only 2 staff in the baby room. I overheard one of the staff commenting on this so I know there wasn't a third worker in the kitchen/toilet. They might have only been short staffed briefly and I know there was definitely a third member of staff there by 10am but it still worried me a bit. Also when I got DD home I found that she hadn't had her nappy changed all morning. I think she was asleep when they did all the others so I can see how she got missed but I'm still not happy about it.

So what do you think - is this type of thing to be expected occasionally although not ideal, or should I be worried?

[BBisTitanium]

They have broken the law. I would be worried

[lizzywig]

DH works in a nursery and DD is starting there in 3 weeks and I have been asking questions for the last 8 months so I know this is not normal. They have bank staff if people are on holiday/off sick, they also have an extra member of staff in each room at all times in case someone is running late and so that throughout the day there is always someone extra on hand to help with the usual childcare obsticles. If however they didn't have an extra person then the manager/cook/admin person (all CRB checked and trained) would step in temporarily. Worst case scenario and there was no one to fill in then parents are told they cannot leave until the staff member has turned up. This has happened once but the parents were only delayed by 15 mins and they all understood and were happy with this.

I think it might be worth mentioning your concerns to the manager. Two people cannot look after nine babies properly. Perhaps they were lucky BUT what if they hadn't of been. They shouldn't just be changing nappies at set times either, they should be changing them when needed too. I would perhaps use this to start the conversation with the manager/room supervisor. Just say that you're worried that your DD's nappy hadn't been changed all morning.

[hefner]

Thanks for your comments. I wil definitely speak to them about it next time we go. I'm sure they will probably say they were only under ratio for a couple of minutes, and that DD's nappy was just over looked and won't happen again, but to be honest these things have added to a general sense of unease that I might have made the wrong decision. We chose this nursery over another one because it had better facilities and better food, but looking back the other nursery felt cosier and I think I would feel more confident that they would really care about DD rather than just looking after her. I'm thinking about moving her, although it's a difficult decision because the existing nursery has been fine until now, one worker is really good with DD and the rest seem ok, and I have no actual evidence that they are any less caring than the other nursery. If I'm going to move her I want to do it soon before she settles into the first nursery. Ooh, being a mum is stressful!