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Find nursery advice from other Mumsnetters on our Nursery forum.

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Find nursery advice from other Mumsnetters on our Nursery forum.

Nurseries

Child injured in nursery

41 replies

PM73 · 26/07/2009 09:20

About 5 weeks ago i dropped my ds off at our local nursery,he has just finished but he used to go for 3 sessions a week for 2 hr sessions.

Well when i was waiting outside to collect him the nursery manager came outside to have a word with me & she asked me if my ds had come into nursery in the morning with a scratch on his face.

I said no, of course he never, well she then said that they thought another child had gouged into my ds's cheek but noone had actually seen his doing it.

Another Mum who was helping that day said she had seen this boy do it to another child about 10 mins after & my ds told us who had done it to him.

They wouldnt fill in an accident form because nobody had seen it happening & i was not happy about that because at the end of the day my ds came home from their care injured.

The scratch was very deep & he has now been left with a scar on his cheek about 5 mm long.

I know children are rough with each other but i did not expect my son to come home from nursery with a scar.

What are my legal rights here? If anyone can give me any advice i would be extremely grateful.

BTW I am not being PFB before anyone says it,like i say i am just very annoyed because he now has a scar for life from this,oh & nothing was said to childs parents either.

OP posts:

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rumdontbotherreplyingmum · 26/07/2009 09:26

to be honest I'm not sure of your legal rights... but are you really thinking of sueing? what would you get from that.
Accidents do happen, children do scratch, bite, hit, etc... its part of their learning and interaction... it may be your child doing that next week.

LynetteScavo · 26/07/2009 09:29

If he was injured 5 weeks ago, I don't think you can say he is scared for life.

Are you looking to sue?

LynetteScavo · 26/07/2009 09:30

Thank God the mum of the little boy DD scratched across the face befriended me rather than sued me or the nursery!

PM73 · 26/07/2009 09:35

Yes it has scarred him,it is very deep & has shown no signs of fading or new skin growing over.

I am not sure we want to sue tbh, i just want to know why the nursery refused to put in an accident form even though he had injured in their care.

Of course i realise that children bite,scratch etc but my ds has been scarred by this particular boy & i am not happy about it as i am sure neither would you be.

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TitsalinaBumsquash · 26/07/2009 09:37

I took my DS out of Nursey from something like this, DS came out with a huge swollen lump over his eye but nobody had seen what happened. That was one of the many things that made me move him to another nursery.

I think sueing is a bit extreme, have you consulted a Dr as to wether yur DS will actually be "scarred for life?" Also you need to discuss this with the nursery and if yr not happy with thier response, move him.

PM73 · 26/07/2009 09:40

Luckily he has finished there now & starts pre-school in Sept,we dont want to sue.

I just want the nursery to explain to me why they would not fill in an accident form even when i insisted.

We have shown his face to the GP who says he thinks it should be showing more signs of healing by now so in all probability he will be scarred.

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lou031205 · 26/07/2009 09:42

5mm now seems huge, but as he grows it will become proportionately smaller. You could ask that it is entered as a 'found injury', but it won't change anything.

PM73 · 26/07/2009 09:48

Thanks Lou,i know whatever happens it wont change the fact it has happened,i am just really annoyed that 'noone' saw it happen & they seemed very blase about it.

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LynetteScavo · 26/07/2009 10:06

It should dfeinately have been noted by the nursery - their blase attitude is not good.

I think the best thing you can do is go back to the nursery and take it to the highest possible person and explain your concerns.

amisuchabadmummy · 26/07/2009 10:10

Well they cant watch every childs every moment 24/7.

Why are you so concerned about having the accident formally reported? It wont make the scar go away.

Would you have felt better if your DS had hurt himself by falling over perhaps? Is it the other child that you want some sort of action against?

RumourOfAHurricane · 26/07/2009 10:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Geepers · 26/07/2009 11:03

You are being absolutely over the top and irrational. There in no way he is scarred for life from a scratch on his face.

Legal rights? Stop being so hysterical.

hercules1 · 26/07/2009 11:07

You are being completely ott. I can understand why they didnt want to fill in an accident form. WHat would they put in it? Apart from as someone suggested a "found injury".

CHildren do this sort of thing all the time to each other. It might well have been your child who started it. Perhaps the other child was acting in self defence.

You are being very precious.

hercules1 · 26/07/2009 11:08

Legal right! THe world has gone mad.

zubin · 26/07/2009 11:19

Surely a 'scratch' that left a child scarred for life would have hurt the child sufficiently for them to cry, alerting staff to the fact something had happened? It seems unlikely that a child would be scarred for life by a scratch from a small child and nobody noticed it happen - I would suggest getting over it, these things happen

Heated · 26/07/2009 11:33

You are being OTT. Yes, the nursery should have put it in the accident book but that's the only error they have made.

And yes, my Ds also has a long scar that I can measure in cm rather than mm down his forehead after a child raked his fingernails down his face. It's going to take a few years but it will fade. We were not terribly impressed by how the school initially dealt with it, but they apologised for their error. Again, the thought of suing them never entered our minds. I don't want nurseries and schools constantly filling in paperwork and watching their backs, but actually focused on being with the children and giving them adventures.

PM73 · 26/07/2009 15:40

Geepers - I didnt realise you could actually see a pic of my ds's face?? Yes he is scarred & yes it was from a scratch.

Hercules1 - How can be being concerned that you ds is scarred be seen as being precious? The other child most definitly started it as i have seen his behaviour first hand & my ds is not the first child to be attacked by him.

Zubin - My son did cry & his face was still puffed up from crying when i picked him up,again how do you know whether my ds is scarred from a scratch when you havent seen him?I would like to see you get over it if it were your child who was injured in that way?

Also where did i say i wanted to sue? I merely wanted to know why the nursery would not fill in an accident form when he was clearly injured whilst in their care.

I am fully aware that children do injure each other & these things happen but it does not take away from the fact that my son now has a scar across his cheek.

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ButterbeerAndLemon · 26/07/2009 15:54

They should have filled in the accident book even if they didn't see what happened.

I am going to annoy you some more by suggesting he may not be scarred for life. My DS hurt himself at nursery aged 18 months and tore the skin near his eye quite badly. It needed to be glued at A&E and he was left with a really very noticeable scar. It's now three years later and he still has the scar, but it's much less noticeable. I don't know exactly what the future holds, but given the changes over the last three years I will be surprised if it can be seen easily when he's an adult. And similarly, I had a very deep cut near my eye that I picked up at around the same age. It was a very obvious scar when I was young, by the time I got to secondary school it could only be seen if you looked really hard for it, and now in adulthood it can't be seen at all.

I haven't seen your DS and I can't say that he won't be scarred for life, but I can say that in the case of an injury to a young child the first 5 weeks is not a particularly good indication of how badly something will be scarred fifteen or twenty years later.

You did ask what your "legal rights" were, which suggested that you were considering suing.

If the failure to complete the accident book is what's concerning you most about the situation, then you could complain about that to OFSTED -- proper health and safety procedures and record-keeping comes under their remit.

KingCanuteIAm · 26/07/2009 16:02

PM73, you are being silly, a 5mm "scar" now on a young child will go in time, unless it was so deep it was stiched? Even then it would most likely go given time - photo it now and then again in 2 years time then compare the two, you will see a difference (if the thing is there at all in two years - which I doubt).

WRT the supervision, a single adult looking after a single child (ie a parent) cannot keep eyes on the child 100% of the time (you have heard all those " I just looked away for a moment stories) so why on earth do you expect a nursery with a 3:1 5:1 or similar ratio to manage it? Children do things, sometimes it gets missed, such is life.

Yes they should have done an accident form for it when they noticed it - but did they notice it before you arrived? If not then I do understand why they wouldn't do one.

Your legal rights? None, the nursery have done nothing wrong.

SlartyBartFast · 26/07/2009 16:08

don't forget to apply very high sun scream for the face, where the scratch is. that will help.

Rindercella · 26/07/2009 16:24

I understand it is very upsetting to see your child hurt and that you would want to do everything you can to prevent any harm coming to him. However, accidents do happen. Small children can, on occasion, be too rough and cause injury to other children. Perhaps the accident should have been reported, but if no nursery worker actually witnessed what happened and they were unsure where it happened (there or at home), then it's pretty difficult for them to take any action.

My DD fell off a swing at the beginning of may. She really cut up her lip and chin. There is still a small scar on her chin, but I am not concerned in the least. These things usually do fade with time, and will quite likely disappear. I would be very surprised if you had any legal ground to stand on tbh.

zubin · 26/07/2009 16:35

I don't think anyone meant any offence, I just assumed that as the nursery initially asked whether he had come in with the scratch he hadn't cried, had he have been crying would they not have noticed the injury there and then? And believe me my son has been injured in a similar way he has come home from nursery with injuries including a suspected broken nose and numerous bite marks, nobody likes to see their children hurt but unfortunately there is little you can do other than get over it

LynetteScavo · 26/07/2009 16:40

PM73 - you asked what your legal rights are - what exactly do you want to know? Why the nursery didn't fill in the accident book?

Sorry, I'm a ltttlce confused.

frasersmummy · 26/07/2009 16:53

I dont know but I would think they should log any incident that leaves a child marked in the their accident book.

Even if they dont know what happened they should have a record in case there is comeback.

chegirl · 26/07/2009 16:54

Have you tried Bio Oil? Its very good for scarring.

I picked my DD from Nursery one day. They told me that she had hurt herself on the slide and her ear was a bit swollen. OMG when I saw it I nearly passed out. She had a cartoon cauliflower ear! She was totally unfazed by it but bloody hell it looked weird.

She had slid down the slide on her ear, thus the bizarre mutation. Nothing they couldve done about it. I think they were expecting me to cause hell.

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