CM Club: Washing for the mindees

I'm going to send OFSTED our water bill! How many times do we have to tell them we are NOT nurseries and do not have the room in our bathrooms that nurseries have in their washrooms?

I always tell the older boys to wash hands after using loo, coming in from garden etc and I supervise 3 yr old with washing his hands after every loo visit.

I am not starting washing loads of towels everyday and I've not room to put separate pegs up either, besides my hubby flatly refuses to put pegs up, (saying its his house not a bl**dy nursery) so what chance have I got on OFSTED visit?

Our role as cms is to nurture mindees as Maureenmlove said, I bet you are glad you are out of cminding!

Oh this is just another case of Ofsted finding any little thing they can pick you up on, its a world gone mad! It seems to me that the job of an Ofsted inspector is to find something wrong with everybody, no matter how minute. The enjoyment and fulfilment is going right out of our job.

What we'll all end up doing is what is realistic day to day, using our common sense. Then behaving in an Ofsted approved way when we're inspected.

Don't think you're being rude at all you're quite right. Children are in close proximity for most of the day and snot/saliva ends up on toys & furniture and toys are in mouths all the time. Which is why things spread so quickly at childminders and nurseries.

Its impossible to 100% remove all risk of contamination and I don't think we should - children need to build up an immunity.

But I work with lots of different parents and I have to respect ALL their viewpoints. What one parent is happy with another will not be. Same goes for Ofsted inspectors.

When it comes to providing a healthy environment I feel its my duty to do what I can to minimise the risk. And when I say risk its not just the risk to other mindees, but to other visitors and my family and me as well.

In my family we don't use each other's towels, so I wouldn't expect mindees to share either. Particularly as one school child has just been diagnosed with Impetigo - sharing towels would have been an excellent way to give it to all the rest of us.

I use kitchen roll, OFsted very happy with that at my Inspection

vintage violet

i couldnt agree more

i bet the children wipe their hands all over the sofa etc and that is not washed on a daily or even weekly or monthly basis

i do understand the principle of personal use towels and cross contamination etc BuT i think a single use towel is excessive and wastefull - i don't mean to be rude ayla this is just my opinion - the kids i mind and kids in general are all over each other like a rash and i don't wash the toys between each childs usage so surely they'll be cross contaminated anyway?

Hope you feel better for your sleep Katy!

I put 2 little baskets in the bathroom - one of fleece wipes off Ebay to be used for wiping faces and one of 20p flannels off Tesco to be used as one-use handtowels.

i use maybe 2 handtowels[esp. if the white ones ] a week - we all [whole family] use it - we all have two towels each for hair & body - washed weekly[prob] - i am quite slack on such things and i really couldn't give a toss about ofsted my mindees and their parents are happy with the service i provide.
ps how do you hang up 12+ towels in your bathroom?

I am lucky and only have little ones that I use wipes on as still in nappies! My after schoolies have a face cloth each which they use as a towel I have 3 after schoolioes every day and wash their towel once a week unless dirty before that. Can't imagine having to wash 15 each week let alone how many you would have to wash. Is everything ok at the mo katymac you sounded quite down when you said life is a bit much?

wilkos do massive industrial kithen roll and its cheap (we use them at toddler group!) Maybe you counld use that when ofsted come! Wouldnt need to pay out for it often as could keep it in reserve!

This is why I now use cheap kitchen roll. I know that it isn't very good to be chucking all that waste away, but I too was pulled up on it at my last inspection.

My mindees and DC's use flannels as towels, a fresh one each time (makes approx 8 - 10 per day)

My own family uses a towel each after their shower only once and I agree that it makes a huge amount of washing but that's my preference.

i wash my bath towels and hand towels and bath mat (made of towely stuff) weekly

Do a quick straw poll on here Katy. Just ask how often you wash your bathroom towels.

What's the betting they look at you like you are a complete loon for having to get permission to wash towels weekly!

katymac...

if u have lots of flannels they could just go in with any other normal stuff surely

i agree washing hand towels daily for each child is excessive
(my own personal opnion is that they dont need their own towel either.... luckily as a nanny i can do what i like and that includes us all using the same hand towel and there is nothing ofstead or anyone else can do about it!)

and me, the children, my bosses, the builders, the cleaner and any one else who comes to visit are all fine and we share the same hand towel

You could go the paper towel route, I suppose. Its just not feasable to do them every day, with that many children.

What about ignoring what Ofsted say and do what you set out to do when you became a CM - play, laugh and nuture the mindees!

Can you tell I'm a disgruntled EX childminder!

what about using dry flannels and each child using it once then washing ?

you can get cheap ones for about 20p so shouldnt cost too much to buy loads... and can then do a flannel wash once or twice a week... flannels take up much less room than towels

i also cant see wh u need to change hand towels every day

In our area all the childminders now have paper towels to use when OFSTED come. We order a big box via a nursery and split the cost between a few of us. Must say i think once a week for hand towels is plenty but OFSTED are fickle and we know it!