Baby taken away by social services whilst in A&E

[napol]

Hi

I'm new to Mumsnet but am in desperate need of help/advice or better still has anyone out there been in the same situation as me.

I dropped my 10 month old boy at nursery one morning at 8am. He was his normal self - happy chappy with no injuries. I got a call from the nursery at 4.30pm from the manager saying despite no accident happening at nursery throughout the day he had developed a lump on the side of his head but not to worry as he was in no pain or discomfort but best I get it checked out.

we picked him up and took him to a&e immediately where to our horror he was diagnosed with a fractured skull. because the injury was unexplained social services and police were called and the decision was made not to let us take our baby boy home. We are now under investigation and cannot see him unless supervised. it looks like it will go to court months down the line.

We are innocent of any neglect or wrong doing and it seems to us the nursery are obviously to blame. Understandably we are devastated and heartbroken and just want our boy home

Did you have any involvement with Social Services prior to this injury or in the past, OP? Did they speak to the nursery?

OMG Op, it might be worth asking SS if they can access the nursery’s accident book in case there is a large number of accidents at this nursery?

@Bsmirched and you have no idea if they are wrong or not. We have very little information and without knowing what has happened or not happened in terms of SS involvement and court orders it's impossible to say.

However, it would be supremely difficult to get an interim or full care order on the basis of what OP has posted alone. SS would need to be able to present considerable evidence to the judge. An EPO may be granted but these are very temporary and cannot be used long term (which is why it would be useful to know how long ago this happened).

Can you clarify please? Did you actually DROP the baby when you were at the nursery, or did you drop off the baby at nursery?

Also, nursery will have CCTV evidence for police to check hopefully.

O gosh bless you and your baby, get a solicitor asap, has your baby had any accidents at nursery before that day? Is the nursery sure he didnt have an accident while in there care?

Did you take any pictures of your son that morning that would show he didn’t have that injury then?

Ah this thread will be quickly deleted, I can see it getting out of hand. Sorry OP. They are just following procedure but it must be so harrowing not to see your son and be under suspicion. A fractured skull is very serious and so I can understand why they have done this, but it doesn't make it any easier for you.

Is there any history of complaints or rumours etc about your nursery that you know of? When were they last inspected? Did you believe them to be a good nursery, capable of safeguarding before this occurred?

I feel sick reading this. This is the sort of thing I live in fear of happening. Presumably a bad fall at nursery and a whack to the head could cause a fractured skull. I wouldn’t have thought a head lump was worth a trip to a&e for, kids get them quite often when they have bumps. The fact the nursery suggested it would make me think they know full well that he had had a bad accident. Are they investigating the nursery?

Bsmirched did you ever find out the cause? I hope everything works out op and you are reunited soon.

What a difficult situation. The fact that nursery didn't raise a safeguarding concern shoukd go in your favour. If he arrived with the injury you would be expected to complete a form explaining it when you dropped him off.

The fact that it’s a skull fracture is extremely concerning as to get this injury requires great force, more than falling off the bed or banging his head on a corner of a cupboard.
OP, are you absolutely sure no one else could have done this to him?

How awful for you OP. As others have said, the best way to handle this and get your baby back home is probably to be completely open, honest and cooperative. I'd be inclined to guess that something happened at nursery. The staff might not even have seen it - like another child hitting him on the head or pushing him over? Though to be fair there would have been tears. Surely Social Services will be looking into the nursery's side of the story too.

Wishing you strength

Also, who lives in the house where you and the baby live :( sorry to ask.

OP admits she dropped her baby and he appeared to have no injuries.
Later that day, injuries were noticed.
So, did the injuries that were noticed later, occur when she dropped the baby OR are these newer injuries that occurred during the day he was in the care of nursery staff?
How can anyone know?

What have the nursery got to say? He was in their care for the majority of today... My friend recently had an incident with her son falling down a flight of steps at him nursery. A member of staff tried to cover this up, its being investigated and a safeguarding has been opened. Thinking of you.

Op isn’t saying she/he dropped the baby she /he said they dropped the boy at nursery

@Wheresthebiffer2 read OP's post again, she 'dropped him off at nursery'

Erm I think she means she dropped him off- not that she literally dropped him.

@rosieposies it did, thankfully but it was genuinely the most horrific time.
Our childminder had said he'd had a fall from his chair but had not hit his head. As the only chair I knew of at hers was a baby bouncer, i didn't think much of it.
Eventually it became clear that he'd been on a booster seat fastened to a dining chair when hed kicked against the table and the whole thing had fallen backwards onto a linoleum covered concrete floor.
This all took a fortnight to come out - an eternity at the time as you can imagine - but had she not ever mentioned the fall initially I dread to think how things would have turned out as SS made it very clear that they would generally assume the parents and not a childminder with a proven track record would be at fault.

@Wheresthebiffer2 nope, read again.

@ItsNotMeItsNotMe l interpreted this in the same way you did

How awful, accidents and falls can happen In an instant with wee ones. Hope this sorted out very quickly for you all.

I think OP means she dropped her baby off at nursery, as in she took him there, not that she dropped him on his head?

But they wouldn't have let him out of the hospital anyway, would they, with a fractured skull?

@Bsmirched
How do you think your ds got a fractured skull? What made you take him to hospital?

Oh goodness. My worst nightmare. My own experiences with social services have been very positive so I'm certainly not bashing but I'm also extremely sorry you're going through this, OP, and I pray the truth comes to light soon.