...or do I have a point about this caret at nursery?

[itspeanutbutterjellytime]

God, I don't know if I'm making this out to be a huge deal... DH agrees with me, but then I guess he would!

Basically, our DS got sent home from nursery this morning having had 2 runny poos. I went straight to pick him up, and it's not his usual carer with him, but another lady; his key worker is away doing charity work atm you see. My DS was sat on the floor in the corner away from all the other children, subdued and not playing with anything. As soon as I came in, I walked over and picked him up and he clung to me. He's not usually very affectionate at all. The carer said she'd just changed him again and water was literally pouring out of his bottom. Right, said I. I'll take him to the doctors and see what's going on. She said fine, just bring him back Monday. I tried to ask her more detail about the nappies, what time etc etc. She couldn't answer me, and called the manager in.

Now this lady happens to be short-staff cover, and every time she has covered in the babies room; my son gets sent home with runny poos. The same thing happened last month, it was a Thursday then too. He came home, and almost as if to prove them wrong he curled down a massive solid poo.

I find her quite odd; if I ask questions about what he's had, when it happened, how many times (nothing out of the ordinary and I always remain calm and polite) just so I can give the doctor some background, she gets huffy and runs off to get the manager. The thing is, this has happened about 3 or 4 times now. He only gets sent home in her care. He gets home, is bouncy and giggly; we take him to the doctors who look at me as if I'm nuts.

He's drinking lots of water, has a good appetite, no temperature... He is teething but he doesn't get cranky from it.

I just feel a bit off about it. When she's there, DS is always subdued and quiet and playing on his own. Normally, he's giggling with the other kids and crawling about... Something isn't sitting right. Does she not like him or something? Or am I imagining this?

Btw, I'm not the type to send an ill baby to nursery! I am the first to keep him off to be safe, if anything I am a bit pfb with it all!

Do I just take it on the chin every time he gets sent home by her (once a month, always on a Thursday, always the same reason) and accept its her word against mine? Or do I speak with management about it? I'm also a bit concerned about his behaviour around her.

ok can do you have a definite note of the dates when he was sent home before?
if you took him to the GP each time they would be able to give you dates if you don't have them

then just go in and express your concern as to why this keeps happening, only ever on a thursday and only ever when this member of staff is in.

i'd also ask, as an aside, why she won't answer your questions, and point out that you really would like to know, as a concerned parent, how long he has been ill for, whether he has eaten etc etc

and DEFINITELY ask them to keep a nappy if it happens again

i'd also point out the ratios, if you're sure that a member of staff wasn't just out of the room when you went in?

It might be your DS that gets sent home because they know that you work in the same building (unless I hallucinated that bit) and can pick him quickly. That would probably be more of a motivation to pick him, rather than any behaviour/personality clashes, angelic or otherwise

I would as for them to save nappies. If you provide the nappies you could put a small mark on them so you know you are given one of your sons dirty nappies back. Also mark the one you put him in first thing in case they don't even change him

You could always raise it with management along the lines of you are concerned that there might be an underlying problem with his health and ask them to keep detailed records of runny poo (times, colour, content, a sample, etc) so that you can take this to the Dr the next time it happens - this should't be a problem for a responsible nursery.

If it is a problem, then I would start looking for another nursery right away.

I've had this problem at a nursery we used, and it is a time honoured practice to make lives easier for members of staff. In my case it got a bit better after I got worse at picking up DS in a timely manner, and also started asking questions about whether the nursery was hygienic enough for children.

I think marking the nappies is a good idea, BTW, as is invoking the GP a lot and asking for lots of record keeping and stool samples and nappies to be kept and so on. You can blame the GP for all the steps you are taking and get them running around a bit. If there is funny stuff going on in terms of staffing, and nothing wrong with your DS, it will soon become apparent while you increasingly look like a super capable and concerned parent.