To worry about Nursery questioning?

[Undertheboredwalk]

Ds (18mnths) started Nursery 2 days a week 2 months ago. He’s dc4, they’ve all gone to Nursery from around this age so I’m used to dealing with them. Ds is in a nursery I haven’t used before due to lack of spaces, so they don’t know us or us them yet.
They have a policy of documenting every injury as is usual I think, except they want to document every injury whether it happens there or not. So when I take him in if he’s hurt himself and got marks/bruises anywhere I need to fill in a form and explain what happened. I always let them know when I drop him if he’s hurt himself. But he is 18 months old, he has no fear and does everything at 100mph, climbs everything he sees and jumps off the top of you don’t get to him fast enough, he’s exhausting!
So it’s really bloody hard to know exactly how he got every little bruise or mark etc, his shins are always covered.
Without fail every time I collect him his key worker will pull me over and say “I found this bruise/mark/cut on him today and you didn’t tell us about it, I need you to sign this form” today was the same when I collected him except now I’m being asked to fill in the form and was also asked to explain how he got the bruise on his calf.
I have no idea!
The more it goes on the more scrutinised I’m feeling, and I feel like they’re genuinely feeling suspicious that I’m causing these injuries.
I’ve never had anything like this with the others at Nursery so I wanted to ask is this approach normal? Or am I right to worry about this. I’m starting to think I need to shadow him and stop him playing now incase he falls and hurts himself again which is just stupid.

Any insight would be much appreciated!

Ask to see this policy and find out what basis they want to know of outside injuries.

That seems very over zealous - my dc's are always covered in bruises that I've got no idea where they've come from!

I think in terms of safeguarding things have changed so much in recent years. It must be annoying accounting for everything, but it is better that they're asking rather than ignoring anything. Obviously you're not causing harm, but wouldn't you rather the inconvenience to you than them turning the other way and them failing to recognise a safeguarding concern? I've worked in nurseries and this is standard procedure ime. I think the saying 'better to be safe than sorry' applies, after all how many children who have died whose injuries could have been picked up on by professionals? Obviously that's not your DC but you need to have a blanket rule for everyone, and the nursery ate failing their duty if they don't safeguard properly

Agree with asking to see their policy. I can sort of understand them wanting to be aware of any bruises etc when he goes in so they don’t needlessly inform you he’s injured himself if you already knew. I imagine it would get quite wearing to hear “oh yeah he did that yesterday” every time. But I don’t quite understand the questioning behind it. Surely they see enough toddlers to know that some are always in the wars and others hardly ever seem to have a scratch on them. I guess it’s safeguarding against the possibility that they might not notice parental abuse, but I’d expect them to have got the measure of him by now and realise that this is just how he is. I mean I don’t always know how I’ve got the bruises on my own calf so I’d be hopeless if they started with the Spanish Inquisition about a bruise of unknown duration on the calf of a toddler.

We have to sign an 'existing injury' form for our rambunctious almost two year old on a weekly basis.

No big deal.

They obviously have to have records for injuries.

They are protecting our children and protecting themselves from being sued over every little unaccounted for bruise.

our nursery does this. i call it the Social Services form

i know why they do it but it pisses me off that they pick up every little bruise that DS has, yet they dont manage to fill out an accident form when he comes a cropper in their care

My old nursery had this. It was to cover themself just as much as safeguarding the child.

I wouldn't worry about it. How else are you finding it

peng yes she employs to keep her child safe.... which is what they are doing questioning marks bruises.

I’ve never heard of a nursery doing this, only if they’re injured in Nursery.
Toddlers have bumps and bruises constantly surely? It would be impossible to remember each incident.

This would annoy me

Thanks all, it’s definitely reassuring to hear that it is normal procedure elsewhere, my 3yr old is at a different Nursery and they don’t have anything like this there, not did my daughters Nursery when she was there so it’s not something I’ve come across before.
I definitely understand the safeguarding need and would absolutely prefer them to not overlook anything, but it’s still niggling. A lot is I expect the progression of how they’ve dealt with it over the time we’ve been there, from simply signing a form to acknowledge there’s an injury there that they’ve found to now being questioned on how it happened, why I didn’t tell them (I had no idea!) etc etc.
I really do feel under scrutiny at every pick up and it’s really worrying.

My little one moved from nursery to school a couple of months ago so fairly recent experience and yes, if I took him in and made them aware of a bump/bruise/knock we had to fill form in but was never questioned about minor bruises/knocks. Agree with others, ask for copy of policy.

I definitely couldn't tell you how my toddler got all his bruises. I wouldn't like that at all and neither nursery my son has attended has done this. Similarly nursery wouldn't bother telling me that he'd tripped up while playing etc unless it caused some kind of injury.

DS’s nursery does this. I’ve always assumed it’s to cover themselves so I don’t say he did it there. They only do it for out of the ordinary obvious stuff. He’s always covered in bruises on his legs just from being a typical 3 year old which isn’t noted.

I always think of it like when you hire a car and you go around it and sign for any bumps and scratches before it’s handed over to you so they can check you hand it back in the same condition

The nursery where I work does this too. As well as all the safeguarding reasons above, it also ensures that if we spot an existing injury later in the day, we know that it isn't a new one, sustained whilst in our care.

It's more about having evidence to help them spot possiable abuse... they will know 99 percent will be for normal reasons but having documented prove could save that ine child if they happen to have continually odd bruising and they have the paper work backed up to prove more evidence rarther then a memorie

You do not employ them, you are using their service.

They are following standard safeguarding procedures, all be it a little over zealously. Normal bumps to knees, shins etc would not be appropriate to record in this way but if your child has another kind of bump, bruising to head, nasty cut for example, it does need to be recorded and they should question what happened in a non confrontational way. Abuse happens in nice families too, you need to treat everyone the same. Being unwilling to explain injuries would be a a massive red flag for me.

The nursery where I work does this too. As well as all the safeguarding reasons above, it also ensures that if we spot an existing injury later in the day, we know that it isn't a new one, sustained whilst in our care.

I would just put as a result of normal play for an explanation

One may be ok but if they see a pattern they can look back at any other odd accidents.
That is protecting their children

Thanks again all, I’m a lot more reassured that it’s just a bit overzealous but normal procedure.
I like the idea of writing as a result of normal play for a reason, I’ll definitely do that from now on and try to not worry that they think I’m beating him up!!