Nursery requires babies to wear masks

[Peridotty]

Just to clarify we live in the USA in a state where masks have been mandatory for over 2s since March and takes covid very seriously.

I was viewing a nursery and found the one of our dreams (ok slight exaggeration but it’s got what we’re looking for). However! This owner wants all kids to wear masks. They start taking babies from 12 months up and our baby would start when she is 13 months old.

The national guidelines are that masks on babies and toddlers under 2 is a suffocation and choking hazard and should not be worn but this is only a guideline and the owner can do what she wants. The owner says that the parents of the babies are all happy with it and the staff members help the babies wear masks. She says that the babies will wear them when they see other babies wearing them too. I don’t think they wear them when they’re sleeping or eating. Only when supervised by three staff. The ratio is 8 kids to 3 staff.

What would you do? Keep looking for another nursery?

There's too many wanna be leaders will this Covid. To be honest I think even 2 is far far far too young to be forced to wear a mask let alone under 2s.
My child wouldn't be going there. Im in the UK and our kids don't have to wear them until they're 11

Nope. I'd look around, I wouldn't have my toddlers in masks let alone a baby.

I’d look elsewhere as others have said. 2 years old is too young to wear a mask let alone actual babies. Honestly, it sounds like an accident (involving suffocation or similar) waiting to happen.

Report them to what ever version of safeguarding you have over there before some eijit forgets the napping baby in corner and then they die.
I feel sick just reading this stupidity!!

No fucking way. Seeing pictures of tiny toddlers in masks from the US actually gives me the chills. And I wear my own mask without complaint.

Outrageous, More to the point how are they to expect a baby to even keep it on, baby’s can’t keep socks on for 5 minutes and trying to shove everything in thier mouths. Totally impossible and impractical.

Insane. Actually insane. It’s so sad that any adult thinks this is ok.

Don’t use that nursery OP and don’t be sad about it, find somewhere that the adults have a bit more empathy.

I live in a country where masks were quite common (colds etc.) from before the pandemic and nearly 100% used now, and even here this would be a no-no. I think 3 is realistically the youngest age you can expect kids to wear a mask indoors (and even then, you need to be patient because usage will be imperfect). A 12mo baby? Christ no.

OP, if you pull your baby, make it clear you won't be paying them a cent in the meantime.

Because they are probably just trying to find a way to get parents to withdraw but guilt them into paying the fees while not using the service.

I still vehemently disagree with this nursery's policy, but I'm also shocked to hear that UK schools don't require masks until age 11!

I wonder if that's why schools returning correlated with case surges in the UK while US and other countries didn't show the same pattern.

@LouiseTrees I’m not American, I moved here from England 1.5 years ago!

Good point about learning to speak and teachers wearing masks. I guess speech might be delayed for babies and toddlers who are in daycare. That is a big concern of mine now. I didn’t think of this My husband said I can’t have it like it was pre pandemic. If I had a nanny she would also have to wear a mask. It is so sad- my baby has only ever seen 4 people without a mask in her life!

To the posters wondering how to keep a mask on a toddler, I don’t know but I see it all the time in the streets. They don’t seem to mind and are really good at wearing them.

But I will keep looking for another nursery!!

Here is a newspaper article from my city with a small tot wearing a mask !

www.bostonherald.com/2020/04/17/how-to-get-children-to-wear-face-masks/amp/

It's not really your dream nursery then, really.

Choose another one?

@JamieLeeCurtains no I guess it’s not. They were the only bilingual nursery close to us so I had my heart set on it. If it weren’t for the mask policy I would have put my baby there.

This is disgusting

Aside from the choking and suffocation risk there is risk of strangulation from the ear loops

And I wonder how much time staff spend scolding or shouting at babies who won’t keep them on. No way in hell would my kid spend my entire working day getting told off for this nonsense!

Dream nursery my arse! Sorry

When I picked a nursery for my DD we had to balance so many factors - distance, cost, nursery culture, hours available, booking ahead policy - it was always going to be a compromise.

Masking babies sounds ill-advised so I'd not pick that one, unless it was state or federally mandated everywhere thus removing your choice.

Hahahahaha

I own two of them at present. Given a mask they pull it off and chew it. Then they'd pull their brothers off if either were slow to it. They're pulling everything against their teeth so they would Def put the straps on their mouth and pull (frigging evil teething) or just generally slobbery chew it.
Every attempt to replace mask would really in the same plus hysterics.
At 13 months they wouldn't give a damn who else was wearing one beyond the fun of pulling it off.

You need a new nursery

If I had a nanny she would also have to wear a mask even inside your home?

@SleepingStandingUp
I think so! I mean, it’s up to her and up to us but most people are extremely pro mask here so would probably be uncomfortable not wearing one. My DH said that any nanny we hired should wear one since we can’t expect her to be isolated completely from others and is therefore a risk. He is very careful. If it was just down to me, then I would probably take that risk since I want the best for my baby in terms of development.

I am surprised the USA has seemingly gone from one extreme of pandemic denial to seemingly over zealous Covid proactively.

It hasn't. It's two different groups of people.

The US has an issue with aggressively partisan politics (to be fair, this is increasingly happening in the UK), meaning that any issue tends to be turned into a political football with people becoming more and more extreme. So you end up with left wingers signalling their political sympathies by trying to "do" masking in more and more extreme ways, for example (while right wingers are making a huge fuss about refusing masks and deliberately coughing on people etc.). It's all ridiculous (and dangerous).

This is so wrong

Keep looking. That is just insane. What has this world come to?

I live in Illinois. Masks are mandatory for age 2 and above. My DD is 3 and wears one for preschool. They take them off to play outside, to eat and to nap. I can’t say I’m happy about it, but the daycare don’t have a choice, they have to follow the rules to keep their license.

Under 2s definitely don’t wear them though!

Babies under two explore and learn by mouthing objects. They also dribble a lot. There is no way that is beneficial for anyone!