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?

This is awful for all the reasons others have stated.
I don't agree with any children wearing masks and in Australia, masks were only mandatory for high school children (12/13+) and older.

So fucking depressing - there's is NO way I would go along with this!

I emailed the owner of the nursery saying that I really liked it but I was concerned about under 2s wearing a mask and the risks of suffocation and this is what she wrote back to me today:

“Although CDC recommendation is no mask for under 2s, we have a training procedure for our little ones to wear mask during class and group activities. No mask during naps or eating snacks or lunch.

All of our teachers are CPR trained to response to suffocation or choking for any reasons. Hope this will help ease your concerns.”

Thats really ridiculous isn’t it.
Gonna keep looking for another nursery!!

Out of interest, do nursery workers in the U.K. wear masks?

I wouldn't and I am pro mask. Talk to them and if it's definitely a no I'd look elsewhere. Which state is it, California?

As if the baby will keep a mask on! I would find another nursery

Small children having to wear masks whilst they play? No no and no. I would refuse. Poor little things

@Peridotty

Out of interest, do nursery workers in the U.K. wear masks?

The early learning guidance in Scotland is for masks not to be worn by staff when dealing with the children. Our nursery they wear masks for parent handover which takes place outside. A lot of nurserys have gone outside as much as possible (even here in Scotland in winter) as lower transmission risk. They also wear a mask if a child shows symptoms in the course of the day and isolate with that child til the parent arrives to pick them up (staff member then goes home and child goes to get a test)

@Peridotty no we dont except for when we are taking the babies from parents arms at the door. No masks at all inside the building at my nursery

I’m in the USA too in a state which requires from 2 and up and there is no way I would put my little one in a nursery or child care setting where they require them on under 2’s. I rarely go out because I don’t like her seeing us wearing them out, she turns into a sack of potatoes when we wear our masks - she doesn’t communicate, laugh, giggle, smile...she literally sits there watching us.

So no, find another place for your child. They need to see faces.

All of our teachers are CPR trained to response to suffocation or choking for any reasons. Hope this will help ease your concerns

No - I don’t think it would help ease my concerns that the nursery appear to be planning for the babies to suffocate but that’s ok because they can then do CPR!

@Messyplayallday unfortunately all the daycare centres in the state require their staff to wear masks :-(
I called a few more and they all said the same thing.
I asked one director if it has caused any trouble with communication and she says that it hasn’t. She said the babies can still hear what is being said and the teachers can still talk to them and read stories.

What next, newborn babies wearing masks as soon as they are delivered? This is awful.

Do not send your child to a place where they think a suffocation hazard is ok to wear!

How nice of them to let them take them off while they eat and sleep.

No - I don’t think it would help ease my concerns that the nursery appear to be planning for the babies to suffocate but that’s ok because they can then do CPR!

My thoughts exactly @Mumoftwoinprimary - that response is the opposite of reassuring!

Re nursery staff wearing masks, ours only wear them for drop off and pick up (and I think possibly for nappy changes) - not inside the nursery or while interacting with the kids. There’s a separate debate to be had about the rights and wrongs of mask-wearing while working with small children, but I personally think it is hopelessly optimistic to think there won’t be any impact on speech and language/social development for kids in a setting where masks are worn all day.

@Peridotty

I emailed the owner of the nursery saying that I really liked it but I was concerned about under 2s wearing a mask and the risks of suffocation and this is what she wrote back to me today:

“Although CDC recommendation is no mask for under 2s, we have a training procedure for our little ones to wear mask during class and group activities. No mask during naps or eating snacks or lunch.

All of our teachers are CPR trained to response to suffocation or choking for any reasons. Hope this will help ease your concerns.”

Thats really ridiculous isn’t it.
Gonna keep looking for another nursery!!

That is genuinely an awful response, I would report her to the US equivalent of Ofsted, OP.

It isn’t recommended for a reason and she is advocating choking hazards for babies. She will be breaking guidelines.

@ithinkyouareveryrude

I think I should too! My husband doesn’t think I should stir the pot and thinks if I report her, she will know that it is me! Just worried that she might kill a baby.
I feel like she is putting her business and fear of being closed down before the babies’ health and safety.
All of the nurseries I’ve asked have no such policy.

I’m still shocked that she said It’s okay because they could do CPR! CPR is to bring someone back from the dead! What if it didn’t work?

@Kokeshi123

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. OP is is Boston, which is very liberal and therefore falls into the tribe of people who have practically made a religion out of performatively obsessing over COVID regulations, to the point of absurdity as demonstrated by babies in masks. It's lunacy especially since all the zealots secretly break the rules while judging others.

Some 6 year olds fine it hard enough keeping masks on over their dinky little noses. I can’t even imagine how a one year old could wear a mask all day.