Is this safe childminding practice?

[amoobaa]

Wanting to know if I’m being over anxious...

I’ve just secured a place with a childminder for our son. He will be 12 months old.

The childminder seems great in all other ways. I’m just a bit concerned about nap arrangements as she doesn’t have a baby monitor.

She will have the babies all napping together (on their own sleeping mats) on the living room floor.

I’m fine with this, so long as they are observed, but she leaves them in the room unattended and goes downstairs without a baby monitor to observe them.

Is this safe? Whilst he cannot get out of the room (she will close the door) he could easily wake up and crawl around the room. I’m imagining him climbing on things or hitting his head on the hard furniture (TV unit and low tables). Or crawling over and waking/ poking other babies.

He’s got a really strong grip!! What if he hurt another child or another child hurt him? Or if he managed to climb onto the sofa and fall of it?

I’m not sure if I’m missing something or whether this is usual practice.

He’s only ever slept in a cot or travel cot, anything else seems risky without a baby monitor.

I can’t find any official guidelines...

She seems to think she will hear any noises but the floor is carpeted and she will be on a completely different floor of the house.

What if he gets into a tricky situation but is silent? It just seems so odd not to observe them. Or am I being paranoid?

Any opinions would be really appreciated.

I’m not sure her reasoning but I’d happily supply a baby monitor if that helped.

I’m actually quite worried about the 6 month old who my 12 month old will be napping next to. What if my son crawled over and started to try and play and ended up hurting her?

All thoughts welcome.

@Rangoon

I have much laxer standards of childcare than many mumsnetters ie I couldn't care less about children in downstairs bedrooms. But even i would be concerned about this set up.

Same. I wouldn't even leave one child who was mobile in a room alone unrestricted - that's what travel cots are for. My kids would've been into everything in the room before I reached the bottom stair!

I’m a nursery manager and I feel quite concerned by these sleep arrangements
Our babies are never left unsupervised while sleeping
We do sleep checks every 10 minutes on every child which gets recorded on the app
Anything can happen in this scenario- children can bite or harm each other or a child could have a convulsion or be sick
It’s very worrying that she thinks this is acceptable

Please find another childminder.

My CM has an open plan ground floor so when her mindees are asleep she can be on the same floor as them doing other stuff.

Don’t leave your child there.
Mats on the floor ? No, not safe at all.

Find somewhere/ someone else

I think I read that you said she would be downstairs praying?

She need to be , with that mad set up.

Just cancel and look for someone registered, and sensible

Mine is a school nursery but some of our twos still sleep after lunch. They are on mats on the floor, safest option as they can’t fall from anywhere, but they are checked every 10 mins, and we sign to say we checked them, on a chart on the wall.

I wouldn't be happy with this either. She can't have loads and loads of children otherwise she'd be above ratio. Ours has travel cots and just puts them up and down the morning she has mindees- what happens when they are a bit older and can walk around etc?

What would happen if your child was teething and wouldn't go to sleep at the correct time.
Would your child be the focus and can she reschedule her prayer time

This happened to an unsupervised baby at nap time in a nursery

And another one

have you checked that she is registered with ofsted.
most display their ratings plaque at the front door.
i think you should report this practice to ofsted, and find somewhere else for your child.
if any accident occurred there, and you had not reported it, how would you feel.

In my DC nursery they all sleep in travel cots until age 2 and then on the floor from 2+ (but parents can request to have the kid still in the cot after age 2 as needed). They also have a sound monitor in the room which is adjacent to the play area.

Those photos are horrific
Op, ring her and ask her directly what the arrangements for the supervision of sleeping children are
You may have misheard and she may be able to put your mind at rest
Or, she might confirm your worst fears, in which case you should seriously consider reporting her to ofsted

@Winniemarysarah
WTAF how did that happen?!

The sleeping on mats wouldn’t concern me - the being left alone would!!!

Good point re furniture attached to walls too

@Justheretoaskaquestion91
They look like bite marks to me
It’s what happens when children are left unattended

@insancerre

Horrendous. Incidentally, fantastic username!

@Justheretoaskaquestion91
Thank you 😀

I would not be happy with this, I'd want him in a travel cot or his pushchair. X

have you checked that she is registered with ofsted.most display their ratings plaque at the front door.

I've been registered with Ofsted for 25yrs and I've never had a ratings plaque?

The sleeping arrangements are bad practice and I wouldn't leave my child there.

Hmmm, no, I wouldn’t be happy with that. I would want her to have a baby monitor. Not sure about babies all sleeping on mats on the floor too. Is this a thing now?

Wouldn't be happy leaving my own kids all napping together in a completely different room with the door closed when they were babies never mind someone else's, they climb, bite, poke. I wouldn't be happy with baby monitor either if she is on completely different floor, too far if something goes wrong.

Also cofused why she would nap them unsupervised in a room with furniture and not contained in travel cots

At my childminders the young ones all had separate rooms (a spare room and the playroom) in their own travel cots. It's only now that they're older (nearly 3) that they now nap together on different sofas in the living room.

100% trust your gut and don't use her.