Nursery cold?

[watchingrnfire]

My dc had their first settling in session at nursery today, it was only for 2 hours. When I dropped him off, I stayed for 10mins, that's when they were playing outside. 30 mins after I left, I called to see how dc was, as he was in bits crying when I left, playtime (20min) was over so they were now indoors.

When I went to collect him after the two hours, I couldn't help but notice his hands were freezing cold and his nose was red and also very cold! Even when I came home and took his shoes and socks off, his feet were freezing.

Now when I went in to the nursery I didn't feel the cold, but that would be as the walk would have warmed me up, thick coat and also being pregnant, I don't feel the cold as much. And also whilst in the nursery I was too concerned about how dc is to notice anything else. I don't even remember what the inside looks like.

Surely this is not normal? I've had my other children in nurseries (different nursery) and never had them collected with freezing hands and red nose. Would it be that they didn't have adequate heating on? It is an outstanding nursery, I'm not too sure how I would even address this, he'll be in longer for the rest of the week.

There is a great emphasis on the dc being outdoors as much as possible, free flow between inside and out is considered ideal (though often not possible with confines of the building). This was even before COVID and all the ventilation that is encouraged.

The best thing is to consciously check when you go next, and ask the staff about it - saying you were surprised how cold he was when you picked him up last time, and see what they say.

Are you sure they didn't take him outside at all?

I'm pretty sure if it was cold enough to make a child cold to the touch then you would be able to tell straight away that the building was cold.

Perhaps you can bring it up either in an email or in person (depending on when he is next in nursery) by asking about what else you could provide to keep him warm. So a simple "Hi Nursery Worker, DC had his first settling in session yesterday and I noticed that he seemed to be really cold when I came to pick him up - his hands and feet were freezing and his nose was red - is there any specific reason he might have got so cold as I didn't think he'd be outside since he missed playtime yesterday? I didn't leave him with gloves/hat/scarf as I didn't realise he might be outside, should I bring some into nursery for the next session?"

I doubt the inside of the nursery was that cold that his feet were freezing even through socks and shoes. Between the bodies and playing he would have warmed up even without much heating I'd have thought.

It sounds more likely that they had them back outside playing more - my Son's nursery will have them outside as much as they can provided it's not raining.

Take him for his second settling in session and see how he gets on and you can mention it when dropping him off or wait until you pick him up and see if he's cold again

I got a whole write up of what they did in the 2 hours with pics, they didn't go out again.

@melj1213 that's a great way to ask, will do that, at the time I just didn't know how to say it, without it sounding like am being mental after leaving him in their care for 2 hours