Is this a normal occurrence with your baby in nursery? Starting to get concerned

[Nurserymuns]

DD goes to a nursery rating outstanding (I know that doesn’t necessarily mean much) and generally had a good reputation in the area, although it is reasonably remote so not loads of places to choose from. She’s been there three months since she was one, only in 3 days a week. There’s been a total of 6 ‘incidents’ since she started. Shes not even walking yet. These incidents have been bumped head walking into large wall fixed mirror, bumping heads with another child, trapping finger in toy, falling when leaning towards key worker who was with another child and then biting her tongue as she fell apparently, leading to blood all over shirt. The latest a couple of weeks ago was bumping side to head near the eye and when I asked how I was given a really strange reply which personally didn’t make sense to me, saying she tripped and fell against the wooden chair...though I know sometimes you have to be there to understand how it’s happened.

I have not enjoyed leaving her there because I have terrible anxiety, BUT they have always been reassuring and she’s always smiling when I pick her up and smiles when we go in and she sees the staff, so usually I am reassured. They do painting etc or as much as a small toddler can and they let me know about the day in detail at pick up.

Just wondering if there incidents are common? Usual number and thing to expect? She never ‘trips’ etc at home!

How old is she ? Does she trip over at home much ? Hmm it does seem quite often but it's so hard to know..I would ask to speak to key worker initially and see how you feel.

All these in 3 months sounds a lot…I think with mine, in 3 years I had to sign the accident form maybe 3 or 4 times? Tbh there were just as many incidents where she had an accident at home and we had tk sign the form the other way round, to confirm she hasn’t got the injury at nursery. But then some people, and I assume babies are more accident prone than others?!

She's not walking yet?

But she's walking into things and tripping at nursery? I don't think I understand something, can you explain?

Are you concerned that the incidents are not what they say they are? Do they have cctv?

I once had to sign 3 accident forms in a week for my DS when he was at nursery. I don't think he's particularly clumsy but sometimes these things just happen. So long as they dealt with them properly, I'd probably not worry too much.

I don’t get how these happen if she is not walking.

Is she just learning to walk? If so I think she’s likely to fall a lot more.

Is she 'cruising' around the furniture at the moment? They do fall a lot in that phase. At home you would often catch them, but in nursery nobody might be near enough.

Seems like quite a lot.

Seems a lot. I remember my kids maybe having one bump a year or so. It’s either too boisterous environment in the nursery, or could your kid need glasses?

Are all these incidents leaving marks and bruising on your child.

Some people are extra cautious so will document every incident, others places may have as many incidents, they just dont report them to you, unless their is a visible mark.

If she is not walking, is she coasting around things and bumping herself ?

I'm a cm and I rarely have to do accident forms BUT the phase where a child is almost walking and/or just starting to walk can be pretty awful with regard to head bumps etc. I have a new wallet and I've had to mention potential incidents (but no actual injuries) to mum a few times this week.

She is cruising a lot yes. She can stand on her own for a few seconds too.

no visible marks from anything that’s happened. Just seems like it’s always happening, they don’t seem understaffed either. Not sure what to do.

If she's just cruising and learning to walk, I'd expect a few bumps and crashes on the way. One every 2 weeks doesn't feel too bad for this wobbly stage.

FWIW... I had to take my toddler to A&E three times in two months for head wounds. One at playgroup, one at home, one at the swimming pool. I frequently had to sign accident reports... and she was only there two mornings a week! She was an extremely clumsy child, who liked taking risks.

If she's not even got a bruise... it sounds like extremely accurate reporting.

Sounds like DS when he first learnt to walk. I think we were getting an accident report every two days. It stopped and then we had another burst when he learnt to climb. It never bothered me. Our nursery report everything.

If there any no marks/burses then sounds like they are just reporting every small incident. Which when they are cruising and unstable will happen more often. As someone else said if she was with you, you mite be more able to catch her. But as nursery's don't have one to one care, they maybe tonfar away seeing to another baby at the time.

As long as she's happy and bot receiving physical injuries and don't think you have anything to worry about.

If there was visible marks and she was coming home with massive bumps to the head, bruising etc then I would agree something isn’t right; probably children not being supervised closely enough. (Although let’s be honest these things can happen occasionally even with your own child despite 1-1 care, only if it was happening all the time would it worry me)

BUT if there’s no mark and they are simply telling you there was an incident then I don’t see what the issue is? They are likely being over cautious just incase a mark appears later on. It will be nursery policy to have to report any bumps to the head just incase any complications arise later on from it.

I used to work in a nursery and children especially those learning to walk and pulling themselves up etc bump and fall all over the place, add in 10 other children in a room and it’s even more likely they are bumping into each other/toys etc sounds completely normal to me.

My DS got a lot of visible injuries at nursery and at home, so it didn’t feel weird. My DD got very few at either nursery or home, which surprised me but they are very different personality wise. However it seems the nursery accidents are not that serious, as they are not visible to you (apart from the blood on the shirt, which would have worried me too) and importantly your DD is happy going there. The nursery may be being very vigilant in reporting minor things to you, or just possibly there isn’t enough supervision, I think in your place I would wait and see and act if your DD stops liking nursery. Personally I’d probably go with my gut feeling here, does the nursery seem caring?

It’s not my experience. My child has been at nursery since he was 1, now 3. In that time I think we’ve had 4 minor incidents in total. I would be concerned about supervision levels.

Edit - thinking about it maybe more minor things like you describe have happened and they haven’t reported it…

I would say it would trust me more, if there is never an bruising I think they are very accurate at reporting.

Our nursery only reports if the child has a mark and that's if they deem it necessary. For example my daughter often comes home with bruises on her legs/knees and tells her she falls over in the garden they never tell us that.

It's quite reassuring that she doesn't have marks. Sounds like they are particularly diligent.

DS had lots of accident forms and marks; he had some physical issues with his legs that hadn't been picked up at birth; we didn't find out what was wrong until he had been walking for a while and we went to physio. He's been growing out of the main issues, but I'd say keep an eye on her foot and leg posture when she tries to walk and get a referral if needed.

The weird form sounds truthful to me. A little friend of DS specialised in the type of accident form that reads things like "X ran into the sandpit, slipped over and got a bucket stuck on his head, the line mark on his neck is where the bucket handle got stuck and the mark on his head is where he then ran into the tree with the bucket on his head."

@Nurserymuns my eldest had accidents literally every week all through nursery and school. Spent half my life in casualty. It’s only now ( 25) that he seems to have stopped. Like you he didn’t have many accidents at home, once when he fell off a chair and bit through his tounge and another when he fell on the bus and cut his head but that’s 2 incidents out of literally dozens and dozens. Some kids are accident prone 🤦‍♀️

DS sometimes got multiple accident reports in a day (they'd come through on the app so we could acknowledge them) , and once he was in the preschool room which has forest school every afternoon he was always filthy and covered in bumps and scrapes , often things I wouldn't even blink at at home would get an accident report, bumped knee, treatment cuddle and cold compress 😁 . I'd be reassured they are accurately recording every minor bump.
I'm.gobsmacked that some children managed years at nursery with only one or two incident reports tbh. That would make me question the level of outdoor/physical activity

Bruising before cruising is worrying. A few bumps when learning to walk is to be expected- I think you are worrying too much.

It does sound a lot but at that age I’d say my daughter had an accident form at least 2 weekly. She’s older now and she rarely has any accidents. If she has no marks I’d think they are being cautious reporting everything.