To be worried about this safeguarding referral?!

[AutismMum21]

My daughter (8) unexpectedly got in my bath water, she has autism so sometimes puts her head under the water and drinks it (gross I know but usually fine and has no ill effects as her water is usually just clear with no products in it).

After her bath she was sick once completely out of the blue and I thought she might have been coming down with food poisoning or a bug as there’s a lot going around and I’ve felt sick all day too. However, then I remembered that I had quite a bit of bath salts in my bath water that I had completely forgot about and obviously she had drunk some of the water.

I rang the pharmacist and they said it was unlikely to have caused any issues but to be on the safe side to ring 111.

I rang them and they then informed me they would have to make a safeguarding referral and she’s swallowed a substance - bloody bath water with bath products in it?!

AIBU to think this is ridiculous? Should I be worried? What will happen now?

I wouldn’t be worried at all. If it’s followed up, just explain what happened.

I wouldn't worry, it's just protocol. Several of my friends had similar things said to them after their children sustained injuries but nothing ever came of it

I don't think it's ridiculous, I'd rather things were reported in an over cautious manner than not. But I don't think anything will come of it and wouldn't give it another thought.

I'm not sure but I really wouldn't worry

@MumMumMumMumMumMumMum if it was the products straight out of the bottle or cleaning products etc then absolutely fair enough, but for some bath water? No wonder half of the children who actually need safeguarding fall through the cracks…

Thank you for all the responses - I think it just took me completely by surprise that’s all as we have been to A&E before for head bumps when younger etc and it wasn’t done then so to think it’s being done over some bloody bath water! But yeah I’ll just try and forget about it now and be reassured in some sort of way!

It wasn’t just bath water though, was it? It had bath salts in it and your daughter threw up and you were sufficiently concerned to ask a pharmacist about it. The pharmacist is just doing their job. It’s not personal; they don’t know you. It’s better than they do things by the book; otherwise children children will slip through the net.

It'll likely be resolved in a phone call to yourself by social services to confirm what happened and that'll probably be the extent of it presuming there's no previous concerns/contact with them.

Yeah, but that’s because it’s really common and normal for kids to bump their heads whereas it’s not very common for parents to have to seek advice on a potential poisoning (even if the poison was just bath water with bath salts in it). Honestly, I promise you that it’s unlikely anything at all will happen re. safeguarding because the report will likely be looked at by someone who knows what they’re doing and is fully aware that kids drink bath water full of all sorts of stuff sometimes. You don’t need to worry at all.

Please don’t worry.

They are doing what they are supposed to do by reporting, it’s protocol but nothing will happen. You’ll likely get a phone call to explain what happened and that will be it.

But yes it does seem in isolation mad. There's a lot of organisational pressure to over report because when bad things happen and there has been a healthcare contact that wasn't reported people/organisations get splashed across the news, people lose jobs and fines are issued. I just hope social services receive the extra funding and staff to properly consider the multitude of reports they receive which will be obscuring the reports where there was actual concern as opposed to reporting as a tick box exercise.

Did you not read the label on the bath salts before phoning the pharmacist or 111 and Google any curious ingredients? Six of one and half a dozen of the other. I wouldn't have worried.

TBF I think the world has gone mad. It's a complete waste of everyone's time. DS at about 1 broke I to the security lock on the bedside cabinet and swallowed/chewed up half a dozen contraceptive pills. I rang the Dr and she laughed and said to bring him in if he grew breasts. The same sensible Dr who when I mentioned years layer that he had better lay off swimming when he had a verruca who said "hmm, well the parent whose child he got it from wasn't too concerned, and I've heard of children drowning but never from a verruca.

The reason children fall through the cracks is because of people not acting on safeguarding concerns and recording incidents in accordance with safeguarding protocols.

It's highly likely to come to nothing, plenty of safeguarding reports are resolved at the first point of contact with just simple clarification of what happened, how, why, etc. Safeguarding is mainly about picture-building. If this, or similar incidents, never happens again then you'll never hear anything more about it as it's one isolated report. If it happened again or there were other similar incidents then the reports in conjunction with one another would give an overview of a situation potentially requiring intervention.

I imagine it's just standard procedure...so even if the person on the phone realises it's just a totally innocent accident, they still need to do the referral...

To be fair, social services can't do right for doing wrong. If something horrible happens, they are blamed for not picking up on things that many people would say are insignificant. If nothing horrible happens, they are told they are interfering about things that are insignificant.

It's better all round for them to err on the side of caution.

I had simar a few weeks back - autistic son with pica that tries to eat/mouth everything came into contact with a cleaning product. He picked up a bottle of window cleaner, which was leaking. Wasnt sure if any went in his mouth. Called 111 to be on safe side and said they would contact safeguarding. Haven't heard anything since. It's embarrassing because people I work with would have probably seen the report (work in health care), but I think children with disabilities eating non food items is pretty common. He has eaten things at nursery and school too. I expect your referral is one of many.

First of all I wouldn't worry, it's explainable. My sister was referred recently because her 3 year old daughter threw a book on her newborn baby and it hit him on the head (luckily he was fine but she still took him to a&e to be checked over) and nothing came of it.
But also how random! I had to call 111 once because my 2 year old drank some baby oil (that I stupidly hadn't put the lid on properly) and no safeguarding referral was made. Although it was at the height of covid so maybe they had too much else going on.

I wonder if it's because 'bath salts' can have a totally different meaning...

@AutismMum21 They will ring you, you will explain, there won’t be other concerns and it will be fine.

Social workers know what kids are like- we are a family of social workers and my autistic kid once ate glass. He used to drink bath water all the time. He will also drink sea water if he can. He eats handfuls of sand and we can’t have things made of wax in the house because he eats them. He has eaten pencils too. Not to mention the time I accidentally gave him a double dose of ibuprofen.

My friend is a SW, she has her twins up to a&e twice because they got into calpol.

My mum is a SW and my brother nearly drowned on her watch when he fell into a top loading washing machine while she was separating the washing with her back turned.

The pharmacist has to report it because for all she knows you have done this 5 times before, or your child is on a cp plan, or your bloke has held her under the water, or you have left her alone overnight and she has tried to bath herself, or you have ‘washed her mouth out with soap’, then panicked and concocted the bath water story etc etc.

Hi OP, I’ve experienced something similar. My DC 3 pushed our newborn in the buggy with the brakes on whilst I was two feet away. Our little one rolled out of the buggy so I called 111 for advice and was sent to hospital. I was devastated when they mentioned a safeguarding referral, even though our little one was fine. I received a letter some weeks later to advise that they wouldn’t be following up as it was clearly a mistake.

All anyone needs to do is read up on the likes of Baby P, Victoria Climbé, Daniel Pelka etc😭

Children lost their lives because multi agency communication and information sharing was piss poor while they were being abused.

Over cautious rather than a child potentially being abused not being noticed, 200%

They have to report it because it could be part of a picture of concern. When things go wrong it's often because people sit on little bits of information and don't share them. If there isn't any other information I really wouldn't worry. It sounds like they have to report when the ingredients are harmful. Sadly children have been poisoned with salt so they just need to have a clear record of what's happened. I wouldn't expect it to be much beyond some basic checks

Bath water filled with salt causing your daughter to vomit and you to call for help/advice. They don't know you and that these are the true circumstances, they're being thorough and rightly so. It's abhorrent how many children slip through the cracks and the only way to change this is to not ignore such calls, regardless of whether it will be something or nothing.

Thank you for all of your responses - the 111 suggested taking her to A&E to be on the safe side. DD was absolutely fine and the hospital didn’t mention doing any safeguarding referrals so hopefully that’s the end of it now and even if the 111 did then nothing will come of it so going to just try and forget about it all now and get on with the rest of our half term!