Am I overthinking this nursery situation?

[Peppapig24]

Name change as regular poster and because I'm probably just being daft!

DS is 2, absolute whirlwind never sat still, even wriggles in his sleep!
Since nursery Tuesday he's managed to fall over and bump his head on a wooden toy and also fallen at the park. Both of these have resulted in a bruise. Nursery messaged this morning asking what had happened so they could do an incident form.
Now I'm stressing they think a. I'm a shit mum. B. Need to send something off to safeguarding?
I mean bar wrapping up in Cotten wool am I in the wrong to let my DS be a child and run around? I was there for both incidents but I can't catch him in a split second.
I don't know if I'm just worrying for nothing.

Haha, DD has the same issue - I have to explain she's clumsy like her mum!

Yeah I wouldn't worry but it's always vest to tell nursery at handover what the new bruise is! My boy is the same but he always comes out of nursery with a handful of accident forms and so far no issues! It's perfectly normal but they will ask for an explanation for everything as they have to!

Totally normal in my experience. If either DS had a noticeable bruise/cut I've always had to sign an incident form at nursery. I hope they didn't judge! Young kids fall over and bump into things, it's just part of learning how to navigate the world!

DD had one accident in all the time she was at nursery; we're lucky if DS goes a week without something! Some kids are just more accident prone. Don't worry about it at all. When I have to note things for nursery now at least I can say to myself that they know what he's like!

That sounds like normal procedure. My DD had to sign a pre existing injury form for nursery when her child had a grazed head and bruised lip from tripping up.

Same when dd dislocated her arm twice in 3 months. We felt awful as they were both caused by us picking her up by the arms when we were playing with her (doctor said she has loose ligaments and would be prone to them until she was 5 when they harden up). Also when ds broke his collarbone and then his elbow. Luckily they were in public places where he’d fallen and we literally had it on camera, and one place on cctv as he managed to break his elbow on a bloody bouncy castle in an adventure park, they had to do an investigation into their equipment. I’d have probably had ss at my door by now otherwise 🙄

You’re overthinking it…my DD broke the nursery record for forms for bumps and scrapes she had on arrival 😂

Honestly don't worry. It's just safeguarding. DD broke her leg in a really ridiculous way before she started walking and I had to explain what had happened to about ten nursery staff because it was so ridiculous. They're just looking out for the kids though and making sure you can't blame them for any injuries. DS will no doubt hurt himself on their watch sometime soon!

The nursery would only be worried if things are suspicious injuries - like fingermark bruises, or a bruise to an inner thigh, or the explanation doesn't seem to tie in to what the injury looks like. Or if there are large numbers of injuries that seem to suggest a child isn't being looked after - tripping over an bumping a head is expected, but stuff like falling down the stairs, falling off furniture, being hurt by an older sibling as they weren't being supervised, that might raise concerns.

Totally standard. We nickname it the ‘bad mum’ form, which is only funny because it’s absolutely not that.

And some of the things I’ve had to write on there. ‘She fell into her Dad’s toolbox and split and her lip on the edge’ 😬

Thank you all so much it really has made me feel better. And guess what... picked DS up today to an accident form from nursery because he was running, fell over and grazed his knee!

No issue, we are asked to report and marks on child before sending into nursery just as they would during time at nursery.

Kids fall, trip, scratch etc

Hes enjoying his life.
I believe there are protective hats that you can buy to guard against head injury.
I dont know where to buy them though.

You're over thinking. They have to do it from a safeguarding point of view. I get these weekly if not daily with an absolute wildchild 18 months old who would climb Everest if he could

Hi op, I'm a nursery worker. This is absolutely nothing to worry about, it's just a standard accident at home form that nursery staff ask parents to complete whenever the child has had in injury while not in nursery's care. It's mainly to cover their backs in case a parent tries to claim that an injury/accident happened when the child was at nursery and try to make the nursery liable which can of course lead to all sorts of legal problems (yes, unfortunately, it does happen 😩)
Honestly don't give it another thought 😊

They have to note every mark they arrive with to show it hasn't happened with them. I used to point any new ones out at drop off.

Do the form when you drop them off

It's normal. My son was at nursery and the manager asked how ds5 had got a bruise on his forehead. Ds then crawled a couple of feet, gave up and faceplanted the floor. Nursery manager laughed and said no need to explain.

I’m a nursery nurse and yes it is for safeguarding just so nursery know what’s happened and I’m quite sure nothing will come from this it’s just monitoring any injury.
At 2 their head is almost too big for their bodies (not literally) and this can cause balance issues it’s almost as if they see where they want to be and nothing else that may be in the way.
my own youngest son ended up in A&E 3 times in 6 weeks with head injuries at 2 years old and I was convinced they would start investigating (one of these incidents happened whilst I was in the hairdressers and so I ended up sat in A&E with my hair wet and half cut), my middle son aged around 6 had 27 bruises on his legs (I counted) and I had to beg the GP to
investigate as I knew it wasn’t normal despite him thinking it was ( he had a blood problem).
So, back to you - nursery have a duty of care to enquire what has happened and what has happened is perfectly normal incidents - in addition to this it can be helpful as he grows just to monitor his sight and his hearing because this can cause clumsiness, his spatial awareness etc etc and could potentially help spot any problems in the future.
Your worrying is understandable but please be reassured.

It's normal for them to ask you to fill a form in, it's to cover their backs in case you try to say he was injured at nursery.
I'm forever filling those forms in for home incidents and also incidents at nursery.
They even said to me that I must think they aren't watching him properly because he's forever bumping his head or bruising himself, and I assured them.hes the same at home. Danger is his middle name.

Absolutely normal. My daughter is so clumsy , I’ve had a stream of accident at home forms to complete as well as accident at nursery forms to acknowledge / sign

If it helps, on one of the home ones for the reason/ what had happened they wrote down word for word what I said - “no idea?!

another time I had to write that my then 2 year old was taking selfies with her auntie and lent forward laughing and somehow managed to knock her head on a fruit bowl!

(you couldn't make it up! :-D )

Nurseries know what young children are like!

don't worry at all!

As several others have said, it’s extremely innocent and part of their safeguarding policy. Main reasons being:

To eliminate responsibility for the injury

To check consistency of the injury against the explanation given or conflicting explanations from a parent or child

To check for patterns of injury (e.g always on a particular day or recurring incidents of serious or unusual injuries, like black eyes, burns, broken bones)

To monitor if the types/frequency of injuries is consistent with what they know as normal for a child.

Don’t overthink it! They would only report as a safeguarding concern if any of the last three reasons become apparent. Remember you know your child is well looked after and staff will see that through the rounded picture of the child. Staff will also undertake safeguarding training and know what are normal childhood injuries. Unfortunately there are many children who are abused and that child who is always coming in with a black eye from ‘a bump in the park’ could be an excuse for masking constant physical abuse. They have a duty of care to every child x

I had a phone call the other day cos my DD had gone in with a scratch. They wanted to know how she'd got it and then sent me a form to sign. My first thoughts were exactly the same as yours so I'm relieved to see this post!

I will go against the grain here - our previous nursery was like this and I found it pretty annoying.

I had to sign forms for the tiniest bruises. It was almost like they stripped the children naked in the morning and looked for injuries.

I even once had to sign a form for cradle cap.

I felt there was no common sense at all.

Then they always asked me: "Do you know what happened?"

A lot of times I couldn't tell them what exactly happened - my toddlers have 1 1/2 years age difference between them and play pretty rough with each other most of the day (under my supervision).

Our new nursery doesn't do this, you would only have to sign forms for "major" injuries (like a black eye, or a bruise in an unusual place) and I find this a much better approach.

No they absolutely don’t think you’re a shit Mum!
it’s very good practice to record existing injuries.