AIBU to worry about small broken leaves in nursery baby sensory play?

[Tintinuviel]

First tine parent, here. I've been viewing nurseries for my baby, and im still trying to get an idea for what is normal healthy play versus what is unsafe.

I recently viewed a nursery that I liked in many ways, but one thing gave me pause:

When I was in their baby room they had a small water tub for play and a sand tub. The water tub was filled with opaque water, and various toys. However both tubs contained multiple (many) loose plant and tree leaves. Lots of the leaves were broken up into a small chokable size.

To me this seems inappropriate for a room with teething babies who explore by sticking things in theor mouths. Wet leaves can be pretty sticky and hard to get off. And the water being cloudy whilst it's full of small chokeable objects concerned me as that means stuff don't really know what's in there in terns of small leaves that can be swallowed.

I'm not convinced nursery staff can supervise play close enough to make small leaves ok. But I don't know if I'm overreacting.

if this was a room for children over 3, I wouldn't worry as older children are obviously less likely to put random crap in their mouth

I haven't fed back with the nursery yet. Would I be unreasonable if I fed back my concerns over the leaves? Is this normal play equipment for a baby room?

I thought the bits of leaf were bigger and hence more of a worry as they seened similar in size to things like grapes etc that I've heard to worry about.

I think if they were actively supervising play with them and I'd seen it, I would probably have been worried, but it had all been left like that after whatever play had happened and I wasn't sure if this was a normal thing for baby rooms.

But i take your point that it's normal to expose them to nature. Maybe by cobcern is more about supervision.

A flat leaf being the same rough size as a grape isn’t a choking hazard, it’s the shape of a grape that makes it a choking hazard. A piece of leaf cannot block a child’s airways

What you have described in a room for babies would concern me too.

I work in EYFS and would hazard a guess that someone has ‘made a potion’ and then it’s been left waiting to be sorted-similar to the example above about the sea themed tray with rice in. I cleaned out some metal bowls today that were full of sand and mulched petals that had been sitting on a table outside. Maybe make another visit and see what you see that time. It’s fine if it’s not for you.

Definitely mention it to nursery, they may be really accommodating with it. Very similar story to you - DS went to a lovely nursery at 9 months and at one of his taster days I noticed loads of dead leaves on the floor outside where all the children were crawling and exploring. I mentioned it at the time and said DS was one who put every little thing in his mouth (at 6 months he had also had a terrible choking incident at home on a rose leaf) so please could they be mindful. The next day at drop off they had removed all the leaves, they probably just hadn’t thought about it as he was going to be one of the youngest. So don’t let it put you off completely until you mention it

Leaves absolutely can block airways. My son choked on a rose leaf at 6 months. Flat objects can form a seal on the airway and partially block it resulting in loss of oxygen extremely quickly.

It sounds quite unhygenic. I think I would give this nursery a miss. Presumably the leaves and plant parts are not meant to be in the water.

Also leaving tubs of water in an area accessible to babies and very young toddlers is very concerning. They should be emptied once the activity is over and refilled again if needed.

That was my thought! Much more dangerous than the leaves, I think. It gave me secondhand panic thinking of a pool of water like that near toddlers - unless it was safely fenced off, but then I assume the leaves wouldn’t be an issue either.

Nursery manager here and I would expect that activity to be fully supervised

water must always be fully supervised even the smallest amount! I would be wary of leaves too like that. We have a duty of care to safeguard children and not suitable for babies at all!

It was in the main baby room, though there were no babies or adults around it when I passed through.

If it had been fenced off like the outsude areas were, I think that's different.

That's the thing, there were more than a dozen planted in the sand or lying in the water so it looked deliberate, but nobody was using or supervising it.

Thank you for letting me know. In retrospect I don't know why it wasn't emptied after use.

I don't think this is true; it's also not recommended to cut things like cucumber or hot dogs in flat round pieces at that age for the same reason. sonething that is flat and big enough to get lodged can still be an issue. Maybe less frequently than grapes, but ive definitely seen warnings against it.

Thank you! I'm sure they may well have supervised it when kids were playing there, but my concern is that it's easy for us to get disteacted and miss one kid off to the side getting into trouble.

That's why to me it feels like leaves (and water) should have been taken away when not in supervised use.

Thank you! I thibk even if we don't opt to go there, it makes sense to bring it up in case that helps other kids.

Bit I eanted to check if I'm.completely misunderstanding what is normal.

Thank you for chipping in! It's really useful to have professionals weigh in as i dont really know as much anout early years settings. I don't know if they supervised play at the tubs, I assume they did. When I saw them tgere was nobody at the tubs, they were unattended with at least a dozen leaves and bits of leaf left inside.

There were so many, that i don't think it was an accident. It was the same in some of the older kids' rooms too but i found that less concerning for older kids.

This wouldn't bother me.

What age was the baby room you saw? My nursery has a room for babies up to 9months (or pre crawling) and then move them round depending on a judgement of development and age. So if it was in a baby room and the babies have no way of moving to the sand/water/leaves I wouldn't have worried.

As this is your first child, it might benefit you to have a look at some nursery outdoor play set ups online. It might help you see that it’s not just this nursery using leaves, etc in this kind of set up.

when it’s something you’re not used to, it’s easy to panic about things but if you familiarise yourself with set ups used at other places it will help you see what’s “the norm”
they’ve probably brought this stuff indoors so the children can still play with it while it’s been too hot or so they can use it both outdoors and indoors

Ive Worked in baby rooms throughout my life and your child will be properly supervised around these areas trust me. We would never leave a baby or toddler to play in water unsupervised. There’s usually a member of staff st each main play point. The leaves will be there for sensory reasons. No child will choke on them in a setting!

Nurseries are also supposed to make them.outside daily you do realize? And not just in a pram. Down on the ground.

I don’t think a leaf IS a choking hazard? They are flat? My 10 month old tends to spit a leaf out if he gets one in there before I can get it out of his hands..

You can't promise the OP this. I'm sure you're very good at your job, but babies do choke and drown in nurseries. It does happen, not often of course, but it has happened and will happen again. She's right to raise concerns and you're wrong to say that they definitely will supervise/it definitely won't happen.*

*Unless you work in this specific nursery then of course you're right to say what it's like there.