How would you handle this?

[tori32]

I went to my local toddler group today with my dd2 who is 7wks. I was in the baby play area for non moving babies iyswim with dd laid on the play mat when a toddler (? age but walking) threw a tripod style gym thing which hit dd2 on the side of the head. It left a red mark I was stunned and didn't react at all, just scooped up a screaming dd2

Think its important to point out you shouldn't allow a 7 week old baby to take their full weight on their legs. They don't have fully formed knee caps at that age and you could possibly be damaging their joints and bones. Of course let them have standing exercise but at 2 months old you should still be taking the bulk of their weight

OP if you post in a public forum you really should expect a range of views not all of which will align with your own.

Toddlers DO NOT have the capacity to understand right from wrong or the impulse control needed to make a conscious decision NOT to throw a toy because it might hurt someone. That is what we as parents should be teaching them consistently and patiently and its something many children don't appreciate fully until they reach school age. As a CM I would have hoped you would have understood that!

Pheebe, I thought that if a baby could take it's weight and stand then the muscles of the legs were developed enough for it to do that. If they can't take their weight the legs just buckle under them. Mine did a lot of that bouncing thing if you pulled them into an upright position by holding their hands.

MMmm, the child in question is a toddler, what can you do? Make sure if they do it again you ask their parent to watch them but for a one time offence I would say nothing.

What remarkable children you seem to produce/know. My DS is 20 months and I can't get hom to understand that pulling hair to get your own way is not the done thing. I have to supervise him quite carefully at the moment. When he was a few weeks old I had to supervise him even more carefully at playgroup because his wellfare was my responsibility, not the toddlers in the room. You turned away to speak to your friend.....these things happen in a split second. But no real harm done.

I wouldn't take a 7 week old to a toddler group. However advanced in physical development he/she would be. I took my DS2 to toddler groups when he was very young (where DS1 was used to go and enjoyed going) and I kept DS2 in a sling the whole time.

Agree with Blueberry. I used to keep ds on my lap at dd's toddler group.

juule, its not about their muscle strength, even new borns have a remarkable amount of strength in their arms and legs, its that their joints and bones aren't strong enough, and in the case of their knees fully formed enough, to bear their body weight

Pheebe I have spoken to both my GP and my HV about her standing and it is fine. My DD1 also did this at a young age and it has caused no ill effects/bow leggedness etc in her. She walked perfectly fine at 11mths
PS I wanted to post this yesterday but my computer server went down.
I did not judge the mother of the toddler or expect him to know it was wrong, but all toddlers have different understanding at different ages, which is why I said nothing.
As it happens I felt sorry for the mother who was busy trying to bf her baby. I just asked how you would have handled it. I didn't ask for retrospective should have dones. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
My point about my dd2 being big for her age was that she is a little more robust than most newborns iyswim. I was sat right next to her in a cordoned off area designated for babes in arms.

BTW I used to be a nurse on an orthopeadic ward when I first qualified. Infants are born with kneecaps, however, they are mainly cartilage and have not ossified. They develop around the 4th month of gestation and continue to ossify until adulthood.

Thanks tori, you're right about the kneecaps of course, what I meant was that they're not strong enough to prevent the knee joint over extending in the 'wrong' direction IYSWIM for some time after birth.

PS, the advice you've had is opposite to what we were told by our paed...another case of conflicting medical opinion I guess