What do I ask a (Norland) Nanny in a telephone interview?

[Katiejon]

Am interviewing a Norland nanny for ds 3 weeks old & dd 5 years old by phone later.
Parttime weekend & I'm recovering from csection and SPD.
What questions should I ask?
CV very good.

Seeing as you're around I'd focus on asking them to detail their previous experience, whether they've worked shared charge before and how they found it, ideas of suitable activities for a 5yo, infant hygiene including how they would make up a bottle (a nanny should ALWAYS be making fresh, you can then inform them you are okay with making batches according to guidelines if you prefer, they should never accept to follow unsafe procedures such as adding powder to cold water without specific guidance from a paediatrician).

Just see whether you get a good feeling from them, whether you trust them and whether you could deal with having them around.

Hi nom.
Do u mean adding to cooled boiled water?

No I mean to cold, as in room temp.

Cooled boiled water (as stated the pack) means 70C or above to sterilise the bugs in the powder. A good nanny will know the latest guidelines and the reasons for them.

What would you do with the kids on a rainy afternoon?
What would you make them for supper? For lunch?
What part of your previous job with X did you enjoy the most?
Tell me about a difficult situation you have encountered as a nanny and what you did.
What would you do if the three year old started choking on some food? What if the 5 year old fell off the climbing frame and bumped her head? What if she blacked out?
What sort of things do you think you could do that would make MY life easier, given my situation?

Oh three week old, sorry! Read it as three years.
Ask about previous baby experience. Maybe ask how she would deal with signs of jealousy from the 5 yo towards the new baby and how she would handle that. You just want to get into her head and find out if she is kind, competent, sensible, proactive and has good instincts...

You may want to ask about the sort of things they would do when having both children. You want to get a feel for if they are someone who likes to be indoors a lot, or out and about. You need to find someone that fits with you, does things mostly as you would.

As its part time you want to make sure they support what you do but might have tips to help as well.

As experiences they've had eg best and worst experience.

As above if you are using powder they should follow NHS guidelines.

Ask if they've public liability insurance.

Am sure if you get a good feeling then it will be ok.

As a Norland nanny myself (currently working as a childminder) I can assure you that anyone trained at Norland will have a solid knowledge and experience of all aspects of childcare and will be capable and confident to help you and your family in any way they can. The only thing that you really need to do is have a chat to them to get an idea what they are like as an individual and how they will get on with you. It is up to your instincts to tell you if this nanny will suit you and your family. Remember it is important to tell them lots about you and your needs as well as asking her about herself. Hope this is of some help!

I don't think everyone will rush to agree with you there, maisie....

The college went through a bit of a rocky patch and some Norlanders don't seem to be doing quite as well on the CPD front as one might expect. One should always, regardless of previous training and experience, double check that candidates are up to speed on the latest recommendations across the board.

Hi everyone.
Internet connection was down for a while.
Thanks for the advice.
Very grateful!
I/v was ok.
Getting references.
Also decided to get afterschool nanny 4 till 7.30 to look after DD when dh back to work, so I can be up with baby at nite, currently feeding every 3 hours, 9, 12, 3 am etc at nite. Cluster feeding.
My mum will be with baby after school, so I can sleep.
German ap introverted, dd extrovert, not a good personality match.
Ap still doing her hours, cos will have to take dd to school by taxi, cos dh has morning work obligations he cannot change.
I said I'll call hospital for him to change start time!
Wonder if he'll change his availability when I tell him its £20 return per journey!
Over 1 hour by bus and no school people come forward in response to school ad.

Nom, how does cooled boiled water sterilise bugs in powder?
I sterilise bottles in microwave steamer, boil water in separate travel kettle kept only 4 baby water.
Let water cool 4 no longer than 30 mins.
Pour water into bottles.
I make up bottle and boil kettle to fill in 2 batches.
Kettle not big enough.
Add powder just before feeding.

4 or 8 bottles prefilled with water at same time.
Left to stand in kitchen till required.

Cooled - as in 1l of water left in a properly insulated container for no more than 30 mins - will give you not boiling but still very hot (70C ish) water. Bugs get killed above 65C unless they're extremely lucky! If it's boiling then it can clag up the powder and there's a risk you might scald yourself so 70C is a good compromise.

The 30 minutes guidance is based on the specific heat capacity of 1l of water, not that they tell you this on the packet, they just mention boiling water and leaving it to cool for 30mins without explaining why.

Cold boiled water (room temp) does nothing. If it's not hot to touch it's not hot enough to kill bugs.

Remener it's not the water that needs to be sterilised, tap water in the UK is perfectly safe as of 6m and before that it only really needs boiling to make sure all the chlorine, which is what makes it safe, has evaporated.

The risk is from the powder which can be contaminated during the manufacturing process or while being opened and closed in your kitchen. Salmonella and C. sakazakii are the big ones to watch out for but many people are passive carriers of some quite nasty bacteria, like MRSA in basal passages, so if you sneeze and the powder is open those bugs can settle in the powder and breed quite happily because powdered milk is a great growth medium for babies and bugs alike! So the water needs to be hot to sterilise the powder when the powder is mixed because the powder can't be pasteurised like a ready made carton can.

The safest way is to make each bottle fresh by pouring out the correct amount of hot water, then adding the powder, then cooling it under a cold tap to use instantly.

The next safest is to make batches as above and store them under 5C, in the back of the fridge, for less than 24 hours.

A marginally more fiddly but still safe method is to divide the amount of water in half, so for a 6oz bottle which usually uses 6scoops of powder you'd need 3oz and 3oz, and add all the powder to 3oz of hot water and shaking thoroughly to disperse all the powder. You then top up with the 3oz of cold water to bring it down to drinkable temp quickly and shake again.

Does that make sense?

nasal passages!

Will take 2 long 2 boil kettle and cool down water, esp at 12 am, 4 am!
Can I store in fridge, add powder and heat in bottle warmer?
Can I ask, how do u know all this?
Many thanks.

Keep bottles upstairs in bedroom for nite feeds after refrigeration.

Partly because I'm a geek, partly because I used to work as a maternity nanny and night nanny and now my job which involves writing leaflets that provide very accurate advice on all sorts of things to do with baby and child care, mostly because the DD of a very dear friend has permanent damage from contaminated formula and it got me interested. She's now nearly 7 and caught a c. sakazakii infection when she was 3 weeks old from a contaminated batch. It got through her gut into her bloodstream and then her brain. It's enormously rare and they were in a sense very unlucky, but some babies died so that makes the risk seem closer to my IYSWIM. Look on MN and there's a poster whose baby had salmonella, the only source was the formula. Off MN I know anecdotally of two more young babies - not only enough to put things in their mouths - who had GI infections and whose parents were doing everything right except using hot hot water. They thought cooled boiled meant cooled to room temp, it's an easy mistake to make.

So I did a lot of research reading Govt and WHO guidance, called in favours from university friends who studied microbiology or work for Thames water to check out why the guidance says what it says, tested stuff with a food thermometer and my bog standard kettle and Avent bottles. One day I'm going to get some agar jelly and cultivate the milk using the different methods to make it but I'm waiting until DS is old enough to have a school science project for that.

The single, biggest important thing is adding the powder to HOT water.

I agree for a sleep deprived parent in the middle of the night preparing each feed fresh isn't practical, not matter what the department of health recommend. You can prepare the whole feed, water and milk, store it in the fridge and warm it in a bottle warmer. That's perfectly safe. Or you can do the half/half method in the middle of the night to bring it down to drinkable temp straight away. Also if you're only cooling 100mls it takes 3 minutes to cool to 70, because of the rate at which water loses heat, and then you can add 100mls of water that you've previously boiled and let go cold.

You can search the feeding section of mumsnet and you'll find a million threads where people disagree about the " proper" way to make up a bottle so don't stress that you 've been doing it wrong!

so you are now employing a night nanny, an afternoon nanny and an au pair

that is just crazy behaviour.

women all over the world have babies every day, a lot of those already have other dc - you just get on with it.

I think she had a lot of problems last time she had a baby. It is up to her. (And her mother is there too every afternoon I believe too).

Will name change to avoid any more Katiejon bashing.

Hey leave her alone, she can and should do whatever works for her family.

Quick suggestion from me - ready made carton at night (may alleviate all concerns?

Reet, why do you keep attacking me?
I thought mumsnet was meant to be a supportive forum.