In shock after visit to childminders

[luw7797]

Just posting this cause I need a rant really but I just can’t believe what happened when my partner and I visited a childminders this morning! My DD is 10 months and we have decided to send her to a childminders two days a week as I’m doing a degree. We went for a look around at one that my friends little girl attends this morning. The lady seemed nice but she had a dog which actually tried to BITE my child. The dog was in the playroom with all the children and so I assumed it would be fine to let DD crawl up to it, she didn’t hit it or anything just put her hand out towards it and it snapped and had her hand in its mouth. The skin isn’t broken but there are marks, I can’t be 100% sure whether they are from the dog but I’m going to call the gp when DD wakes up from her nap. The dog then went on to growl at the other children so clearly it must do this all day long. I just can’t believe this woman keeps the dog around the children when it clearly doesn’t like it and one day it’s going to really hurt a child! She didn’t do anything when the dog went for DD, she just said oh did she fall on the dog and I said no the dog snapped at her and she didn’t say anything.

There were also about a million choking hazards floating round the place! Tiny little parts of toys here there and everywhere. You’d think a childcare setting that takes on children as young as 6 months would be careful to remove choking hazards surely?

I just can’t believe it, it’s really shaken me and made me question whether childcare is the right route to go or if I should drop out of my degree until DD is older. This was the first childminder weve visited so hopefully the next one is very different.

I have told my friends and she’s going to discuss with her partner whether they want their child to continue there. She said the dog isn’t always there when she collects and she hasn’t had much interaction with it before so she didn’t know of any it displaying any worrying behaviours.

made me question whether childcare is the right route to go or if I should drop out of my degree until DD is older

The childminder sounds awful but this is a complete overreaction based on one bad experience. There are literally thousands of other childminders and nurseries out there that are not like this. Stop being a drama llama.

Never send your child to any childminder who has a dog.

They cannot be trusted.

When my two were younger the childminder had a dog but he was always gated away from the children, lovely calm do but she always said can never be too careful and she had a gate that went from floor to ceiling to make sure dog never jumped it and the bars were extra small so babies couldn't stick fingers through it. I would report her

That's all totally irrelevant.

The dog was in a playroom in a childcare setting.
There shouldn't be ANYTHING in a playroom in a childcare setting that isn't 100% safe for a crawling baby.

@Pinkpinkpink15 You'd be happy with this in a setting for your own children?

OP, glad you've reported. As a long term user of a childminder when my eldest was small, this is absolutely unacceptable. She sounds woefully lax with safety and child welfare.

I Love my dogs but I would never rate them above people. I have nephews and nieces under 5 who have never met my terriers. They have met my labradors in "controlled" circumstances. I can not believe a childminder would be approved if they had ANY dogs. Not worth the risk!

My childminder had 2 cats, some fish and a hamster to start with.

One of the cats avoided children under about 3, and the other one avoided everyone. (Basically if you have a high pitched voice some cats will avoid you.)

Then some rabbits got rehomed to her. My DD and other mindees were allowed to stroke the rabbits and/or fed them under very close supervision. The childminder also only got them out when there were only a couple of mindees around.

Then someone in her household got a dog. The dog was kept in a separate room or taken elsewhere most of the time. The only time the dog was allowed around the mindees is when there were a couple of mindees around and the childminder knew those particular mindees were unlikely to antagonise the dog.

Support the other parents who send their kids there and prospective new parents considering it - report her to OFSTED asap!

Oh OP that's awful. Glad you've reported to Ofsted, that's absolutely the right call.
Please don't let it put you off Childminders. Like anything, there are terrible ones and there are amazing ones. My CM is the best CM to walk the earth. She's very strict on procedures/policies and Ofsted guidelines. But she's also amazing with the children in her care. She has a dog (and cats/chickens etc), but the animals are NEVER around the mindees like that.
You will find a good one soon 😀

Childminders have always been approved with dogs.

Childminders with sense take care on what breed of dog they have in their home when children they mind, particularly babies and toddlers, are around.

They also never let a dog around crawling children.

Hopefully OFSTED will do an inspection

We had a similar experience going to visit a prospective childminder for 1yo DS. Small toy parts everywhere - OK, she looked after older children too but she didn't seem to understand the issue when I asked about it. But worse was that she had a 3yo there with a huge purple bruise/swollen lump on her forehead and said "oh yes, she fell down the stairs" It turned out these were the hard, hallway steps up to the 1st floor flat and yes it had happened under the CM's watch!

Er no thanks?

Lots of childminders have dogs. My mum was a registered childminder for years with dogs. At least one parent cited the dogs as a reason for wanting her child to go there, because the child loved animals and they didn't have any pets at home. And obviously plenty of kids have a dog at home anyway.

However, there are of course obvious precautions that any decent childminder would take with dogs and kids, and any dog that snaps when approached is obviously not suitable to have around kids.

OP, I'm glad you've reported this, but please don't think all childminders are like this. Lots of childminders are absolutely brilliant.

Don't send her, report the childminder, but GP not necessary if the dog didn't break the skin.

I'm a childminder - the small parts wouldn't bother me - I'm always on the ball when little ones are going through the things in mouth stage but the dog snapping at a baby is a huge issue. If the dog isn't one of these incredibly docile beings that can take abuse from little kids they shouldn't be around minded children imo. And no I'm not suggesting children should not be taught to respect a dogs space and boundaries before anyone jumps on me

Before thinking about quitting your degree have you looked at a nursery? I am quite cautious and definitely felt the nursery environment was more controlled and felt safer.
There are obviously great childminders but you do have to really trust one person. I felt a nursery was a lot more structured and likely to follow policies. Even if she said the dog would be kept away from the children it's hard to know if that would always be followed.

@luw7797 don’t let this bad experience put you off. I’m sure you can find a much better childminder.

My DC are adults now, but I can still remember visiting a childminder who had her own two older boisterous children rolling around the floor fighting, shouting and kicking each other during my visit with my baby!

Report to Ofsted. I know 2 childminders personally and they’d never let this happen.

If you knew about one of the nurseries near me and some others I know about you wouldn't think a nursery is safer.

All that happens in poor/bad ones is there are more staff around to undertake shit care.

Regardless of early years/childcare setting you choose whether that is a childminder, nursery or even a holiday playscheme you just need to be careful and trust your instincts.

@Pinkpinkpink15

It DID bite this baby it just didn’t bite it very hard. It will end up harming a child in the future if it’s already snappy at children.

I was abused at a childminders for years as a child and personally would never use one. There isn’t enough oversight or accountability as you sadly found out from the dog incident. I also don’t think it’s ok how some of them have huge age ranges and it puts the others at risk of child on child abuse which unfortunately happened to me along with having a physically and emotionally abusive childminder who presented as lovely to my mother. It’s damaged my relationship with my Num for good and made me very paranoid about who watches my own children.

Id look into university childcare options or a nursery OP!! And please let your friend know what happened as her child isn’t safe there either!

OP I'm worried this might be my childminder. If by any chance she is in a village in Bucks, can you PM me please? 😱

This is a million miles away from any childcare setting my DC went to. Definitely report to Ofsted, this childminder doesn’t sound clued up at all.

I used to childmind and I had a dog, he was never allowed in the playroom, ever, and when the children were eating in the kitchen he was contained in the porch. I am glad you reported her, the place sounds like an accident waiting to happen.