Bites on 2 year old legs childminder

[nightcapers]

I wonder if anyone can advise? My daughter has just discovered my 2 year old granddaughter's legs have been bitten by another child from knee to ankle about 7 or 8 bites in all. She has photos. Nothing was said at pick up. The childminder appears to be playing it down. What is her next step?

ofsted and change childminder!

Thank you @SchoolDilemma17. We are just in shock as the little girl was so happy there. Both little legs from knee to ankle. How.on earth has that happened? The childminder is saying she fell on a baby!

Remove the child with immediate effect- any claims to giving a months notice I would refute on grounds of failing to safe guard.

Thanks @OnlyFoolsnMothers. My daughter had full trust in this childminder it's shocking

Ousted, remove her, is she a private childminder or through an agency, poor little mite. I would also seek medical advise and have her legs assessed by a doctor.

Is your daughter absolutely sure the bites are from another child?

That's a good point, that's why a doctor needs to see her, how old are the children,

Goodness, poor little girl. I would go back to the childminder formally and tell her how concerned you are. She should have a complaints policy assuming she is properly registered so you should ask for that and then follow it. If you have no satisfactory outcome from this then contact OFSTED. I would also be very reluctant to send my child back there but equally I would feel a responsibility for the other children in her care as I wouldn't want it to happen to anyone else. I think you should definitely follow the complaints policy.

Bites from a human or fleas?

From the op:
my 2 year old granddaughter's legs have been bitten by another child from knee to ankle

I would also measure the bite marks

Looking at the marks you can see it is a child sized mouth you can clearly see the teeth. Some are overlapping. One has almost broken the skin. Thank you for your replies

I’d put money on them being dog bites.

If it was another child she’d ’fess up. Some children go through a biting phase, everyone knows that.

This is her covering something up.

I agree with this. Lots of toddlers bite but this sounds like there was something else going on.

Surely dog bites wouldn't look anything like human ones though? :-/

Definitely visit the doctor.
Definitely keep the photos & contact OFSTED.
Definitely change childminders.
The fact that she has been defensive and dismissive rather than mortified and apologetic is a big enough red flag to never go back.

7 or 8 bites sounds very extreme, can the 2 year old say what happened?

@littleluncheon No all she said was 'it happened' she's only just turned two and is a very laid back happy little thing.

@TheLightSideOfTheMoon you can see a clear round little mouth

remove child from childminder with immediate effect

take child to be seen by a dr who can document the marks. i would personally contact children's social care and self refer and ask for a child protection medical assessment. reason i'm saying this is it takes an expert to determine the difference between an adult and child bite. a small bite can still be caused by an adult depending on how their teeth are set and the mechanism of the bite. this could be a much bigger safeguarding issue than it first appears and early professional intervention is key to protect other children in the setting. at best this is a significant lack of supervision.

report to ofsted.

Hi OP

I’m really sorry your grand-daughter doesn’t appear to have been well looked after by the child minder.

If you look up “Caring for children in an Early Years setting” there is government guidance.

I think you are supposed to contact the Local Authority LADO to report so that they can investigate, while your childminder should be notifying OFSTED and reporting the incident/s. They will then act to assure themselves that the child minder dealt with/acted appropriately.

I think a GP appointment is a good idea if the legs are still marked.

Hopefully, your daughter can speak with LA tomorrow.

It may be that the child minder thought the children were “playing “, but it does seem as though supervision has been inadequate.

This happened to my son before he could walk (and get away). It was awful, he needed plastic surgery to sew his ear back together. Another child from a different childminder, a known biter, caused it. My son needed Hep B vaccinations too. The hospital reported it to the police who investigated and the childminder lost her OFSTED licence (or whatever it’s called). I don’t know what happened to the other childminder but hopefully the same thing. Please make sure you take your child to be checked out and report it.

I would call the Childminder back and make it crystal clear that this isn't going to go away and the sooner she is honest about what happened the better outcome for her. Ask about her formal complaints procedure & reporting concerns to SS, Mention pote Italy escalating to the police & most definitely mention Ofsted.

At this stage, I'd want to know what had happened and I think you're more likely to get this if you confront her calmly now .

Thank you everyone for your messages and advice. Yes my daughter has spoken to the childminder and they are having a meeting. Fortunately the little girl seems to be in no discomfort and is all tucked up bless her. Thanks again.

Contact your local Children's Services department and ask to be put through to the LADO, the fact this was allowed to happen is bad enough, but her then down playing it is even more worrying. It's likely they'll be seriously concerned about the judgement of this childminder and whether any other children in her care have been harmed.

7 or 8 bites!! It seems very weird that after 1 or 2 your dd would not have been creating merry hell and screaming the place down, or at least moved away. Is she supple enough she could have bitten herself