Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Nurseries

Find nursery advice from other Mumsnetters on our Nursery forum. For more guidance on early years development, sign up for Mumsnet Ages & Stages emails.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Flip

Original poster

I think my babies nursery lied about my baby vomiting

16 replies

curledgirl · 11/12/2011 21:52

I would like to know if anyone has experienced this before and, if so, how they dealt with it.

My nine month old attends nursery 3 days a week and has done so since I went back to work, when he was six months old. He is currently teething which is giving him some nasty nappies and a bit of a temperature. The nursery went through this with him with his last two eth, so they know what to expect.

I had a phone call from them, the other day relling me he was running a temperature and has unsettled. I told them to give him his paracetamol and let me know if he hadn't settled in the next half an hour. I didn't hear so calld them back and they said he was fine. I told them I would come and get him if he got any worse. Two hours later, te nursery phoned again, telling me he had been sic everywhere and they would clean him up but please could I come and get him.

When I arrived at nursery he was in the same clothes he left in that morning with no trace of sick on him, or any of his bibs and no evidence of needing to have been 'cleaned up'. This didn't click until I got him home. My LO, was under the weather and had a slight temperature, which settled once he went to bed that night. I also realised they hadn't given him his afternoon bottle, which would have made him unsettled.

Has anyone had any experiences of this themselves with nurseries and, if so, how you dealt with it? Without going in with all guns blazing, as I feel like doing at the moment.

Thank you

This is the second time that they have said he has been sick now now, when I am not altogether sure he has been.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Original poster

curledgirl · 11/12/2011 21:54

Apologies for typos,darn laptop keyboard!

OP posts:

cookielove · 11/12/2011 22:05

For some reason this is in Bloggers so you may not find the responses you require.

I work in a nursery, it could be that he was undressed at the time of sickness, we strip the babies for lunch, so if a child is sick at the time, they could quite easily still be in their own clothes on pick up.

I personally have never lied about a child being sick, and i can't seen any reason for your nursery to although that doesn't mean that they are not.

You would of signed that you agree to their policies, do you have a copy why not take a look at it and see what it says about teething, temps and illness.

Also regarding temps at my nursery and most, the child has to leave nursery if they have a high temp, and especially if we give them calpol. I find it odd that you didn't have to come get him for specifcally for that.

If you have an issue speak to the manager, or the room leader.

MoreBeta · 11/12/2011 22:07

Tricky one.

Sounds like your DC was a bit off colour.

However, our DCs were in a not very good very commercial nursery for a while and we did SUSPECT they were a bit quick to give us a call if they were short staffed and had had to call an expensive agency worker in. Sending a child home meant they dropped below a critical ratio and they could then send the agency staff member home. They knew we lived close and worked at home so were a soft touch. Ringing a parent who worked a long way away would mean they had to wait a lot longer to get there and have the child picked up.

We eventually took them out of that nursery and the next one didnt ring up with various spurious reasons to send our DC home.

catsareevil · 11/12/2011 22:09

Why would they lie about him being sick? If they thought that you should come and pick him up all they had to do was say, given the temp and calpol.

HarrietSchulenberg · 11/12/2011 22:15

DS1's nursery sent him home a few times for allegedly being sick. Sometimes at around lunchtime on days when a member of staff hadn't turned up so they were short-handed for the afternoon sessions (DS1 was all day), or when a member of staff went home ill. I had suspicions at the time, as he never once had any sick on him and was positively perky when I collected him.

I did wonder if it had anything to do with me being the parent who worked closest to the nursery, but I didn't say anything.

Original poster

curledgirl · 11/12/2011 22:31

We have our suspicians about the staffing levels and they maybe couldn't cater for a fractious child who demanded 1-1 attention. Their policy is 39c for temperatures. It is a tricky one as they seem a good nursey and our DS seems very happy there. I think it will be the case to see if it appears to happen again.

Thank you all for your responses.

OP posts:

Greythorne · 11/12/2011 22:35

If your baby was ill, I would have thought you would be delighted they called you to collect him.
They sound caring and responsive to his needs.

Thank them tomorrow.

Original poster

curledgirl · 11/12/2011 22:45

Oh I am, please don't get me wrong - I was actually on my way to get him when they called again as I didn't want him being poorly at nursery. I feel bad enough that I have to work and put him in nursery, let alone know he is a poorly wee thing when he is there, especially as I work nearly thirty miles away. The old invisible umbilical chord is stretched to the emotional max!

I just felt a little sussed about the whole thing.

OP posts:

MNHQ

ElenMumsnetBloggers · 14/12/2011 16:47

Hi Curledgirl,

We're moving this to Nurseries, as we think it might get more attention there.
Best wishes

inmysparetime · 14/12/2011 20:59

I work in a day nursery, and we are loath to send a child home (even after calpol). If your DS was "sick everywhere" the chances are he was having a cuddle with a staff member and it all went down her back (that has happened to me in the past), leaving your DS unscathed. Kids are always a bit more perky after a good spew.
OTOH, vomit is an immediate sending home, I can believe that unscrupulous nurseries would exaggerate a milky burp as more than that to get back within ratio.
Only you know if the nursery is trustworthy, talk to other parents to see if something similar has happened to them.

fullofxmascheer1 · 15/12/2011 19:57

They may not have given him his afternoon bottle as he had a temperature - if they suspected he may be sick (i.e running a temp/ coughing etc) - they probably thought it safer to give him water as milk is the worst thing to give. As you said, they know what to expect and decided against it.

As for the clothes - is it possible that they stripped him down to just his nappy due to the temperature? After all, they said they'd clean him up - they didn't specify that they would put him in spare c

inmysparetime · 16/12/2011 05:45

I wouldn't strip a child to a nappy, a vest is plenty, or they get clammy skin.
Really, talk to other parents, possibly parents who have DCs in the next room up, to see whether anything similar happened to them.

Dozer · 16/12/2011 17:29

I think you should trust your instincts if you suspect dishonesty. But no point in saying anything to them about it, you just have to decide whether or not to keep him there.

My DD has attended 4 nurseries. At one, I just didn't trust them on things like this and other things. Just had a general sense that they were lying, e.g. about sleep, DD being unsettled, illness etc. I suspected that whenever a child was grizzly and they were busy they sent them home.

For example, a toddler we knew at this nursery ate a load of orange paint. I saw her covered in paint from head to toe when I picked DD up: by the time her mum came later they had cleaned her up. The mum phoned them the next day after finding paint in nappies: they denied that she could've swallowed any and suggested it could be tomato soup! So they lied to the point that it could've damaged the poor child's health.

Shortly before this, my DD had a massive slap mark across her face, with bleeding scratches, at pick-up, clearly caused by another child hitting / scratching her. They hadn't noticed and when I insisted on it going in the accident book, wrote that she had "scratched her face on the climbing frame"!

This was an Ofsted "outstanding", chain nursery.

At the other three nurseries I never had any such doubts.

Trust your instincts.

Dozer · 16/12/2011 17:30

Yes, talk to other parents, especially those who pick up their DC at odd times. My friend's DH is a pilot and regularly picked up their DC from another nursery: they took them out because he saw so many worrying things!

dribbleface · 19/12/2011 10:08

good god! do nurseries really lie about illness. as a nursery manager I'm shocked. i would guess in this case child had been stripped and was then sick, maybe didn't give milk as was sick? to be honest if you truly believe they made this up you should be looking for alternative care. I've only ever experienced dishonesty the other way round.

Groovee · 19/12/2011 17:06

We had a child who projectile vomitted across the table, missing himself entirely and covering 3 others. He'd refused his breakfast, snack and this was just before lunch and the mother accused us of lying, because it meant she had no childcare for the next day when she was due a massive shopping trip.

She met me a few days later in a bookshop and was horrible to me in front of dh who promptly phoned my boss and had her spoken to about it all. She kept saying he was sometimes sick after eating but we kept trying to tell her he wouldn't touch a thing and had only had the bottle of milk when he'd got up at home. She was really horrible about it and it really put me off her as a parent and made me avoid her.

I'd only had to step in as the assistant manager was busy and had covered me in my room to allow me to help in the other room. But the backlash from the mother made me glad I was about to go on Maternity Leave.

Flip