Nursery toy hazards - AIBU?

[Strawberrybubblegum]

I genuinely want to know whether my expectations are off: I've been visiting lots of nurseries for my nearly-2-old, and my head is spinning!

I went to an open day for a brand new nursery this morning: it will open in January, but they had set things up as they will be. A couple of things worried me:
a) While we were there, my daughter handed me a small round plastic toy part, just the size and shape of a large grape. Isn't that a choking hazard? They only take children from 2 years old, but my DD of that age still sometimes puts things in her mouth.
b) She was having a great time playing with some toy binoculars. When it was time to go and I took them off her, they got all tangled around her neck. They were on a thin string, and hung to just above her waist. Surely it's a bad idea to allow free play with toys that are a strangulation hazard? (I know that I didn't spot that either until she got tangled, but I would hope a nursery would think of these things).

So - am I just being PFB? Is it impossible to keep hazards out of the nursery? Would most nurseries expect a 2+ year old to be ok with those type of things? Or would you see this as indicative of a problem?

Thanks for your advice.

It is impossible to keep hazard about of nurseries
We have lots of small things like marbles etc that we expect the children to know how to play with even at 2

Yanbu.

YANBU

We have a choke test tube and any toy that fits into the tube is not allowed in the under 3's room.

insancerre I think its wrong to say you expect children to play with small items properly at 2, there is a reason the guidelines say not suitable for under 3s and that is because many children under 3 still put things into there mouth. God forbid a child should choke on a small toy which is clearly not age appropriate.

I would ask to see the risk assessments to see what there view is on these risks.

Please give feedback to the nursery about your experience. I was going to suggest that maybe if the staff haven't started yet maybe they haven't done their choke tests, final checks and risk assessments. But if there were children present for the open day then they SHOULD have done this prior to any children using the equipment. YANBU

Yanbu, and I opened the thread fully expecting to say the opposite!

There is a place for some risk-taking (I let my 2yo climb much higher than a lot of parents I know, for example, and help him to chop with a sharp knife), but that just sounds like they haven't even thought about the problem.

What kind of risk assessments would you expect around that, happy? They have their risk assessments on their website, but I don't remember seeing anything around toys.

Thanks!

Jendot - yes, you're right. Since it seems that the consensus is that they shouldn't have those things, I'll do that.

I'm with you about there being a place for risk taking, Nell. I'm actually pretty relaxed when it's me and DD (I'm comfortable with DD climbing quite high too; though not as brave as you with knives). I think part of that though is that I know DD very well, and know her capabilities. I'm more nervous about someone who doesn't know her well taking risks with her, and especially of nobody noticing if she does get into trouble. I'm aware that I need to self-monitor about that though, which is why it's really useful to get all your opinions. Thank you

The risk assessment should assess all of the toys and equipment in the room.
It should talk about how the risks are managed eg risk of falling off the slide low/medium-risk managed by ensuring there is a soft mat in place next to the slide, ensuring children are supervised whilst playing on it etc.

Marbles-high risk of choking, risk managed by good supervision of children in the room, not having marbles in rooms with under 3s, teaching children how to play with them safely, making sure all staff are trained in paediatric first aid.

If they haven't mentioned toys in their assessments i would definately ask why.

You can expect what you like from a 2 yo, it doesn't mean you are going to get it. At 2 you may also have children with undisgnosed SN which may mean that they are even less likely to conform to your expectations.

I wouldn't be happy to leave my 2 yo in an environment with obvious choking hazards, even if the staff are first aid trained. I was delighted when one of DD's nursery workers checked that I had cut the grapes up in her lunchbox, it was clear that they don't want me to introduce chocking hazards to their setting.