Baby bitten at nursery by toddler

[user1485882993]

Advice please?

My baby is 6 month old and recently started nursery.

On his trial day I was told that they mix the babies with toddlers. As I was a little concerned about toddlers biting I was assured that he would be "watched like a hawk"

On his first full day we noticed he had been bitten. I received no incident report and when I questioned the staff that evening they said they had no idea how it had happened.

I can only assume that he wasn't being supervised properly and as far as I'm concerned to leave a 6 month old baby around a toddler unsupervised is neglect. I understand that children bite and in six months time it could be my baby that's doing the biting. My concern is what the staff were doing while this was happening and how it could of been a lot worse.

As you can see from the pic that is a deep bruise and I have no doubt that my baby would of cried. I took my baby to his GP the next morning and she confirmed it was a bite by an older child. I emailed the nursery a complaint and said I would like it investigated. They have wrote back to me today to say that there was a ratio of 1 staff to 3 children that day and my baby was never alone. They are claiming that the bruise looked faded in the pic so wasn't done at nursery.

My baby is not around other children. I only have another 17 year old. He has never mixed with any other babies. It's partly my reason for him starting nursery.

I feel heartbroken that this has happened and furious that they are trying the pass the blame on to me. Can anyone give some advice as to what do do? I have reported it to ofsted and if they had apologised and returned my money I would of probably left it but as they are trying to pass the book I want to take it further. Be good to get other mums opinions on this?

That's unacceptable, I would move him. I worked in a baby room 0-2 for 4 years before becoming a nanny and while I incidents like this do happen on occasion. It would never go unnoticed and unreported and they sounded very blasé about it when you mentioned it as well which is dreadful.

The nursery needs to be supporting you and reassuring you not refusing responsibility.

putdownyourphone I've been at a group with the baby I was looking after, a nearly two year old was stroking the baby and then the next thing she punched the baby on the arm. It happened so quick even though the baby was literally sat on the floor next to me. So of course settings as I described incidents can happen, as toddlers can be very unpredictable.

My daughter attended a nursery that was mixed (babies up to 5 years). It was lovely and a wonderful experience for her to spend time with children of different ages, and mixing with the older ones especially I think really strengthened her language skills. That isn't the problem here. It's not an uncommon model and it can be a lovely experience for them.

The problem is they potentially weren't supervising your lo properly. It's perfectly normal to not see everything. They can't always be everywhere and certainly my dd has had a bite or a scratch that staff weren't sure how it happened. The difference being it was documented and they were very upfront about it. A baby that little would have been in some distress from being bitten and they should have checked her over to make sure she wasn't injured. A fresh bite is easy to spot. They should have tended to her, done an incident report and spoken to you at pick up.

At the very least they should have been receptive and open to your concerns when you raised them. I think that's a massive red flag and I think you've done the right thing reporting it to ofsted. I likely would look elsewhere as well as I think this is a pretty serious matter.

That nursery sounds appalling. I wouldn't be happy about the ages mixing like that - how do they stop the toddlers mowing down the babies? Mine is at a nursery that has 0-walking, walking-2, 2-3 and then two preschool rooms which is fantastic. The three older rooms share a garden so they get a chance to interact there but the two smallest age groups are out of harm's way in their own gardens.

Very worrying that they've downplayed it. We had an issue with biting but outside nursery - but I had to report my DD's friend as she'd bitten her outside nursery twice but her mum hadn't told the nursery! Nursery took it very seriously and monitored the biter closely afterwards even though she hadn't bitten on their premises.

TBH I'd be looking for a new nursery...