Bumps and Bruises at Nursery

[Kotek]

Hello, my 12 month old son is still learning to walk. He cruises around and tries to stand independently without support now too. He is at a nursery 3 full days a week, which unfortunately has no carpeted area, just wooden floors. He has been at this nursery for a few months. However, basically every time he has been there over the last couple of weeks he has come home with a bruise to his head or chin from falling over. It gets recorded in the accident book but seems very frequent. Do other parents with similar aged children find they are coming home with lots of bumps and bruises from nursery while they are learning to walk too? If so how long does this phase last?! Any comments greatly appreciated.

hi kotek, im a support therapist and i care for children and young people who are in residential care, either voluntarily or by order of social services. as you say, acciedents, bumps and falls get recorded, but unless someone is reviewing the records on a regular basis then things will get overlooked. you need to raise your concerns with the nursery. if your child and others are repeatedly hurting themselves in the same way, then a risk assessment will need to be done and the risk removed. i would have thought they would have had to do a risk assessment for the hard wooden floor and carpeted it if neccarsary.anyway please tell them your concern, people need to be kept on their toes or standards slip.

Thanks for responding. I appreciate it. I did raise a question with the nursery recently about this and was told 'he is at that age' and that was the end of it. Would you suggest I ask if a risk assessment has been done re the floor surface? Thanks again.

DS came home with a little bruise on his cheek on Friday because he fell - it sounds very similar to your DS as he is also cruising round the furniture on wobbly legs
i do think it isn't anything to worry about per se - the room DS is in is not carpeted either

is he in the baby room or has he been moved up to the toddler room?

in our nursery, the baby room is carpeted and they don't move up to the toddler room until 15-18 months once they can walk/feed themselves and started to talk

hmmm, seems their response left you a little cold and didnt reasure you. you are paying for a service and should feel satisfied. like the other mums here say, their kids get knocks and bumps too and it is your instincts you need to go with. anyone can look up inspection reports on the ofsted website, if you wanted to check it out. you could always just enqire why they have wood floor instead of carpet?

Kotek Im sorry to hear your little one is coming home with bruises. I don't think it sounds good.
Ds didnt go to nursery until after he was walking but I would find this unsettling enough to bring it up with the nursery as mimi suggests.
It's worth it to feel comfortable with the childcare you are using imo.

Thanks so much for all the responses. My son is now in the toddler room as he is too active for their baby room now. Possibly we have just had a bad run over the last few weeks - signing the accident book on so many occassions for bruises to the head and even a blood nose one day. The nursery is rated 'good' by Ofsted. As waswondering says, I guess there is always some issue with every nursery, and as all the mums agree I will need to go with my instincts on this.

We review our accident book at the monthly staff meeting. If anything keeps cropping up then we do a risk assessment.

Ds definitely went through a patch where he was falling over or bumping his head every couple of days. Only lasted for a couple of weeks so I think there is something to be said for it being a stage...