What would you think if you saw this at your baby's nursery?

[jorange5]

Following on from the incident at DD's last nursery www.mumsnet.com/Talk/2320/408153 I am looking for an alternative one.

Now, I realise that I am a bit hypersensitive after what has happened but DD went for a trial morning at her new nursery and I was not too impressed.

Last time we visited all the babies looked happy and content and there were 5 babies and 2 carers. This time though there were 6 babies and one more to come in so i asked if more staff were coming and they said yes. Three of the babies were crying non-stop but they said it was because they are tired and grumpy. I returned 2 hours later to find 8 babies including DD and the same 2 carers. One was doing nappies, the other was spoon-feeding a little boy. The 5 other babies were crying their eyes out (DD was happily playing).

I have a few concerns about this:
1 - The staff to baby ratio
2 - The crying babies, which i realise is because of the lack of staff
3 - The baby being spoon-fed was sitting in a car seat and was therefore semi-reclined.

Is this sort of thing to be expected and am I just expecting too much? DD is very easy going and will just run around pleasing herself generally (which i think was the reason she got a bit neglected at her last nursery) so I don't think she would get upset but does it all seem a bit indicative of a general lack of care?

Any thoughts? Sorry for the ramble!

I would report the nursery to Ofsted - both my DD's go to nursery and have done since they were 6 months old and I never experienced anything like you are describing. The nursery they go to has a low turnover of staff and the same lady was main carer for both DD's. I am a very involved mum and when I am concerned about anything I will always raise it and have never had my concerns treated with anything but total openess and professionalism.

Jorange - report her to OFSTED.

The ratio is against ofsted guidelines 1:3 for under 2s and there shouldn't be a situation like that.

My ds has been going to nursery for the last 2 months and he started at 6 months. It wasn't my first choice of childcare but we had no other option and I literally found it the day before I was due to go back to work.

They gave us a 4 week settling in period with no charge in which you got to spend time there with your dc and then gradually left them while staying on the premises so you could be called instantly if there was a problem and then moving on to leaving them and leaving the building. Very reassuring for both of us.

At one of the settling in periods I saw an one of the children taking the toy of another resulting in tears and then others joining in. The two assistants in the room (6 children) had all crying children cuddled and problem sorted within minutes.

So it's not the sort of thing to be expected.
They have fed my ds in a bouncy chair but that was because he wasn't able to sit up for long periods. Once he could they moved him to a high chair.

Despite it not being our first choice of childcare it has worked out brilliantly. There is a very low turnover of staff (the only new ones seem to be maternity cover) and all the staff are very caring and competent. Whenever we get there my ds smiles at everyone and tries to leap out of my arms to get to the toys.

So it can work out and in the weirdest ways. This nursery doesn't have a long waiting list because it has certain restrictive entry criteria. It turned out to have a better rating than the first nursery I looked at which had an 18 month waiting list for the under 2s.

Report them to ofsted. That would never happen in the nursery I send my DS to. They are fed in proper chairs (they don't even have any car seats) and babies are never left crying.

I did consider a childminder but they are not reliable enough when you are a single parent I'm afraid.

Not all nurseries are like this

I would report them. The care of the babies would concern me greatly. You done the right thing not sending your child there.