Hi all
My boy is 2 years old (3 in a couple months) and was in nursery since he turned 1. But since the pandemic, he has been out of nursery for just over a year. I sent him back a few weeks ago and is now in a new age group. But he's only going in for 2 days a week at the moment, so he's only had 6 sessions since he returned.
I'm conscious that staff can't give 121 care 100% of the time and there are other kids to look after. So just wondering if I'm being too precious or if others would be concerned about this too (sorry for the long post):
- I don't think they check or change his nappy until the standard times where they change all the kids. I've called them up before especially to say his poo doesn't smell much, so it can be hard to miss. I've told them the 'warning signs' for when he's doing a poo (he assumes a certain position) and when he's likely to do it. But so far on 2 occasions I've picked him up with a nappy full of poo. The first time was a settling in session (I wasn't allowed to attend bc of covid) for 2 hours where they didn't change his nappy at all.
The second time was earlier this week and I thought I could smell it when I picked him up. But to be fair, I could tell that he had only done it recently, but it would have definitely been when he was at nursery as opposed to on the way back (I only live 2 seconds away).
- He's had a change of clothes twice because of a soiled nappy- which feeds in to my concern above. I suspect they don't change his nappy straight away after he has poo'd but, judging by the online updates I get, they change it at the standard time, but by then he has soiled his clothes too. One one of the change of clothes, they not only changed his vest (buttoned at the nappy) but also his trousers and jumper. Makes me wonder how long he stayed in a soiled nappy if he managed to soil his whole outfit.
- The clothes he was changed out of, I haven't got back yet. I asked for them at pick up and the key worker said she will check and find out where they are. Before, they used to put soiled clothes in a nappy bag and hand them over on pick up. My son also has his own bag with his name on it, so they can be put in there. Not a huge issue per se, but I just feel the nursery is less organised than it used to be.
- My son excells in many areas, but is slightly behind with his speech than another toddlers his own age group. I noticed from some of the picture updates that he wasn't quite following instructions that the other kids were (e.g. running in the opposite direction to everyone else). Of course, being at nursery will help with all this but, yesterday, I noticed from pictures that he had been put in the higher age group for one of the sessions. I know this because all of them (except for my son) were in uniform and were noticeably taller than him. I assume they put him there as he is due to move up to the older age group in a couple of months. But he looked pretty lost in the pictures and the other kids were doing hand gestures and were following what was going on. I felt a bit sorry for him. When I asked about it, the person giving him to me on pick up didn't know anything about it and said she would ask. I appreciate she may have not been on shift earlier but she is a key worker in his group and I feel that the communication is lacking, esp BC we all have to queue on pick up BC of covid and you don't have the luxury of more detailed updates when there's loads of parents waiting behind you.
- My son has recently turned into a picky eater and I often struggle to feed him. The nursery staff say he eats "loads" (and has lunch at nursery just before pick up) but then he seems to come home and eat lots, which is unlike him, especially if he has just eaten lunch there. He also seems to be quite thirsty on some days. I'm not sure what the nursery portion sizes are; either they are very small or the nursery is exaggerating how much he has had.
- I don't completely trust the accuracy of the updates on the online app. There seems to be missing updates (quite often missing out whether or not he has had breakfast or not - just no mention of breakfast at all) and there seems to be confusion with another child with the same name. Because I often see that what he has had for an afternoon snack, but I pick him up at the end of the morning so he's not even there for that scheduled snack.
- I arrived at nursery pick up early the other day so I could have a chat about these points with them in more detail. But they took 10 minutes just to get the first child to come out for the parent who also arrived early. So we were just standing outside for 10 minutes just waiting for that one child to come out (it may have been even longer, because she was already waiting when I arrived and we thought they had forgotten). The covid pick up process seems to be disorganised. So by the time I got my child, there was a queue and so my plan of discussing things in more detail didn't quite work out.
I used to be largely happy with the nursery before covid, although even then there were a couple of issues which I had to address:
- I went to pick him up one day (when he was in the baby group) and he was playing with a set of real car keys which one of the workers had given him. He was putting the plastic part of the key (with the unlock buttons etc) in his mouth and it was drenched because he'd been sucking on it. She knew he was knawing at them. I said, "oh look sorry, he's sucking on your car keys and they are v wet now". She said, "oh no problem, those keys have been through alot, my niece and nephew are always playing with them, throwing the down the toilet, (etc)". Car keys are filthy at the best of times but I wasn't happy that these set had been down the toilet! Needless to say, I raised it with her the next day and she seemed to say that she didn't meant it literally. But I asked that he is not given car keys to suck on.
- My son doesn't eat meat or egg (not because he is allergic, but for religious reasons). I found out that on a couple of occasions via the online updates that they had fed him non-veg food and egg. Once tried to explain that they hadn't actually done this and put it down to a default setting on the app which hasn't been updated (which may well have been true). The second time it seemed they just simply failed to realise that Quorn products contained egg. Luckily, my son isn't allergic to egg but I think it was just a bit careless of them.
The above 2 points are just context which I won't raise again, but I'm concerned about the numbered points above which have happened since he's been back. I just get the feeling they are understaffed but surely the minimum ratios have to be in place. I was going to write a (nicely worded) email but just wondering what your views were first.