Accident at nursery - perspectives

[Evecob]

Hi there,

My children have recently started at a new nursery. It's really close by to our house (2/3 min walk), the ladies are lovely and my 2 children seem happy with the change over.

Today I got a call to say my 3 year old had an accident, she was holding a glass jar outside, tripped and fell, the glass shattered and she got 5 cuts on her hand. They reassured me she was happy and playing and she was fine, they cleaned it, bandaged it, no glass in her hand. They said they have taken away all the glass jars now after doing a risk assessment.

Her cuts are worse than I thought, not bad enough that I feel she needs medical attention right now, but her hand is sore and she is so scared of us touching her hand, full on melt down screaming trying to clean it :( we cleaned it more and put cream on.

I feel angry they allowed them to use glass, but they have removed this risk now and seem to have done all the right things after the incident. Everything else seems fine.

How would other parents react/feel?

Using glass jars can be part of the natural material ethos in some nurseries. That’s not the problem. It isn’t even a problem that your dd had an accident. What is the problem is them assuring you they took all the glass out and that you don’t need professional advice. This is definitely not something any nursery would do unless they habe a nurse on site.

Get her checked over OP.

I would expect them to ask you to take your DD to A&E or to offer to take themselves if you agree. They do a lot of assumptions in this nursery. They’ve assumed that glass was ok to play with, then they assumed that their cleaning and bandaging was enough.
I’m not medical professional but I would want my daughter to have proper check up in this situation especially if she’s upset about someone’s touching her hand.

Hope she’s ok and it’s nothing serious. It’s scary experience for a small child.

I hope OP has gone to a and e

I viewed a nursery that had a China tea set in the preschool room - big bowls of conkers and corks in the 2y old room - my child put everything in their mouth at time I was horrified - so please they removed glass - is sore I woul be going to ae for X-ray x

Oh wow 😮 can’t believe they didn’t recommend A&E tbh. I think you should take her just to be sure as all glass needs removing. I wouldn’t be sending my child(ren) back there until I had met with management to discuss. This meeting gives the opportunity to understand the nursery views etc about what happened and why children had glasses etc

I'd be reporting this to ofstead and kicking off massively.

Def get her checked at a&e.

I would be finding another nursery ASAP and not sending any dc back- regardless of how close it is.

We've had a few craft items brought home from DS's nursery made of glass jars with stuff stuck all over them etc. I have always wondered why they use glass around kids- not exactly vital for their learning. Sounds even worse that your DD was wandering around with one outside...

Lots of over the top responses here about the glass.

She should've been sent home for an X-ray and it's not too late now.

But glass is a pretty standard material in early years and accidents happen.

Glass, China etc is used in many nurseries. However an accident like that which had left glass in the wound we'd have sent the child home with advice to get it professionally checked.

I work in a nursery, we have glass jars, china cups and plates for play, the children have proper glasses for their water from about 2.5 years. The 3-4 year olds use hammers, nails, screw drivers. They help light fires and toast marshmallows. They're allowed to climb trees and make assault courses.

As someone else said, we follow 'the curiosity approach.' I personally don't agree with everything we follow and think some of the risks taken are too great. But in saying that, we've never had a child cut themselves- and things get broken regularly, as you can imagine!

I don't think we would ever say in this situation that we're confident there was no glass in her hand. We're all first aid trained but not medical professionals. We would advise you take her to be properly checked.

@drpaddington sounds like a fab nursery. It's all about the supervision levels to mitigate the risk. But still freak accidents occur b

I don’t think it sounds like a fab nursery at all when the staff are freely admitting that risks taken with children’s safety are too great. Quite how would you define a BAD nursery @decoratedstandardlamp

@MayorGoodwaysChicken
I do think it sounds like a fab nursery. One persons sense of risk is different to another's.