toddler strapped at nursery frequently

[petiteHBB]

Hello,

I would like to get some opinions before bringing it up to the manager at DS's nursery.

DS is 23 months and has been attending the nursery for more than a year. Recently we have noticed 3 times that he was strapped on the chair in the end of the day. Twice he was doing nothing, just sitting and looking around on the chair. When we asked about this, the staff said when they got too busy to watch everyone, sometimes they strapp them for a short time. when we ask how long, they said like 5 min.

Recently he did throw toys and bite more often. We are trying to help and guide him to stop doing it. I'm not sure if it's related but i feel upset about this because he looked sad and it seems to happen frequently.

AIBU about this? Thank you.

Absolutely not normal and I would be removing my child.

They don’t even have high chairs in my 2 year olds room at nursery just toddler sized table and chairs

What am I reading?! No this is not OK and I'd remove my child if this happened for 5 minutes a year, let alone a day.

Absolutely not. A lot of nurseries don't even use high chairs anymore, children are sat at tables and chairs and can come and go as they wish, they shouldn't be restrained and for a staff member to sound so blasé about it I'd be very concerned.

Many thanks for all the replies and suggestions, very helpful. We are going to talk with the manager tomorrow and will start looking for another nursery too. We'll update it later.

Regarding the chairs in the nursery, they are at floor level as in the attached photo.

They have those chairs at my DD's nursery but they stop using the straps once kids can walk and get in and out of the chair independently, which by 23 months I'm sure your DS is able to do. Isn't the whole point of the nursery that the children can wander round freely without coming to harm? And that adequate numbers of capable staff are there to make sure they don't come to harm?

Assuming they're not just cruel, my guess is that they're not hitting their staffing ratios hence talking about being 'too busy' to watch all the kids. Personally I'd be looking for other childcare asap.

The nurseries job is literally to watch children. This shouldn't be happening and I would class this as restraint.

They have those chairs at my child’s nursery and they used to have the straps on them but an ofsted inspection said they shouldn’t be using those straps ever not even to eat so they removed them all.
(of course they have straps in the high chairs but not the low down seats).

Just some updates: we had a discussion with the manager. She talked with the team and apparently many kids including DS like to play with the straps. What happened was that DS went to chair, sat on it, strapped himself and stayed there...

We are removing DS from December and going to report this/leave reviews.

Blimey! Yes go to ofsted now

Yeah I'd 100% report this, the chairs shouldn't even have straps to begin with!

They strapped him to a chair?! WTAF?

So a 23 month old was able to strap himself in on 3 separate occasions that you know about? Doesn’t seem plausible to me!

A 2 yo strapped himself to a chair on multiple occasions and didn’t even cry or kick off?

They are actually insulting with such a shit excuse

Please do report them.

I work in a nursery and the only time a child is strapped in is if they are in a highchair being fed.
Too busy? It's literally their job to watch the children (and do 4750 other jobs too but interacting with the children is most important).
Remove your child and report.

They have those at my nursery. (I'm staff). The straps get used for safety reasons. If a child is likely to fall out, or stand up on it at the table it gets used, or to help stop a particular child from being able to lean over to bite people. Other that that they don't really get used much. Even a tiny one with the high chair table attachment won't get strapped in so it's easier to whip them out if they choke.

We do find they often do put the straps on themselves.