DS got bitten yesterday at nursery and none of the carers had noticed...

[2point4kids]

The first thing I noticed when I collected him was a bite mark on his arm. He was wearing a short sleeve t shirt and it was quite obvious.
I asked the nursery staff about it (there were 3 staff there but DS's key worker was off yesterday) and none of them knew what had happened and hadnt noticed the mark.
I asked them if they had seen him crying at all and they all said no.
I left it there..

Today the mark has turned into a purple bruise. It must have hurt him enough to make him cry. I am a bit miffed that no one noticed him crying and also a bit miffed that no one noticed the mark all day. (I understand that these things happen, but I would prefer them to have at least noticed it and comforted my DS!)

I have never had any issues with the nursery before and think that his key worker is lovely.
Shall I say anything more on the matter next week when I take him or shall I not rock the boat now seeing as I didnt say anything more yesterday??

I think you should point it out - especially as your DS keyworker wasn't there. I would go from the angle of "keyworker not in.... who is keeping an eye on DS?" rather than being accusatory about the bite mark. Of course you need to mention it when you raise the point of the keyworker being off.

My DD was once left with a poo in her nappy for a while, I know because she had dreadful red marks on her bum were it had dug in. I asked her keyworker the following day if they had run out of nappies for DD as she "been in one for a while and had a sore bum" - I made the point but I didn't ruffle feathers.

HTH x

Exactly the same thing happened to my ds and I posted about it last weekend. It was a horrible red purple bruise and was on his upper arm so through two layers of clothing - like your ds it must have really hurt. Spoke to keyworker who sounded sorry but hadn't seen it happen.

Last week ds came home with a horrible bite mark AGAIN! I haven't seen his keyworker yet, dh had a word but don't know how effective that was... if it happens again I will be ringing the manager. I was miffed the first time, just like you, but was willing to let it lie. I think maybe we just have to accept that occasionally these things happen. Maybe he did cry but they thought he had fallen over or something? Would your ds really go all day without crying at all? (mine certainly wouldn't, at home or at nursery, if there was no reason to he'd find one!).

Hope the bruise has gone now. I think you could definitely mention it to his keyworker as she wasn't there on Thurs.

Absolutely say something! This should never have been missed. When this happened to DD they told me the child who did it and that they had let his Mother know and I was v happy with that.

This is tricky and two issues need to be adressed.

1. A keyworker is only a keyworker in the sense that they are the ones that will do developmental checks, will speak to a parent at open/parents evenings. They are not the only one to look after/observe and care for your child - all nursery staff in the room are there to care for the chidren, from changing them, palywing with them and comforting them - so don't feel that if a keyworker isn't there you're child will be getting less care and attention than other children whose keyworker is there.

1. Biting - as a past room leader in a 1-2 age range and also having worked with older children I can honestly say biting is one of the hardest parts of the job. At this age children lash out quickly and often without any warning.

For example I have sat with 2 little boys playing with a farm yard, 100% attention focused on them, and looked up to acknowledge another child and 1 of the boys bit the other literally looked away for 5 seconds, obviously we gave cuddles, and a cold compress to the child and wrote it up getting the other child to apologise. When speaking to the mum I obviously couldn't tell them who had bitten as that is unproffessional , and unfortunatly the bitee will often bite another child in a couple of weeks anyway!

Yes the nursery workers should have noticed - and if it happens again - another accident that hasn't been observed then I would question it with the manager however a lot of children go through biting phases and you will find that they will have behaviour policies in place for biting.

Imagine you're having a playdate with another mum and her child - they are playing in the garden and you're both sat in the garden too, one of them starts crying, and you cuddle them but don't think about checking for bite marks - are you a bad parent? and if you did see they had been bitten what would you do to step up to make sure it didn't happen again?

Good post DN