Injury at nursery

[thesleepyone]

Hi,

I’m looking for some advice and reassurance please. As a first time parent, the last few days have been awful.

Last week my son sustained a serious head injury at nursery. He is 21 months old, and still in the youngest room at nursery, so should be well-supervised. He was playing in a toy pram with wheels when he stood up in it and fell, flat on his face, sustaining a chipped front tooth, a dislodged other tooth, lip cuts in two places, and a nosebleed. Dentist told us he may lose one or more teeth, and he’s been to A&E twice for a minor concussion. It’s been a week now and he’s just beginning to get back to acting normal in terms of eating sleeping and drinking. It’s been absolutely horrible and we are devastated about the damage to his teeth at such a young age.

The nursery seems to be doing everything they should be (pending the outcome of their investigation report which has not been completed yet). We were notified of the accident promptly and they have been good at communicating with us.

I know accidents happen, but I cannot imagine letting a child climb into a toy pram with wheels. This is not a piece of equipment that is intended for climbing. He is not a small child and the fact he could get into it and stand up means others could too. I would sincerely hope that anyone who saw a child doing something like this would intervene. Even if every risk assessment is completed, if it’s not going to prevent an accident like this, I feel something is going wrong. I am going to find it stressful sending him back to nursery eventually.

As I say, I’m looking for any one else’s experience or views on all this, and any reassurance you can give. Thanks in advance.

I wouldn't send him back. Poor boy and poor you. Hope he feels better soon! You're right, accidents can happen and do happen but it doesn't sound as if they had a close enough eye on him.

Your poor son, that's a nasty injury and very upsetting for you.

Accidents happen, and toddlers do climb in toy prams. I was at a playgroup today and saw several toddlers climbing in toy prams.

I would also hope that if someone saw a child stand up in a toy pram they would intervene - I assume that no one saw him or they weren't quick enough to intervene.

Although the staff ratio is 1:3, it's not possible for all children to be watched all the time in a nursery room. I don't know how big your son's room is, but for example if there are 3 adults and one is cleaning up an activity and one is giving a baby a bottle or out of the room changing a nappy then the other adult is watching 8 babies. Staff also need to be interacting with children and running activities, providing care, completing paperwork and talking to parents so with the best will in the world not every child is going to have eyes on them all the time.
This is the kind of accident that could easily happen at home with a 1:1 ratio.

So sorry this happened OP :(

It was an accident. They happen His teeth are baby teeth it won’t be permanent.

It’s awful it happened but accidents like that do happen extremely quickly and it isn’t one to one supervision. There are times you spot something about to happen and just can’t stop it quick enough. At nearly two he will be starting to explore what his body does and risk take a bit more.

It is a shock though when something like this happens. Take time to care for yourself and him. Keep talking with the nursery to get a full picture to what happened but don’t necessarily blame the staff for inadequate supervision, wait for the investigation to finish. Things do happen fast around lively toddlers.

We had a little one lose front teeth through an accident at home around that age. He is older now and his adult teeth came through fine despite his families concern they might not, so hopefully that offers a bit of reassurance.

That's exactly what happened to me at 21 months old when I was in the care of my Mum, who was also caring for my 3 year old brother, so a 1:2 ratio.

I climbed in my dolls pram and knocked my front tooth out.

As PP have said the nursery ratios of 1:3 in a room of babies might not be 1:3 in every moment if someone else is changing a nappy, someone else is dealing with a squabble etc.

Parents struggle to keep an eye on one toddler at all times. Having at least 3 to watch at the same time and be 'on it' in every moment is even harder.

It was an accident and they happen as distressing as it is to see your child like that.

For me, the most important thing would be to know what they will change going forward in their risk assessment to minimise this happening again. As long as I was happy with the nursery up until that point.

A long time without baby teeth if he loses 1 or more soon as a result though.
He also sustained a concussion, that's serious.

It was an accident but it was avoidable.

I think the issue here is that whilst he might have stood up very quickly (and I could understand how that stage of the incident could have happened too fast to stop), the point to intervene was surely when he first climbed in it, or even when he first started to climb into it, as I imagine the toy pram is not meant for that? This would limit my sympathy for the nursery as it should have given them long enough to stop the eventual outcome.

I'd be considering removing him too.

It would not have taken very long for a child to climb into a pram and the staff may have been busy or interacting with other children at that moment.
An accident like this could happen in any nursery or at home.

It was an accident.horrible, but an accident. The ratio is 3:1 isn't, no one has eyes in the back of their head.