Child bitten on penis

[Love88]

My child was at nursery all day. Whilst he was there the nursery rang me to let me know that my almost 4 year old had said he was bitten twice, on the penis and also another time on the hip, by another child. But she said that it wasn't true and that he must have pinched his parts when he was going to the loo (but she didn't see that happen).
She said she would write up an accident report for it as per usual. I took what she said at face value, but added if he had been bitten on the penis that would be extremely harsh. She laughed nervously to that.
FYI my boy speaks exceptionally well for his age, he communicates and speaks eloquently.
He arrives home and is very upset. Lots of hugs.
Said that name had bitten him on the penis. And that he had also bitten his good friend also. It looks like a bite mark. The doctor can determine that I am sure.
What would you do in this situation?
To me, the way it has been done, it looks like they have lied. And I will be taking my son to the hospital as the whole thing is very wrong on different levels.
I am mostly concerned about if this other child is being abused at home. And the fact that the nursery lied. They are trying to cover it up big time.

See a doctor for safeguarding and to document this?

I would be reporting this to your local children’s safeguarding team at your local council. You can do this online.

This is weird.
I’d report it to have it logged more than anything as you don’t know if 10 other parents have also received weird explanations from the staff about similar instances and may create a wider picture of what’s going on.

How can the nursery worker say that it isn't true your child was bitten if she didn't see how it happened? I would be taking this further. Something is not right at all.

Very strange. Get a GP to take a look and raise to safeguarding lead.

A GP is not going to be happy to make a judgement on this. A formal child protection medical, by an experienced paediatrician, as requested by social services, might well be able to. Though not always.

Serious red flags

Your poor child - speak to the hospital, they will know the process of recording and assessing the injury. If his skin is broken you should take him the hospital asap especially if any signs of infection. Here's the NHS page for human bites: Animal and human bites - NHS

I would not leave him at that nursery ever again - the other child is a big risk and the recording / reporting of the incident is inaccurate at best and at worst a cover -up.

I'd remove my DC from the nursery and report to safeguarding with SS. The penis biter might be an abused child acting out what he has endured at home.

I agree that reporting is safer. It may save another child. It's a very odd thing to happen, and the initial presumption should be to believe the injured child.

Consult the doctors for investigation. What matters is expert diagnosis.

But the right sort of doctors are accessed via social services.

Doctors aren’t going to say ‘yes that’s definitely a penis that has been bitten’. In fact they’ll likely refuse to comment at all past checking if it’s infected. You’d need social services involvement.

Do you know if the other child is the same age? I used to work in nurseries and it's not usual for children to bite anyone at your child's age unless they have SEN. Although in one nursery I worked in they had children from 2.5 to 5.11 in the same room so it could still happen. Being bitten on the penis is definitely not right at any age though.

Not that any kind of biting is right, it's just common with little ones and most nurseries will have 1 or 2 children who bite given half a chance among the under 2s.

I think I'd want a meeting witht he nursery manager and the staff member who called. Say something along the lines of, it looks remarkably like a bite mark to you and DS is very clear about what happened and hasn't wavered. Can you explain why you think he can't have been bitten when you didn't see what did happened?"

They may have a reason (e.g. name wasn't in the nursery that day/DS was in the toilet area all by himself before he came out and claimed to have just been bitten). It may satisfy you.

If it doesn't then say they need to investigate, be more vigilant and consider whether [name] needs support from social services.

If you aren't satisfied with their response, a report to Social Services about potentially sexualised behaviour by a child (which is a safeguarding issue as an indicator of potential abuse) that the nursery are covering up. And remove your child.