scratching

[kuta]

my dd - 11 mo came from nursery with her face scratched today, i mean face covered in scratches, not just one little one. apparently the boy who did it is the same age has a history of it. i try to be resonable and not get workred up about it, after all they all go through scratching or biting fase at one stage or another, but this seemed a bit severe. or am i beeing sensative? my husband is saying we should find another nursery, but i don't want to overreact. it does seem however that they didn't stop him straight away (noone saw it happening?) given the number of scratches. that is worring, isn't it? ir is it just something to expect whe they in any nursery?

No I would be horrified to be honest if that was my baby I would want to talk to the nursery manager and see the incident report. You are paying them to care for your baby and obviously that didn't happen on this ocasion so you need a full explanation and if there isn't a good enough one then start looking at other nurserys.

My DD had one scratch a few weeks ago and they took it very seriously - filled in accident book and 'applied cold compress and gave cuddles'.

The babies aren't even old enough in her room to do it malicioulsy so I was suprised how serioulsy they did take it. It filled me with faith about their skills and expertise.

Although if your daughter is only 11 months, she should still be with a ratio of 1:3 so where was everybody??

yes, that's exactly my question. they did take it seriously, called my husband during the day to let him know what happened, filled all the forms ect. i think they we truley sorry but it dosn't change the fact that she has quite a few scratches and it seems to me like they didn't stp it in time...mind you, all the boy wanted was a toy, a valuable lesson of sharing for my dd...
i will speak with the owner tomorrow (she's a ennoying posh cow, will be glad to tell her off). but i'm glad you say it happens a bit!

There will be children scratching everywhere - its part of life unfortunatly. Even with a 1:3 ratio, they aren't right by the children all the time - if one baby is having a nappy change, and another member of staff is giving a baby a bottle, they can't leap across the room to intervene fast enough to stop scratching. From my experience (DS went through a biting phase)they go from playing nicely to causing harm in the bat of an eyelid.

Unless it happens again, I wouldn't do anything

yes, you're right. i can only imagine how the other mum must feel. apparently when she saw my dd's face in the nursery she broke out in tears! the wouldn't tell my hubby which child it was though, i think tha't fair enough

I think that's a policy my nursery adopt too - I can see why. What good would it do knowing who was responsible anyway?

This is the policy at my nursery too - DS has been bitten a few times and it's all put down in an accident/incident book but I'm never told who was responsible. As sticky says....what good would knowing do? I would probably speak with the owner tho as lots of scratches is a concern re: why didn't someone intervene...esp if the culprit has a history as I'd have thought they would be keeping an extra eye on his behaviour?

I'm sure all kids go through this phase whether it comes out via kicking, biting, scratching, screaming etc. Nursery is the place where they are all discovering [and being exposed to ]all kinds of human idiosyncrasies so who can blame them?!

thanks for all the advice ladies.

I think it's all sorted. i must admit i just found it all difficult to deal with, some other kid hurting my little one.

also - the nursery is ment to provide 24 phone line (or so they advertise one the website) and i couldn't get hold of enyone when got home from work at 7 and so her face, but i guess that's separate discussion.

just of interest - does any nursery have a policy of actually giving the parents written info about what happened? cause this one doesn't and i think that's pretty poor. my husband was too shocked to find out the details when he picked her up and it would have put my mind at ease a bit if i had a written desciption of the incident. i woudl be interested to know what happens elsehwere.

i think one lesson i have learnt from all this that this kind of behaviour (scratching, biting) stems from frustration of not being able to communicate. i would hate my dd to be hurting other kids, another reason to press on with baby signing...

the nursery have to have an accident book by law and your dd injuries should have been written down in the book. You should also be given a copy of the page. If this does happen again and i really hope it doesn't then please ask for a copy of the page.