PFB quick nursery question

[giantkatestacks]

At my settling in session for dd today I noticed that all the toddlers (1 year old plus) were interchanging tommee tippee cups - ie they all had milk in and they were just putting them down and drinking out of any old one as they were all the same.

In my ds' nursery oh so many years ago they all had their own named sippy cups.

Is this normal now?

yuk! pretty sure they all have their own cup at dd's nursery, although I guess a certain amount of swapping goes on (accidental and not)

Certainly at my CM's, all the children have their own named cup, including the older ones (though they get a plastic tumbler, rather than a sippy cup ).

That shouldn't be happening.

No I don't think it can possibly be normal practice.

Toddlers will generally snatch borrow each other's cups, swipe unattended dummies, lick each other, sneeze in each others's faces... but I would expect the nursery staff to eventually notice and intervene for the first two things on this list.

When my dds were at nursery they had labelled cups. Occasionally accidental swapping occurred. I used to label the main part of the cup and the lid part as well.

Would your dd take milk from a completely different looking cup? I would be tempted to take one in, labelled and ask them to use that. It would be very hard for that to be interchanged.

The practice you describe could be very dangerous if they have an allergic child in the future.

Thanks all - I thought it was a bit odd but as it was only my first settling in day I didnt want to be seen as difficult. They already think I'm a weirdy for a number of different things.

At my nursery all the children have labels which hold a picture and their name, these are used for their pegs, on their sleep mats, on their draws, on the self signing in board and put out at snack time this encourages independance so the child can find their own, place at the table, and bed e.t.c, we introduced water cups which are available to the children through out the day, to stop children mixing them up we downsized the picture and laminated it we hole punched a corner and then with a plastic band attached it to the cups, the cups are washed every night, even if the child is a full timer, we continually encourage the children to find their drink and to quote one child 'my clock clock cup' the picture stays with them throughout the nursery so it is something they are ver familiar with, maybe suggest something like this to ur nursery

thanks cookielove - thats a great idea - will say something on Thursday when dd is in next.

She is already definately sucking on something - maybe someones bottle (which she doesnt have) or someones dummy (which she doesnt have either) as her latch had changed friday night which only happens when shes had a bottle but am not sure what to say about this either without seeming really moany - am sure they take them off them as soon as they notice dont they?

i would like to think that they do, but sometimes u can take a look at a child and not quite register what is wrong with the situation.

Although what i find worrying is that they are so blase about something that is serious, at my nursery milk is given at a specific time at 10 and 3.30 ish at morning snack and afternoon tea. I work with the two year olds but recently moved out of the 1-2's which i was in for three years and i have also worked with babies, never in any point in my nursery career have babies, toddlers or two years had free access to milk, just thinking of the allergies is scary enough, but milk can be very filling allowing the children to have free access to it seems awfully wrong, unless i have mis read your situation, i would talk to the manager about it

In my ds' nursery there was a set milk time but in this one they asked me what time she had it and I said between 10-10.30 and they were happy with that but thats the baby room - on both thursday and friday she had been in the toddler room instead and thats where I saw the children taking their sippy cups from the shelves (all the same colour) and putting them back - going away to play and coming back again and swigging away without any interference.

I will just ask in an 'out of curiosity way' how they know whose is whose - as you say there must be allergy risks involved.

At DS's nursery the cups are named in the same way as cookielove describes. Once they are older and not using sippy cups there aren't named cups, but then each cup is used by one child for one drink and then washed so there isn't the same sort of issue.

Aren't any of the staff watching over them? Even when I go to a toddler group (I childmind by the way) and we have snack and water time, I always supervise as children do tend to put down and pick up or want someone else's cup.

Sometimes people are not clued up about this but I am as I know what the consequences are!

There are staff in the room but as I was watching a boy put the sippy cup on the side and another child picked it up. I was a bit that they werent sitting in a circle to have their milk - as that was the routine at my ds' nursery. That way there's no chance of them being muddled up.