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Obese nursery staff

85 replies

babybigears · 15/07/2009 17:17

A new member of staff will be working in the nursery baby room that I work at. I would class her as grossly obese and I am really really concerned that she may trip and fall on top of a baby because she may not notice for example, a baby at her feet or in her vicinity. There are a lot of babies rolling, crawling, toddling from as young as 3 months to 15 months old.

This is a difficult one for me to raise with the nursery. What do I do as a concerned member of staff?

If I was a parent I would be concerened. I would be interested to know if parents on this forum would see this as a safety concern?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
nickytwotimes · 15/07/2009 17:39

I'm vegetarian.
I could pass out from the lack of meat and fall onto my toddler.

hobbgoblin · 15/07/2009 17:43

Anyone with excessive norkage needs to be banned too. Also big bottoms could be unbalancing.

I had a run in with a woman in Costco with a big bottom today, she shouldn't have been employed on the till because it was giving her most apparent arse ache in every sense, the witch.

TheCrackFox · 15/07/2009 17:45

You might be onto something there Fenella. I think it might be prudent for all nurseries to lower their ceilings to a height of 1.2metres thus preventing any staff member from potentially dropping a baby from a dangerous height.

ButterbeerAndLemon · 15/07/2009 17:54

No, I don't, as a parent, see the risk that an obese member of staff might fail to notice a baby and hence trip and land on top of it as a valid safety issue.

But thank you for your concern.

hocuspontas · 15/07/2009 18:05

Interesting first post babybigears

plantsitter · 15/07/2009 18:15

I should say something to her face personally, before she starts work there. Then she can get a job somewhere else so she doesn't have to work with such bitchy risk averse co-workers.

NorbertDentressangle · 15/07/2009 18:22

OMG! I hope there aren't any nursery staff with huge norks -they impede your vision you know.

Thats got to be a H&S issue.

MIAonline · 15/07/2009 18:26

Speaking as an A&E doctor, I have indeed witnessed this modern day problem. Statistically Obese people are 10 times more likely to trip and fall with a 50% hit rate of falling on the very young and infirm.

We, at A&E have been campaigning for many years for a weight limit of 6.5 stones (incidentally the figure at which a human body can't be felt when it touches you) to be imposed on all nursery nurses, home helps, carers and nursing home staff.

Please do not let this go on any longer.

IotasCat · 15/07/2009 18:30

I guess pregnant women shouldn't be allowed to look after their other children then ?

MIAonline · 15/07/2009 18:35

But as this is the thread of fantasy, best to get involved.

livinginadreamworld · 15/07/2009 18:35

i am very overweight.... i have worked as a nursery nurse and my weight in no way prevents me from doing my job well. I have however worked with overweight girls who cannot do the job, they cant lean over a cot to pick up a baby, they can't sit on the floor with the children and they can't run after them when needed. I really think it is the responsibility of the individual to know whether they are capable of doing the job well. However i dont think 'falling on a baby' is a problem!

purepurple · 16/07/2009 07:37

I have worked with young children for over 15 years and in that time i have only ever worked with 2 nursery nurses that i would consider obese.
like livingina dreamworld says, being obese does limit your movements to an extent
looking after children is an active job and involves lots of running around
funnily enough, both of the larger ladies whom I worked with went on to become nursery managers.
Maybe because they were already good at sitting on their backsides all day
fwiw, I have never witnessed anybody falling on a baby, fat or thin

Buda · 16/07/2009 07:53

Surely she would be a bit like a weeble and "wobble but not fall down"??

crokky · 16/07/2009 08:06

Personally, I wouldn't work in a baby room - I am 6ft, built and clumsy, although not fat. This lady may not be clumsy at all - she has taken the decision to work with babies so I should think she would be fine. If you are worried, just observe her at work a bit and satisfy yourself that there's no problem.

And I think being fat is different to being pregnant - when you are pg, weight is fairly unevenly distributed, but when you are fat, it is more even and a fat person is more stable than a pg person of the same weight.

mrsmaidamess · 16/07/2009 08:12

On a slightly tangential point (I work in a school)I went on a fire evacuation course and we discussed how people may be restricted from evacuating a building safely and quickly, reading exit signs etc.

EAL, disability, Autism etc were all sugggested.

Obesity was not. I think it should have been, if we are going to continue down the 'risk aware route' that so many businesses and premises take these days.

HecatesTwopenceworth · 16/07/2009 08:21

Depends how big she is. I am BLOODY fat, with limited mobility. I am not offended by this conversation. I suspect op may be a joke but if not, and it's something that does worry her, as opposed to her hating fat people and looking for something to critisise - then what's the problem?

ok. do the very, super, mahoosively fat have mobility problems? Yes. I, for example, can't walk far, can't stand for long and certainly can't chase after a small child. My back hurts, my knees hurt and I get tired very quickly. However, I am unable to work. I would imagine that if this woman is in the workplace, she is not in as bad a situation.

Do the very, super, mahoosively fat have balance problems? Not as such. Your - what is it? centre of gravity maybe? is different, you carry yourself differently, you compensate, so I guess that could affect balance. Certainly if a thin person woke up tomorrow weighing 30 stone, they would find it a problem! But since it happens over time, you adapt. Although if you do overbalance, or start to fall, you have very little chance of correcting yourself, unlike the slimmer folk so you are more likely to go down!

Can the very, super, mahoosively fat see things at their feet? not always. Sorry, but it's true. Your, I don't know what it's called, line of vision? Whatever it is, it's different. When you look down it is like \ that instead of like | that. you do have a blind spot.

But tbh, if she was fat enough for the above to apply, I doubt very much she would be physically capable of working.

I don't see the harm in being truthful about it. Why pretend the super morbidly obese have no problems because of it, eat like birds and exercise daily?! We fool nobody but ourselves when we pretend like that!

Besom · 16/07/2009 09:05

This is just the kind of thread which is going to end up in the press.

'Parents call for ban on nursery staff with mahoosive norks' or something snappier.

Bumperslucious · 16/07/2009 10:05

But fatter people are more cuddly, and can hold babies in their rolls of fat better than skinny straight up and down woman. In fact, if you don't have a curvy body then there is the H&S risk of babies sliding down you.

babybigears · 16/07/2009 11:58

I apologise if I have offended anybody but I am genuinely concerned.

OP posts:
littlelamb · 16/07/2009 11:59

babybigears, if you work at a nursery, why aren't you, you know, at work?

ButterbeerAndLemon · 16/07/2009 12:00

I'm sure your employers have taken up references to see how many babies she's inadvertently squashed in previous jobs.

babybigears · 16/07/2009 12:03

I am at work and have internet access.

OP posts:
Tamarto · 16/07/2009 12:04

What a load of shit.

littlelamb · 16/07/2009 12:05

sure you do love. Watch you don't trip on any babies while you're on MN

Fruitysunshine · 16/07/2009 12:05

HHmmm. I am morbidly obese and have 3 children and 2 stepchildren. I don't recall falling on any of them at any point in their lives!

I do recall however, some skinny bird at work one time, falling over and spilling her coffee over me. NASTY burn. Not sure if she was looking at her feet at the time....

What the biggest load of shit I have heard in a long time! Maybe you are just anti fat people and they make YOU feel uncomfortable?