Am i being unreasonable?

[nickywy]

My son started nursery last week, and from the first day i was having issues with hygiene.

He's starting in the under 1s room, and on the first day we walked in to see the aftermath of messy play with sand, and saw several babies scattered around eating the spatulas/toys etc, which were covered in sand. The staff didn't try to stop them and there was still sand all over the place, despite 'messy time' being over. When i pointed out my concerns with the babies 'eating' the sand, the reply was 'oh its ok, its play sand' and 'there is always someone watching them', and 'oh its british kite marked sand'.
The only solution they came up with, when i said i was unhappy with my son possibly eating it, was 'well we won't let him play with sand then'.
Is this normal??

Another time i went to pick him up, he had been having bouts of loose stool the day before. On picking him up, he smelt of poo, so i went to change him before we left, to find that his bodysuit was stained with poo from a previous nappy change/leak, but the staff didn't change him into fresh clean clothes. I called one of the staff aside and said to them 'ive left 2 sets of clean clothes in his bag, so you can change him into it, if he gets dirty' and the reply i got was 'oh ok, thanks'. I even pointed out the reason i was changing him, and didn't get a response.

These are just the bigger issues. I feel like there is an issue every day and wonder if it's just me being fussy, so worried to keep bringing things up.

Anyone else had similar issues?

Sounds a bit dodgy, as a childcarer I wouldn't be happy about my charge eating sand regardless of it's make, colour or grain size lol.

I think though, it's only been a week and you're probably a bit fretful that you're having to leave him in the first place?

Give it a few more weeks and see how it goes perhaps

Hi Nickywy- hope things have settled down now with your sons childcare- i defintely do not think you were being too fussy- you sound like a worried, caring, genuine parent and from my experience (a very bad experience) of childcare for my son i know how stressful things like that actually are.

You shouldnt have had to had said about the clean clothes etc- they should have done this automatically after seeing your sons bodysuit- so there is no excuse.

I hope your all ok and settled in better.

x

I don't think you're being too fussy. The sand thing probably wouldn't bother me too much (but that is just me), but the poo-stained clothing is really unnecessary when you've left two changes of clean clothing for him. I would be very taken aback if this happened at my dd's nursery and would not be very happy at all, particularly if the stain is bad enough to cause a discernible smell. That just seems like very odd behaviour to me - none of dd's nursery staff would ever put stained clothing back on her.

Maybe have a chat with the manager? There is no point to paying for childcare that you are not wholly confident in.