Help! Nursery injury

[mellg]

my DD had a trial session in her new nursery and already got an injury. She is 7 months and in the baby room which accommodates from 3 months to 2 years. DD was on the play-mat on her back, when a toddler came over to her and dropped a wooden toy on her face. When we came to pick her up, she had a bruise under her eye.
We are worried as DD is in a baby room full of other toddlers and of course too young to look after herself. Should the staff treat babies with more care as apposed to toddlers? Should they have a separate section for babies to be in, with soft toys as apposed to being too near toddlers who might by accident harm them? I'm in a panic of whether I should hijack the whole nursery thing and go for childcare instead?....

i think that babies and toddlers should be separated

imo 3 months - 2 years is too big an age range

did the staff explain the incident?

Personally, I wouldn't want a 7 month old in a nursery room with 2 year olds. That's a huge difference in terms of physical/mental development. I can also imagine that it gets pretty noisy. I've never seen that before, and I've viewed every nursery in my area. All of the nurseries I've loooked at had a separate room for up to 12 months, and another for 12-24 months. Some of them then had separate rooms for 12-18 and 18-24 months. Of course, if you move to a CM it's perfectly possible that s/he will have a two year old to look after. I think that's different from a nursey with maybe 10 or 15 children all in one room, but it's worth thinking about.

Most nurseries will have 2 or 3 different rooms to accommodate that age range. It's too difficult to meet all the different needs with such a big age-range, and to keep the little, immobile, helpless ones safe.

Speak to the staff. But, if you're concerned, it's perfectly sensible to look at other nurseries and/or CMs.

Thanks for your messages. The staff did explain the incident and I watched the CCTV footage, though feel theres nothing I can do about it, apart from search for a childminder maybe . Problem is I start work latter part of this week coming and therefore have lack of time to do this! I know the baby room is the only room that accommodates that age range, which is a real worry..

melig - Sounds like the nursery staff handled it well... I think you should give it a chance TBH. It's one of those unfortunate things. The nursery DS1 attends, he's in the younger room and the babies there start from 6 months to 2 years. He started at 11 months old. I'm very happy with the care he has received there (he's almost 2 years old now and about to move up to the next room). He was the youngest when he started and now he is the oldest! Over the last year he has attended the nursery, he has had quite a few 'accidents'. Nothing major - bumps on the head, been bitten etc. The important thing is how the nursery deals with it - with head injuries, they always call me and let me decide if I want to pick DS1 up early. I always find it quite cute that on the accident forms, one of the remedies applied in every situation is 'cuddles'!

I think if you are going to put your child in a care situation where there are other children, you have to accept to a certain extent that 'accidents' like that will happen. DS1 has been bitten and he has bitten as well. That's a con but for me the pros of DS1 attending a nursery far outweighs the cons. His social skills are very advanced. I like him socialising with other children, that was always a big thing for me. You need to weigh up all those factors before deciding to switch to a CM. P.S. There's no guarantee this incident will not happen at a CM with another mindee!

at dd's nursery all the kids in rooms together are in brackets of roughly 6 months

so one room is babies 0-6, next room is 6 months to 1 year, next room is 1 year to 18 months etc

But is a big nursery in a big old house so they have the space

I think babies to toddlers is a huge gap, what do they do when the babies need to sleep for instance?

I've not personally come accross a nursery where the age range is this vast. I'm sure their is something in the standards which states that very young children should be seperated from older ones. Most nurseries I'm familiar with have a baby unit with seperate milk kitchen, sleep/quiet area and facilities suitable for the age range using it.

However as some posters have said accidents can happen, but steps should be taken to reduce the risks of this happening. I don't think I would feel comfortable for a very young immobile child to be under the feet of rough n tumble toddlers. Although their are benefits for younger children to mix with older ones such as speach and social skills.

Have you looked at some other nurseries or CM's in your area?

The nursery DD first went to had a baby room for 3 months to 2nd birthday, then a main room from 2-5. There were never any incidents with the babies.

Then we moved and the new nursery has rooms for one age group. Just a few weeks into the Toddler room (2-3) she came home with a black eye.

I don't like the sound of a 7 month old getting injured, I don't think it should happen. I would not want a 7mo in with a 2yo - my local one has a cut off for the baby room of approx 14 months, but a child would go up sooner if necessary. Are there any more nurseries nearby?

I think most nurseries would separate this age group tbh, the one ds and dd have attended certainly did - imo 7 mths is very young to mix with 2 year olds when staff cannot possibly watch everything going on. Having said that siblings can inflict injuries on each other at home - I have a ds (4) and dd (1) and poor dd really has learnt to stay out of the way wherever possible and stick up for herself where necessary

I'd agree that the nursery doesn't sound negligent here, I'm afraid accidents do just happen when you have a lot of children together in one room.

However I would agree with the other posters who said that this is a big age range for one room at nursery - I assume it's relatively small?

If your gut feeling is that this is still the right nursery then bear in mind that your DD will soon be much more mobile and therefore less likely to have things dropped on her but I'm afraid she will still get jostled/pushed etc by the bigger children so if that is a big issue for you perhaps look elsewhere.

I work in childcare with years of experiencee so i can give an opinion on both sides. Everyone is right that babies do need to be separated from older children, although the guidelines state it is under 2's however the majority of nurseries do split them at around 16 month age or when they become more active ie toddling around. On a professional side it is always heartbreaking when a child in your care gets hurt you always feel like there could have been something you could have done to avoid it. My advice to you would be to give the nursery a chance but do air your concerns to the staff with regards to the age and ability differences of the children. They must understand!! Its so hard to leave your child and you only want the best for them. If any other incidents occur then change nursery if only to put your own mind at ease!

Must admit I would prefer a nursery that had separate baby and toddler rooms. The nursery I used to work in had a combined room and a toddler once bit a baby on the face - you can imagine how upsetting that was for the parent, child and staff !!!!!! Toddlers are, after all, just being toddlers and it isn't their fault but I think they should be separated.