My friend's son attends a creche whilst she does a family learning course. Today he fell over and screamed very loudly. My friend heard him screaming (the course is upstairs). She ignored it thinking if it were very serious they would come and get her. After 15 minutes he was still in floods of tears so she went down to find him sat on a workers lap obviously distressed. They said he had fallen over but should be ok with a cold compress. It turns out he had fractured his arm. She understands that children can do this just by tripping over and it can often go missed for a few days. Her concern was how long they would have left him crying without contacting her if she hadn't have heard him and gone down?
How long would you expect your child to be distressed for before being rung to see if you wanted to come and collect them?