Wwyd

[GoldNumbers]

My 3 year old DS had an accident at nursery and got a stick stuck through his cheek. He's had an operation and stitches, he will be scarred for life and theres a chance he may not get feeling back in that cheek.

I phoned the manager of the nursery yesterday to get some information on how this happened and she said a member of staff noticed he was crying and that's when they saw it, she also said she THINKS he tripped. So no one was watching him is what I gather from that.

at the time of the incident the manager had taken him to hospital and I got up there after now I told her I'm not blaming them etc. accidents happen, which they do.

But the more im thinking about this I feel sick, my poor little 3 year old is scarred for life and not only that the stick was 3 inches long! How long was he crying before someone noticed.

Wwyd? Would you take this further or put it down to accidents happen?

Btw he's been at nursery since he was 8 months old, no other problems, outstanding ofsted. I'm just so torn he loves it there and If I take him out I will be taking away a big part of his life but on the other hand it's making me feel sick sending him back, why was nobody watching him this could have been prevented so easily

Even if someone saw the incident happen they may not have been able to prevent it happening.

It is reasonable to want to know what your child was doing in the run up to this accident. Its reasonable to ask nursery how many staff and children were in that area.

Small children do have accidents sometimes that have long term consequences, my brother has scars from his failure to hold on to the top of a climbing frame at that age, also his ability to trip over his own feet and hit a wall. No one else was involved in either incident and no one could have prevented them happening.

Really sorry to hear of your dcs injury. Unfortunately a straightforward falling over accident can result in bad injury. But it cannot always be prevented - even if seen. Falling takes a split second.

It's reasonable to ask about ratios and also cleaning/why a sharp stick was there (eg was it off broken equipment).
However it may come out that it was the kind of accident that could have happened any time - maybe when you took them to the park, even watching like a hawk. Such things happen.

I would ask questions, but don't get hooked on finding a cause/guilty person if none is found. Firstly there may well not be one and secondly it won't magic the injury away.
It could also have an impact on you if (hopefully not but you never know) a dc had an A&E injury at home. If you've built up to that there must be a cause you'd feel even more guilty than otherwise.

There may well be a cause or blame.
But unfortunately there might not.

As Uni says ... my dsis has a scar from falling and a sharp rock on the ground. The ratio was 1:2 and my mum was a foot away. had she fallen an inch to the side - no rock. She leapt to grab her but she fell so fast.

Just because the staff are paid doesn't mean things like that can't happen.

I am sorry to hear about your son. But if the nursery were to watch every child all the time they would need 1:1 staff. It was obviously an unfortunate accident with no-one actually to blame.

Yes I agree, you are all right I suppose I was just angry and looking for someone to blame. Which is not right. Just sort of instinct i suppose

When I say prevented I meant by making sure sharp sticks weren't laying around. But I know staff can't be by his side 24/7 and accidents do happen. He's much brighter now it's amazing how fast kids bounce back!

GoldNumbers - I hope this reassures you, but when my DS was 3 he slipped in a puddle and fell face first onto a jagged plastic pipe sticking out of the pavement. It looked awful and needed stitches on his chin (the visible part). I was totally freaked out by it all.

Now he is 9 you can't see anything unless you look really hard at it. At the time though I thought he would be really badly scarred.
Hope your son feels better soon, and you too!

I'd want to know what exactly he fell on.

Your poor ds and poor you.... I can imagine your thinking the worst of how long he was left like it. I would be aswel but I can guess they would have seen him pretty much straight after it happened. He would of been crying which makes anyone turn heads. My son at 14 months tripped over a door divide landed funny and fractured his lower leg. He's had far worse falls and got straight back up but sometimes it's just one of those things . Hope you get a lot of support over the nxt few wks . Scars can be greatly reduced these days . Is he ok I'm himself x