Baby bit on face

My LB got bit twice at nursery from behind. He had not been interacting with the child who bit him either time. Bites do happen, and with the rules today I imagine it’s difficult to deal with. But I didn’t remove him because they showed he had adequate care after and reported to me at pick up. It didn’t happen a 3rd time as I said that twice was even too much and I’d be raising a formal complaint a 3rd time. I would speak to them about what they are going to do to prevent and make it clear that you expect to be phoned at the time (a bite in the face sounds like something I’d want to know about right away so I could deal with it myself) I’d also mention that you felt they downplayed the incident and that his face was swollen and badly bruised which isn’t an incident to downplay.

Hi Iona, that is awful being bit twice! I just don't think it's acceptable. The baby room has 10 babies max and there was 3 members of staff there. I never got a phonecall, they just sent a report through app but when we went to pick my baby up he was crying and staff were ignoring him which broke my heart too. They can't guarantee it won't happen again and said they'd be more vigilant but if they can stop it with 3 staff members watching 3 babies each just isn't good enough for me. I have said all this but I just feel trust has been broken. It's not been dealt with well at all I feel. No follow up either x just so disappointing x

I don't think they are telling me the truth and care inspectorate report was poor with 2s and 3s xx

Hi, I work in a nursery so I might have a bit of a different view on this. Biting doesn't happen all the time, and they shouldn't have played it down, especially if they could see you were upset about it. However, it is more common than parents realise, as babies and toddlers don't have the means to express anger and frustration in a healthy way yet - add in teething on babies and it's the perfect mix. If you really feel like it wasn't dealt with in an appropriate way, by all means find a different setting for your child. But I would definitely ask to speak with a member of the team and get a bit more insight on the actual incident and what measures are put in place to try to avoid it happening again. Just think, sadly practitioners can't always find a trigger for the biting or be fast enough to stop it from happening, and that can happen in any nursery, no matter how good they are. Best of luck with what you decide to do and hope your little one is okay.

As an early years practitioner unfortunately these things do happen as staff to child ratios (under 2 -1/3 2-3 1/5 3-5 1/8) and room numbers can be quite high so as u can imaging it’s difficult to watch every child every second. Did you get an accident form and if you want to keep your child at that nursery you could speak to the nursery about what they are going to do to try and prevent it happening again

My LB was in the toddler room (2 and a half at the time) so it is entirely different as I imagine it’s harder to watch toddlers. But babies? Yeah I’d be mad, they are more watched than toddlers and a lower ratio of kids to adults. One thing my nursery was good for was when dropping him off they discussed the bite and asked how he was etc so deffo not good your nursery hasn’t. We know as mums, if you aren’t comfortable with them watching your LO anymore I would switch.

My toddler was bitten in the face a couple of weeks ago, he had teeth marks for a couple of days. They phoned me to let me know as everything that's from neck up they need to phone you. Tbh I was not majorly concerned, they are kids, some are non verbal and they still don't know how to regulate emotions. My son got several bites during the years, not in the face, but hands yes. I think it's normal and while yes the staff is supervising them they cannot fix attention to every single child all the time. I also find it good because children need to learn to interact and how to respond in case someone does it to them. My son now says "no don't do that". They are experiencing and while not everything is nice it's still experience

Thank you for your comments x appreciated x

As a mum whose child has bitten, not in a nursery but in my own house. It feels just as bad from the other side! You just cannot always get there fast enough or comes from nowhere 😢