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Working Moms
CHI-06
member
Advice- what would you do? pull kids? report them?
CHI-06
member
in Working Moms
My kids have been going to the same in-home daycare for 2 years now. It is 2 ladies watching the kids out of one of the ladies homes. It is licensed and has been in place for 20 years. They love it there and I do feel like the main lady loves my kids now. We have had a few minor complaints but it has never been enough to me to move them and find someone new to trust.
About a month ago my 2 year old broke out in hives (all over her body). The lady only called me and I was in a meeting. She never even called my husband. After that day I talked to her about it and had her pull out the contact sheet and re-reviewed the emergency contact numbers.
Fast forward to yesterday. My older daughter broke her arm. She called my work # and my husbands work #. She didn't call either of our cell phones or our other emergency contact person when she did't get a hold of us. Is she able to give Tylenol? Cause my poor daughter was in pain and didn't get that even....but maybe that isn't allowed. So it was a half hour before I even got the message. We do not work close to home. So my daughter didn't get to the ER until 2 hours after it happened. I am very frustrated by how this was handled especially since we just reviewed it like a month ago!
My husband is also really upset about her breaking her arm there. I am just not sure how I feel cause a kid can hurt themselves under my watch too... the story we got was that only one of the ladies was in the basement with some of the kids...she took one kid into the bathroom with the door open. My daughter climbed up onto the desk chair that has wheels and tried to jump off it. The wheels rolled though and she fell. My daughter says to us 'Joe, Ryan and I were jumping off the furniture.' If it was all 3 of them they had to be taking turns on the chair then. How could all that happen without someone noticing?
What would you do? My DH doesn't want them to go back at all and he wants to report the issues. I am just not sure how to feel. I do not think these ladies would ever purposely harm my children but if they aren't watching them close enough that is dangerous too. Thoughts?
Daughter born July 2008; Daughter born March 2010
Son born August 2011
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Re: Advice- what would you do? pull kids? report them?
Kids should not be unsupervised around a rolling chair. If they were jumping off of stationary furniture and your child decided to up the ante and chose the rolling chair, I wouldn't be happy about that either. Allowing kids to jump off of furniture is ridiculous, and sets a bad precedent.
I think I signed paperwork at my daycare that they are allowed to seek emergency medical treatment for my kid. I consider a broken arm an emergency, and would be pissed if they waited to do anything to get ahold of me. If I didn't answer the first time they called, then I would expect to hear that DD is at the emergency room or urgent care with an employee of the center (DD goes to a center, not an in home).
In summary, I'd be looking for a new place.
I don't think they are allowed to give medicine without specific authorization.
I hope your DD feels better soon.
It seems obvious to me that she would be taken to the ER right away for a broken arm, whether or not they got in touch with you. Why did they wait? They could have called on their way, from the ER, etc. (That's assuming it was obviously broken, not like "oh I fell and my arm hurts but it looks ok.") Daycares are not allowed to give medication, even tylenol, without a doctor's note, as far as I know.
I feel bad for your poor DD =( But honestly, kids fall. A rolling chair doesn't seem like a great idea in a daycare, but maybe the other kids were jumping off stationary furniture? If you don't feel comfortable sending your kids there anymore, by all means switch (I would! It sounds like a pattern of poor judgement!) but I don't really think anything in your story is a reportable offense.
So when you say find a new daycare...you would pull them out immediately?
Of course she told me they don't allow the kids to jump on furniture and that she was just out of the room for a minute in the bathroom... but in my mind that doesn't all add up. I honestly didn't expect her to take her to the ER since she has other kids to watch. But isn't that what emergency contact forms are for?
Would you report these issues?
We signed authorization forms with both of our childcare providers to seek emergency medical care - including things like hospital preference, insurance information, PCP, etc.
I cannot believe that they just sat around while your daughter had a broken arm!!!
Accidents happen, but it sounds as thought there was a lack of supervision, and then an improper response to the injury. I'd find a new daycare.
Not following emergency procedures isn't reportable for a licensed daycare? I am not talking about reporting them for her falling off a chair.
At my center, they can only give Tylenol/other medication with a note from a doctor and a signed parent consent form (or maybe that's prescriptions with a doctor's note and they only need a parent's note for OTC's).
We also had to fill-out and sign a form that stated in an emergency, if they could not get in touch with us, that the dcp could seek medical care for our child at the closest care facility, which may or may not be our doctor.
I agree that allowing kids to play on furniture sets a bad precedent and access to a rolling chair is just asking for trouble. I wouldn't expect kids in a home daycare to have access to the rolling chair.
I am not sure if I would report them or not, but I would definitely switch, especially because she didn't call ALL of the numbers for you. I know my dcp would do that and THEN call my emergency contacts. (DH & I have about 4-5 phone numbers between us.)
I agree with this. It doesn't sound like they tried very hard to contact you or DH. She she have gone to the ER right away if there was any evidence that she was in pain and possiblily seriously injured. My DC has autoriziation to take my child to the doctor/hospital that we provided to them in the event of an emergency.
Did they know your daughter had broken her arm? How was she acting when you picked her up?
These would be my major indicators. If your LO wasn't acting like her arm was broken, maybe they didn't realize the extent of the injury.
No matter what, they should have called all the numbers. I don' t know if I would pull them but if you decide to do it, find daycare first then pull them. You may want to review your contract also.
A broken arm is not necessarily an obvious injury. My SIL let her (then) 8 year old walk around for more than a day after breaking her arm due to a fall. Other than the kid whining about feeling sore (the kid was a whiner so this was not unusual) there were no signs that the arm was broken.
Hell, when I broke my leg as an adult I didn't think it was broken. Turns out I had fractured it in two places.
I can see easily not rushing to the ER with a 2 year old who had fallen from a chair.
DD 12/20/99, DS 12/14/12, M/C 9/2014, M/C 1/2015
I know it's not necessarily obvious - as a child, I went overnight before going in for a broken wrist because no one realized it was broken. But the OP said her daughter was in pain, and they half-assed their attempts to contact the parents for a second time when they knew there was an injury and had already had to go over the emergency contact list before when they didn't follow protocol.
So, whether they knew the arm was broken or not, they failed to act appropriately... in addition to a lack of supervision.
I'm pretty laid-back, but I'd be very upset about this. My DCP can't give medication without prior written consent, so I understand not giving Tylenol. But for something that serious, they absolutely should have called every phone number they have on file for you. When my son had a stomach bug and threw up, they called my cell phone, work phone, and my husband's phones to try to reach us. And that was a stomach bug, not something that required an ER visit.
Second, we signed forms pre-authorizing medical treatment for emergencies. If there's a hospital-type emergency, someone from the daycare takes the kid to the hospital, even if the parents can't be contacted right away. I realize this may be different for in-home daycares, because if there's only one adult and 5 kids, the adult can't exactly take off to the hospital with one kid and leave the other 4 kids by themselves (this is another reason why I prefer a center, but I digress). But they still should've had some kind of (better) plan for emergencies.
Yup, I'd pull my kids. In a heartbeat.
Accidents happen, sure. But why is there a rolling chair in a daycare? To me, that's just begging for an accident to happen......what other obviously unsafe items do they have around the house? And not doing everything in their power to get ahold of you - last month my older son puked at daycare, they called my work phone and left a message before calling my cell phone and reaching me.....they would have called DH's work and cell next, and kept calling until someone answered. We had to sign a waiver giving them permission to take our child(ren) to the ER in the event of an emergency - meaning that 911 is their first call, we're their second call. They're not going to wait to hear from us before doing what is best for our kids.
Maybe they didn't know that her arm was broken.......but if she was crying in pain the rest of the day, shame on them for not taking it more seriously and doing more to get ahold of you.
Unless they have actual written policies that they violated, I don't know that there's anything to report. But I wouldn't keep my kids there.
I personally would expect in a licensed facility there wouldn't be a rolling chair within access to the kids. Additionally, the kids would know already not to climb on the furniture. I'm calling BS that she was in the bathroom and didn't know that they were jumping on furniture. You can hear children doing that kind of thing and so it indicates to me that she's permitted them to do it before. Plus, if one is with the child in the bathroom (at least this is how it is in my center), another teacher is watching the other kids. Isn't there a licensing rule 6 kids to every 1 teacher? That doesn't mean 6 kids to ZERO teacher.
I say pull them and report them to licensing for not properly supervising.
In an emergency like a broken arm or head injury, my daycare center calls repeatedly and if they can't get a hold of us, they call 911.
They do have written policies for emergencies and they were not followed obviously(for the second time really).
Her voicemail said it was an emergency and when I talked to her she said she was pretty sure she broke her arm. When she was picked up they had her arm wrapped and in a sling. So there is no doubt that she knew my daughter was hurt.
I am so upset over this...for what happened and for losing what I thought was a great daycare situation. My kids love her and love their friends there and it makes me SO sad.....
Thanks for all of the responses.
Your follow up makes me super angry on your behalf. So, they didn't follow the established emergency procedures, they knew your daughter's arm was broken & they didn't try every possible way to track you down? That just seems like incredibly poor judgment.
I think my head might explode.
If HER arm was broken, would she want to hang out for a couple of hours waiting to be picked up?!?! If her child's arm was broken, would she want them to be treated that way?!?
I'm so angry on your behalf, and your daughter's behalf!
OK now that would p!ss me the fukc off! They self-treated what they were "pretty sure" was a broken arm!? Wrapping it up and putting on a sling with no medication must have been very painful for your DD. How did they know that was the right thing to do?
They should have called EVERY number they had for you, then called 911 (if they didn't have a car seat or whatever to go to ER), then called EVERY number again.
I don't think you should ever take your kids back there.
This was my question - did they or did they not suspect the broken arm. By your response, they obviously had an IDEA that your daughter was hurt ..... and they didn't do anything about it. I yank my kid right away and let the know that it is unacceptable.
As far as reporting, I have never had to do this, so I am not sure what exactly is reportable or not. I would, though, make sure that as many of the parents at this daycare know the full situation. Broken arm this time .. but what the next? What if a kid was showing signs to an allergic reaction to a bee sting and it turned out to be fatal? I know one can't live off of what ifs, but if they can't follow protocol it could be a matter of life-death.
I'd pull my kids and I'd also report them to the state/local licensing agency.
They should have called all your numbers and taken your LO to a hospital if they couldn't reach you within say 10-15 minutes. I really don't know whether the rolling furniture thing is allowable or not, but I would let the state know about it so they can sort it out.
It seems to me that having rollng furniture in a daycare/accessible to children is a really, really AWFUL idea. No one has eyes in the back of their head which is why we do things like childproof and use common sense - those things seem to be lacking here.
that is inexcusable and I think I'm pretty understanding when it comes to daycare (if it could happen on my watch ...). I don't see any reason why 3 kids were allowed to jump off of furniture, much less one with wheels on the bottom. I don't see any reason why she didn't keep calling all numbers available until someone answered. It's obvious she knew something was wrong or she wouldn't have called.
I would call the state and let them decide if a rule was broken. That is what they're there for. And, I would pull my kids b/c I wouldn't be able to trust her again. Trust is what it's all about.
I would pull my kid immediately. I don't know if I'd report them - an in home center may not be subject to licensing or reporting anyway.
DS1 born June 2008 | m/c at 9w March 2011 | DS2 born April 2012
I'd definitely be angry about two things - the lack of following the emergency contact protocol and the fact that there was just 1 teacher with all the kids, and she left to go to another room (even if the door was open).
Today, I got a call from DCP that DS had fallen and hit his head against the trim of a climbing apparatus type thing they have in there. His head was bleeding, they could tell by looking at him that he probably needed stitches so before they even called me, they called an ambulance. Then, the director went with him to the hospital, since it would have taken a while for my H or I to get there. I would be pretty furious if he was just hanging out at DCP during this because they couldn't reach me.
I would probably pull the kids, even though that's hard for so many reasons. I don't know about you but where I live, it's not like you can just enroll in daycare at any time - we're actually on 3 wait lists right now because DS needs to leave his current DCP (age limit).
PISSPOOR. I would remove my child immediately. She should have been on the phone NON STOP trying to find you - and calling an ambulance to take her to the ER.
And yeah- 3 kids jumping off furniture??? doesn't sound like something that happened really quick with someone near them.
I would report - and remove.
Yet another post that shows why i have zero trust with in-home centers.
Well, we almost made it through a post without that comment!
$hit happens in centers too. I've got a kid in one of each, currently. Both have the exact same policies in place for emergency procedures. The in-home actually has more staff and a much lower ratio than the center. But, yes, all in-homes suck, Goldie, we know!
When I fractured my finger (at 17) I walked around for two days before my mom took me to urgent care.
I do think it's weird your in-home care provider doesn't have anyone she can call to come stay with other kids while taking another kid to the hospital. I went to an in home child care from 9 months-11 years old and she had backup care providers for emergencies.
It sounds to me like they don't have enought caregivers for the number of kids. Even though they may be within the "legal" limits for "numbers", they obviously have no backup employees to help out with breaks, meal prep, bathroom visits, unexpected injuries, etc. To me, this is not a safe situation for your (or any other) kids. I had my DS in a place like this for 2 years, and lack of adequate and complete supervision was a big contributor in our decision to put him into a daycare center once our DD was born. Yes, it's expensive, but the inhome providers wanted more money for shoddy care. At least children are not left unsupervised.
And I WOULD report them. I don't care who had to go potty, the remaining children shoud NEVER be left unsupervised. Never. I know it sounds harsh, but there is zero tolerance for any negligence, IMHO.
FYI - inhome providers are definitely subject to licensing requirements and negligence is reportable.
woah.
op, i get what you are saying about how your child could get hurt on your watch as well, but I think the main issue is with the lack of reaction.
I worked for a family for 2 years - as a specialized care taker for a child with many medical needs. One day we were at play group and he fell going down a step and bumped his head (goose egg). I called parents FROM the hospital (always had all their contact info with me). did not stop until I got ahold of someone.
And the tylenol thing would totally p!ss me off... there comes a point where common sense has to kick in. I wouldn't leave my babies with anyone who again demonstrated that they were lacking in that.