Son bitten in nursery. Help! Post Reply

[newbiemom]

Hi. I hope I can get some advice about this as I am worried.
My son was bitten today at nursery, my nanny told me this evening.
He was bitten on his back. I am extremely concerned about this and I
am considering taking tomorrow off to stay with him all day in nursery.

He has been in this nursery for about 9 months and my husband and I
are generally happy with it; but this is alarming. It could be a source of infection, do I need to take him to the GP for Hepatitis shots?
Am I overreacting? Help!

[NorthcoteLuvvie]

Yes you are over-reacting but it is understandable so don't worry

Children get bitten/bite quite a lot, it's part of growing up and getting used to being around a peer group as opposed to with their parents.

That's not to say this is something that should be taken lightly, just something that should be taken with the appropriate level of concern.

It is the nurseries job to manage this and your job as a parent to make sure that they are looking after your child.

The questions I would be asking are:

1) Is the biter a serial biter or was this a first offence?
2) If the answer to (1) is "they've bitten before" then are they biting lots of children or targeting your child?

On the basis of those answers you can ask them to a) move the biter or b) move your child or c) do nothing but keep an eye on the situation.

(c) is almost ALWAYS the right answer as this is just part of growing up.

Please don't take a day off and sit with your child, you can start some horrific patterns in early childhood that, literally, take years to grow out of if they feel that every time they hit an obstacle mummy will rush in to the rescue. They might like that and we may feel needed but it is a sure fire highway to hell.

hope this helps

[Teaandbiscuits]

You poor things, I half chuckled and half felt very sorry for both of you, not a nice experience - should add here that I chuckled because of the story in my family where as a baby my Mum bit my Aunts bottom! 50 years later the act is still not forgiven! I second exactly what the previous poster said - you are over reacting but your response is only natural.

For what it's worth I'm afraid in my experience (childcare for many years) many children who spend a lot of time in a group stand a chance of a bite - and I assume here it was another child?! Although it goeswithout saying that biting is very strongly to be discouraged it is unfortunately something which even the most vigilant nursery nurse cannot prevent as usually a bite is something which happens very suddenly and is born of frustration which cannot be verbalised. The exception to this being if the guilty party is going through a biting phase - some do, it provokes a marvellous reaction in people. If this is the case then the staff should be particularly watchful and have a strategy in place to manage this behaviour. Did you find out how the nursery dealt with it? Hopefully speaking to them yourself will offer some reassurance. I would suggest (again just an opinion) that staying with your son all day at nursery might be over doing it a little bit, after all you cannot stay and protect him for the foreseeable future.

Unless his skin is broken I don't think you have to worry too much about infection - you'd have to check with your Gp but I think vaccinations against hep. are not much use after the event anyway, although I could be wrong.

Perhaps have a sleep on it and wait for the furious mummy bear part of you to calm down a little. It is quite possible that yor LO will have forgotten about it by tomorrow and you can have a quiet chat to the staff at the nursery.

[nuttymummy]

Totally agree with the previous posters - it is a nasty thing to happen but certainly not out of the ordinary. Also agree that unless the skin is broken (hopefully unlikely) then there is no need to worry re infection. Please don't worry yourself too much about it - NorthcoteLuvvie's advice sounds v sane!

[kiwimummy]

i have definitely been there! the first time my under 1 year old got bitten in nursery i was absolutely outraged.

she got quite a few bites actually and I all but demanded the perpetrator be banned from the nursery...

unfortunately she then took to biting the other children herself, and was quite enthusiastic about it.

it was always very embarassing, as the parent of the bite-er, standing there next to the outraged parent of the bite-ee, while both receiving incident forms from the nursery staff.

was very pleased to have that stage behind me. thank god.

[NorthcoteLuvvie]

i have definitely been there! the first time my under 1 year old got bitten in nursery i was absolutely outraged.

she got quite a few bites actually and I all but demanded the perpetrator be banned from the nursery...

unfortunately she then took to biting the other children herself, and was quite enthusiastic about it.

it was always very embarassing, as the parent of the bite-er, standing there next to the outraged parent of the bite-ee, while both receiving incident forms from the nursery staff.

was very pleased to have that stage behind me. thank god.

That made me smile, thank you for sharing

[clapset]

These children have clearly been watching too much football

[newbiemom]

Thank you all for your replies!
Northcote Luvvie, your response is quite sane, thanks.
Its quite a nasty bite and I suppose I was shocked when I saw it
and yes the skin was breached and yes Hep B can be given after the bite
as an immunoglobulin (antiserum).
I googled children biting other children and someone advised going to the
nursery for a day. I did think that was extreme; that's what I get for
seeking advice online(apart from you lovely lot of course

I will go tomorrow and I am sure I will be reassured by the nursery's response.
My husband is quite upset but I just don't want it to happen again!

Thanks again everyone, y'all are great!

[newbiemom]

Lol@@clapset. My husband just explained your comment to me.
Watching Suarez on TV now! His teeth do look sharp

[curly]

Nursery's are normally very good at handling these situations. I am a mum of a little girl who has done the biting and it is borne out of frustration, normally when it comes to the tricky subject of sharing. In her nursery they pulled her to one side, talked to her and then monitored her to make sure it wasn't a regular thing. She stopped after that.

I would suggest talking to your nursery to see what actions they take when this happens. In my daughters nursery they pull the mum/nanny of the biter to one side when they come to collect and they have to sign a form to say that they are aware that this has happened and that they understand that the nursery will watch the situation closely.

I can completely understand why you are upset, it is horrible. From a mum of a biter, it is mortifying for us too.

Hope it doesn't happen again.