Daycare Injury

If you aren't comfortable with them or with their answers and because of the "accidents", I would be looking for another daycare. Find one that you are comfortable with. Good luck.

I'm just wondering why you continue to send your son to a place that you feel is unsafe? As a daycare provider, I can say, yes, accidents happen, but I do my very best to insure they are minimal and that I contact parents immediately. And when a child does happen to fall and get a bump or scrape, I am usually more upset than the parents are. That being said, you want someone who CARES about your child and that you can go to work and not worry about your child.

Not sure what to tell you as far as how to deal w/ what has already happened, but to avoid future and possibly more serious injuries, you need to move on. This just isn't a good fit.

Find another daycare, and report them. They are not doing their job. My son was at a daycare for 2 years with no serious injuries.

First off ask the center what insurance company to send the bills to. Second let them know you will be pulling your son and put him into a different daycare. It is completely unacceptable that a daycare provider in a center would be on a cell phone. there has to be rules about this and if what it takes is a parent to sue the facility it might take that.

Wow. I personally would not send my child to a center where that happened -- as in, not for another day, no matter what it took. I think your first order of business (after following up with a neurologist, post-concussion) is finding a new day care center. If possible, you should look into taking time off work or finding interim care (say, a relative) so your son doesn't have to spend even one more day there.

I'm also really glad you're thinking about protecting other parents. You can probably report the center for negligence at this point, which may very likely result in its being shut down. I am usually not one to bring in the "big guns" (state regulators and the like), but this center sounds truly dangerous. I hope you get your son out of there, and fast.

I'm not in the camp that this is all the daycare's fault.

Simple fact is that there are always going to be very active boys who run and throw themselves into harms way and do it repeatedly enough that they are usually on a first name basis at the ER. Yes, these kids are usually repeat customers at the hospital and the staff recognizes them.

Does your boy jump and run without thinking of the safety and consequences first? Do you notice this tendency on the weekend when you are with him? Not at night after work when your both tired. But during his normal hours of energy?

Some kids are wired to be safe and some kids are not. Your guy sounds like a risk taker IMHO. If that's the case, factor that into your decision to stay or change daycares.

Something is not right and i think you need to find another daycare provider and then report this one. There is no reason that many injuries should be happening - especially since these sound like they are happening inside, but 3 is a little excessive I think. I wonder if other kids are getting hurt as much.

It's absolutely NOT normal for a child to get hurt this much, to this extent, at a childcare facility. Accidents DO happen, but if workers are not paying attention, they happen more.

I would file a complaint. https://app.azdhs.gov/ls/online_complaint/CCComplaint.aspx

And perhaps call and talk to someone:
http://www.azdhs.gov/als/childcare/contact/index.htm

I have two very active boys who were in daycare and then after school care for a total of 9 years. We never ended up in the hospital. Not once. I'd say that the children at your son's facility are not being supervised properly.

Find another daycare and report them to the state. The state will have to come and investigate your claims. In the very least, you may help them straighten up so this doesn't happen to other children.

If you're uncomfortable with the daycare, find another. Particularly if they're regularly on cell phones.

But I'm with Mum4Ever on this. Some kids take more chances with their bodies and are accident prone. My first - no. My second - heck yes! She'll throw herself off stuff. We're either right there to catch her, or we're not. And at a daycare with lots of kiddos, it's not possible for someone to be right next to him to catch him all of the time.

I would remove him from this daycare. Accidents happen with active children, but if you know they are on their phones and your child is repeatedly getting injured badly enough to go the ER, then you need to remove him from their care. You can also find out who to report the center to.

If your child isn't accident prone to begin with, I could understand maybe one accident every 8-12 months. But he's had three accidents which have required trips to the hospital. I'm curious as to why he was in the hospital when you got the call.

We had a kid in our center who fell on the way in from the playground. He had a huge knot on his head. The first call that was made was to the parents. We asked if they wanted us to transport him to the ER or to wait. The parents came and took him immediately to the Dr's. We didn't transport at all!

You shouldn't have to worry that your child is going to be taken to the hospital before you even get so much as a phone call. You should get the phone first, unless he's unconscious and then 911 should be the first call while someone else is calling you.

I would call the state licensing board and report them. The worst that can happen would be them investigating and finding nothing. (Actually, that's the best, but you know what I mean.)

Good luck!

It's time to take him out of this daycare and file a report about this business to CPS and the state licensing board. Now.

EDIT: To give you some idea where I usually stand on "accidental injuries during daycare" I usually side with the daycare. I usually prefer to err on the side of giving the benefit of the doubt and taking into account the age of the children.

Take him out and file a grievance and lawsuit with them. It is clear to me that the teacher's aren't watching, don't care and or don't take the needed steps to childproof and make things safe. The accident history your son has is super scary and totally preventable. I would take him out immediately and call the state childcare board as well. They are dangerous and really raises red-flags for me. I used to work in a pre-school and we NEVER had issues like this. A few bumps,scrapes etc. But nothing like this. So sorry this is happening~

I would definately be dealing with corporate on these issues as it sounds like the director doesn't really want to deal with it. As a former Director myself this is appalling to me. First you need to find him another childcare center, then I would be calling State about the concerns & issues so they can go to an inspection about the complaints.. Yes accidents do happen but usually they are scrapes not concussions...
If you seen them on phone's just sitting etc. Use your smart phone & take pics then you have proof to send to corporate or the Police if you decide to file charges for the concussion..

I have a lot of years in child care. I have had staff that took an important call and I didn't say anything because I felt that it was not a usual thing. If this were something they were doing all the time I would have certainly told them they had to leave their phones off during classtime. I keep my phone on me all the time, especially when I had kids around. If I needed emergency help I had my phone to call for help.

That said. If a child in my center got hurt enough to be taken to the ER I would expect that parent to be very very very very angry. And I would not blame them at all. Especially if we had been at fault. If it were truly an accident that could not have been prevented then I would explain that we were not at fault. I do believe that the facility insurance should cover the expenses but I would let my own insurance follow that if they wanted to. An insurance company will contact the other company to get reimbursement for the cost of the treatment.

If you decide you want to bring a law suit against the facility then you can contact an attorney who specializes in that type of suit.

I would call the local licensing agency. I think one of the posters below gave that particular link. I would call them and talk to them in depth. They will go and investigate. If the center has nothing to hide they will gladly cooperate with their worker. They do have a history that you should be able to look up, their past inspection reports. That should be public knowledge on the state licensing agency site.

Then I would expect to get a notice of a lawsuit. Your child required stitches. That is the one thing that puts this over the limit. If the teachers had been up and on their feet they might have been able to intervene and catch him before he actually crashed and hit.

I would also find a different center tomorrow. Take the day off and tour a few of them. Get their inspection reports online and then find out which ones have openings. I would tell them you're unhappy with the care he's been getting.

IF you chose them and your child has this huge bruise and stitches they themselves may suspect you have hurt this child and turn you in. So tell them up front what has happened. This way they will know that he may be that dreaded daredevil and they will also know that he has been in a dangerous situation and may need some extra attention.

Get him out of there now!

My son was a daredevil. Met life head on. However, he never had those types of injuries at daycare. Just at home. Hmmm...what does that say about me??! Anyway, I would pull my child out of this daycare. Once, okay but two or three times in a short period of time? No way.

I would also meet with the Director and let her know how unhappy you are and that you. I would also ask her to explain three accidents that resulted in ER visits. See what she says? She is going to cover her butt but I would put her on notice. This just doesn't pass the "smell test".

Change places ASAP. You should be dropping your son off at a place where you feel that he is as safe as can be expected (aside from the little things that can happen anywhere). I'm sure you have other choices - go sign up somewhere else.

Biting happens - do they have a policy?

When they called, was he already at the hospital? Shouldn't they have called you immediately?

My daughter was in Daycare for years and got hurt once where they had to take her to the hospital. They did exactly what they should have. I always felt she was safe there. You should too.

Hi,

First, if your son was a little daredevil at home, I sincerely doubt you would be posting this. You'd just figure it was par for the course with your kid. (at least, that's been my experience)

I've worked at a couple daycares (and about 6 directors) as well as on my own with kids for a long, long time and agree that it's time to pull your child out of care.

Taking it in order: the cell phones-- I have worked at a center where the director was on the floor a lot and knew what was going on in the classrooms-- checking in regularly to see how things were going and if the teachers needed anything,etc. These directors would NEVER have let employees have their phones on and chat during work hours-- they would have expected (and set) a more professional tone for their center. Repeat offenders would have been written up and then, let go. Parent calls would routinely be routed through the office and the admin person was the liaison, because the teachers shouldn't be disrupted at random and especially during transition times. This was more than sufficient for parent/teacher communication.

Biting-- if he's a toddler or early 3, yes, it does happen. However, good staff would have a plan in place to keep an extra eye on those 'repeat offenders'. Youngsters are sometimes teething (young toddlers), learning how their actions affect others, learning impulse control, etc. So, while it happens, I always felt terrible for the families of the bitten child.

Accidents; yep, accidents do happen, but an experienced teacher can also 'read the room' and see the potential for some accidents from miles away. Experienced teachers also know how to best arrange an environment to avoid things like long stretches to run AND they should be able to know that accident-prone children need a little more assertive intervention.

Three of these injuries seems like a lot, in my opinion. I take my work very seriously, but some teachers are green and don't know what to watch for, the early warning signs of potential for an accident--- and some see child care as an 'easy' job while they study for a different career. I don't know. I've worked with some awesome teachers and have had a couple bad directors hire a series of what could only be described as 'warm bodies' as teacher's assistants for me.

I know this is long, but it IS something I feel passionately about. I think your gut instinct will have to guide you in this regard. Listen, my son had accidents in preschool (none were hospital accidents, one could have been close) but I also knew the women were top-notch at what they did and their program was created thoughtfully, so everyday accidents were largely avoided due to standard procedures. (for example, only one child on the stairs at a time)

At the daycare you next consider, go in beforehand and spend a lot of time there. See the tone of the room (and the next ones) that your son will be in. Watch to see how attentive the teachers are, even from the windows, and do ask the director about those pesky cell phones, parent/office communication, and what they do in the situation you describe. How do teachers distract/address inappropriate actions (running indoors, for example, or horseplay.) Like you, I would have wanted a director to call me immediately-- before my child was taken away for medical care unless it was a 911 call. Good luck!