I just started a 2.5 year old girl. This is her 3rd week in care. Yesterday at pick up mom asked the little girl what happened to her head, then proceeded to ask her if she hit her head on something today.

Little girl very well could have bumped something during the day, she had a very small (like the size of a lentil) red spot at the outer corner of her eyebrow. I told mom that dcg did not "hit" her head and that she may have bumped it with a toy or something but did not give any indication throughout the day that she hurt her head (no crying, nothing) and this girl is very dramatic. She did however tell me her foot hurt about half a dozen times, and there is Nothing wrong with it. Last week she whined about a tiny scab on her arm "hurting" for three days straight.

Mom proceeded to tell the little girl she had a "knot" on her head and must have hit it on something....

I took pictures today and documented this "knot".

I'm just concerned as this is so very minor, what is she going to act like if something actually did happen, we are a group of 7 and they are not always little angels. I half feel like telling her that she needs to find a nanny (and some bubble wrap) and take a hike.

The more I think of it, it bothers me. I'm not used to having parents like this. Do you think she will get better once they have been here a while? I don't really want to term them but I don't want to feel like I'm under a microscope each day either, thoughts?

Reply

I don't think I term them yet but you're right it is a red flag. Your antenna are up so just monitor the situation but you might have to throw this one back at some point.

Reply

I agree with this and just let her know right away about any possible bumps or bruises. I always let parents know to look out for stuff even if a child doesn't have a mark so they know I am not trying to hide anything. I will say "little Johnny bumped his head on the chair this morning, there's no mark or anything but just in case keep an eye on it". I ususally do this the first few weeks to ease their worries. As they start to trust me I stop saying it.

Reply

It could be a red flag (over protective) ...or it could be that the parent wants to convince you (herself) that she cares about her child and notices every little thing
Either way I would talk to mom and express my concern now, before other issues arise

Reply

All of my clients are like this. I just ignore them at this point. All of my dck's try to find tiny little scratches to compare to each other's tiny little scratches.

A mom told me Monday "Oh dcb hurt his hand and won't wear his gloves. He has been complaining about it all morning, too." I asked dcb to show me where his hand hurt--- he looked at the wrong hand.

Reply

I honestly would term just because of my own experiences. I have a parent that will question every little scratch / mark on her childs body. She questions it in an accusing way, like i did something wrong. I thought she would get better and realize 1 year olds fall a lot and kids in general hurt themselves a lot. Nope she never changed. She even once dropped her child off and asked if i knew what that burn mark/deep scrape was on her childs leg. I immediately took his pants off to look for it while she was there asking where it was. Well the belts from his carseat left marks on his leg so she didnt know which one it was so she said look for it in a little bit. After 30 min i examined both his legs and there was nothing on his legs! Completely free of any marks or scratches. So not only does she question every tiny thing on his body, she also imagines ones too. When i told I saw nothing, she said "idk i just saw it this morning." So if you didnt see it last night and just saw it this morning, why would you think it happened at daycare?!
Sorry this was kind of a vent. Lol.

Reply

I had a parent like that. So I turned the tabels. Every morning I would point out every scratch, blotch, mark ( even if it was from sleeping), puffy eyes, hang nail , you name it. She got that shizit happens. You can not account for every mark all the time.

Reply