Nappy Changing

[Guest]

Is it correct that when you change a nappy or item of wet/soiled clothing that it should go in the incident/accident book and the parent must sign in the same way as for an accident ie a fall/bump etc? My sister is doing the NVQ 2 and her tutor said that it is what we should be doing?? I havent heard of this before. We are a sessional pre-school?

 

Jenni

[Guest]

Never heard of that one, we don't, we are sessional too!

[Guest]

we dont either

[AnonyMouse_7317]

Hi

When ever we change a naapy this is recoded in the nappy changing book and it is also noted if the child had wet soiled or had cream was sore and the time. But this is only used as a record to ensured we have changed all nappies and regular and the information on changes is there for parents if they need information. But we do not get parents to sign. This was approved by Ofsted as it is evidence that nappy changes are recorded and also for child protection

[Guest]

Same as ninfox, we record date, time, nappy change whether soiled or just wet, any comments ie rash. We also record change of clothes, basically any 'intimate care'.

 

Parents don't have to sign but it covers you for if there was a complaint for example that child with you for 3 hours without a nappy check/change.

 

Also for child protection issues or protection against allegations. ie once a child arrived with a dirty nappy, when being changed within minutes of arrival ( time recorded) we noticed a hard slap mark, duly followed CP procedures.

 

Peggy

[Guest]

Same here. when ever we change nappy clothes etc goes on a childs file sheet that is kept in a individual file for each child. like an accident sheet so that it can't been seen by other parents, and is signed by the parent.

we were told by ofsted that it had to be signed by parents so that the parents cannot complain that their child has been neglected during the session.

How comes Jojom and shirel you have never had it come up in an ofsted?

It has always been checked it comes under the welfare of children section.

[Guest]

We don't currently get our nappy change sheets signed, but at our last inspection it was recommended that we get our incident records signed - and as we get everything else signed you can see that it makes sense.

 

However, it does concern me that some home times we go out with clipboards armed with loads of paperwork already. We don't have many children in nappies but this would add to the load.

[AnonyMouse_1027]

umm we dont...but am now off to buy a book to record nappy changes in

[Guest]

maybe because we are sessional?

 

or is that old chestnut when one Ofsted inspector says one thing and another says another

 

We were inspected July last year and it was never mentioned??

[Guest]

We are a sessional group and we do record any form of personal care whether changing clothes after a spill, nappies or whatever.... I'll try and attach my form! I personally think it reflects good practice and keeps all parties informed. Death by paper tho, especially when you cater for younger children.

PERSONAL_CARE_LOG_FORM.doc

[Guest]

I can understand the reasons why it is done and agree, like Hali that we should start doing it, however if I go in after half term (which is next week in Somerset) and suggest this I know it will not be happily received, it will be like the assessment sheet incident that I dared to mention last week, my name will be mud!!

 

I am not the most popular member of the team at the moment, I also don't do checklists for the creative activities when I plan, the other two leaders do so that each child has to carry out the tasks, even if that means interrupting their play to complete it - then they get their tick!

 

What a rebel I am eh!

 

I have discovered from another member of staff that they believe I am a bit 'slapdash'

[Guest]

Thank you very much for that log LJW!! I will show it all staff but I too think it wont be well received by other staff members. There is now more paperwork than interaction!!!!!

[Guest MaryEMac]

Thanks for that LJW. We too are a sessional group and don't record any nappy changes/wet clothes. Like everyone else, I think that my staff will not be thrilled when I go in with this on Mon.

 

Mary

[AnonyMouse_1027]

my staff will probably moan but will only take a few secs to full in and will say its the big 'O' again

[Guest]

We are sessional but take from 2y9m and these are quite often in nappies. When parents register they fill out an intimate care form where they choose whether they want us to call them in to change the nappy or whether they want us to do them (not had one choose the first option yet!)

We then have an intimate care folder, each child has their own page with their signed consent form and a log sheet. If they are changed during a session, the date, staff member responsible and parent's signature are recorded on the log sheet. At a staff meeting we decided that changing a child who had wet themselves was just as intimate as a nappy change so decided to record this too. This is done less formally though and links with a problem we have of borrowed clothes not being returned We have a book we have made ourselves which has date, child, reason for changing, clothes borowed (a description) or own clothes, staff member responsible, parent signature and then staff signature once clothes are returned.

Phew!

We did it as we had a mother at the time who we had concerns about who was also trying to set agencies up against each other so we wanted to protect ourselves from any allegations.

I agree that some days you are outside with clipboards trying to be subtle when approaching parents for various signatures but if it protects us then it's worth it.

[Guest]

off subject a bit but we had a problem of clothes not being returned so we very clearly mark all our items with our preschool initials in large black marker pen.

 

Peggy

[Guest]

We have never logged changing children before but are going to when we go back after the holidays. One thing I did think was that some parents may not know that their child has been changed. If they are in pullups and they send in a supply then they will only find out when the bag is empty. This way it may just show parents that their child is soiling on a regular basis and they need to start doing something about it. If time is recorded then we as a group may be able to notice a pattern and pre-empt the soiling.

I do think it has advantages and although it is yet another piece of paper it may, in the long run, cut down on time spent changing children.

Linda

[Guest]

The only thing that I wonder about is the need to have parents sign every entry, we don't do this but if we are discussing 'toileting' etc with parents, the log is a useful point of reference.

 

What is the purpose of the signatures? To 'evidence' that information has been conveyed to parents? If so then lets think about all the other information conveyed in day to day life of the setting that isn't recorded and 'signed' off. Or is it that a signature proves we haven't 'made it up' , written it in retrospectively for whatever reason , that entries are legitimate and not recorded after the event. If this is the case, maybe I need to get an independant witness to sign that all my fire drill entries are legitimate and did actually occur. Sorry, not wishing to sound cynical but it does come to the point sometimes where common sense seems to go out the window and we are 'paperworking' just for the sake of it. I certainly don't want to spend time in the car park, with a clipboard, chasing after signatures unless it is a really fundamental excersise that is 'in the best interest of the children'.

 

Peggy

[Guest]

We have just had outstanding from Ofsted and no mention of a personal care form. I tend to agree that it could be one form too many!! Also when we change a child who is wet or soiled, we treat it as a normal part of nursery life for child and parents. Could it feel slightly judgemental to the parent if they had to sign as if it was an accident or incident. Just a thought.

[AnonyMouse_6541]

We have had problems in the past with clothes not being returned, so we wrote on the back of all donated items we had left in black marker!! our full setting name...no hiding the fact they were ours...and guess what, the offending parent (as it was generally the same one) brought their child in dressed in our clothes! can you believe the cheek. That poor child, and it was never a case of they couldnt afford to buy clothes, the parents were in the latest gear, with new sporty cars and had good jobs too.

 

We had to send a personal letter requesting all our clothing be returned and that they supply sufficient items of clothing of their own to change the child several times in case of an accident.

 

Anyways we dont have a form for changes of clothes, although we will now as we do tend to get a few bags of wet underwear left at the end of the day, despite telling the parent, but this is our nappy change form

Nappy_chart.doc

which we fill in each change we do, and we use the bristol stool scale to fill in details.

 

From experience i would say that Ofsted pick what they want to see based on whats normally missing, or what they have noticed they have not seen if that makes sense? I think every question is based on the feel they get in the setting at the time. We generally dont get asked for everything that we have or do.

[Guest]

I don't think it is being judgemental in letting parents know if their child has been changed. If a child needs support in toilet training then we need to give parents the information. I think I will probably limit the form to those children still in pullups. Is this so different to day nurseries letting parents know what is happening with younger children?

I also feel that we spend a lot of time changing children and anything we can do to avoid this would be better for all the children in the setting-more time to spend with them. We have one little boy who soils every time he is in-if we keep a record then we may be able to see a pattern of times emerging and so help him.

Linda

[AnonyMouse_7317]

Just as an example of how the logging can help we had a child who left oweing money the parent then decided to sue us saying that we had not changed the childs nappy and had caused severe nappy rash that needed hospital treatment. We gave all our nappy changing records to our solicitor who told there solicitor about our documents and suddenlt they decided not to proceed with the case. Unfortunately in this day and age we need to cover every base.

[Guest]

I work in a small pdn - we record every nappy change on a form pre printed with each childs name which is put in the bathroom each day. We also record when younger children, who may need reminding to use the potty or toilet, visit the bathroom. We also record on this form if a toilet trained child has an accident and is changed. We do not ask parents to sign the form, but it helps us let parents know at the end of the day if their child has been changed due to 'muddy/wet' outside play, or a 'little accident' and reminds them to take home a little package!

[Guest]

I do record changes ie: nappys or clothing through over zealous water play for the reasons stated, i just don't ask for parent signatures on each entry.

 

Peggy