Babies can be terrorised by `little terrors'

The court story of a five-month-old baby bitten and bumped on the head with a wooden toy by a toddler while in a daycare centre unnerved parents everywhere. But parents who have their babies in nurseries were especially panic-stricken. Leaving children in the care of someone else for the day, even part of the day, is not an easy business. Apart from the guilt many parents feel as they walk away from tearful - or even chirpy, smiling - children, the fear that something might happen is always lurking.

Most parents trust in the qualified childcare workers they leave their children with, and most services are of a high standard. The regulations under the Child Care Act are in place, inspections are being carried out, and most people involved in childcare want to provide an excellent service for young children.

Still, despite the best of supervision, qualifications and care, accidents can happen. "There are questions surrounding adult supervision with the case of the five-month-old baby," says Mary Lee Stapleton, national adviser with the National Children's Nurseries Association. "It happened in 1993, which was prior to the implementation of the regulations. Nowadays people have to comply with specific staff-child ratios and, if they are operating in accordance with the regulations, such a severe incident wouldn't happen.

"It's very nice to have mixed groups of toddlers and babies, but you can't, under any circumstances, leave these age groups unsupervised. Basic common sense will tell you not to leave them alone.

"The one-to-threes are a fantastic bunch. They are incredibly curious, but they have no parameters. They don't have any empathy with another child's pain. They might bite anyone just to see what the reaction is - and they certainly get a reaction."

According to Stapleton, biting, although particularly upsetting for both the children and the parents, can happen as part of normal development. "It's actually awful for both sets of parents concerned. The parents of the child who does the biting can be very alarmed and the parents of a child or baby who is bitten are obviously very disturbed by what seems like a particularly vicious sort of attack.

"But young children are learning to interact and they don't have the language to express themselves. So they resort to hitting, pushing and even sometimes biting. Biting is, in fact, a developmental stage some children go through, and how the adults deal with it is very important."

Any incident where a child is hurt can also be distressing for the childcare worker concerned. "It is extremely important not to react very strongly towards the child who has done the pushing or hitting," says Stapleton. "Give the child who was at the receiving end the attention and tell the other `that's not nice', and `let's do something else'. If adults spend a lot of time giving out, or even punish the child, they will actually give them quite a bit of attention. "Ironically, the child will have achieved something and will feel encouraged to continue to behave in the same way."

Parents of a child who has been hurt by one of the other children in the group should discuss the incident thoroughly with staff, Stapleton advises.

"Find out what precipitated the incident. Was it frustration, boredom or lack of supervision? Any of these should be addressed by the nursery, but realistically it is extremely difficult to ensure it will never, ever happen. "Parents do need to be reassured by the people providing the service that the staff understand what is going on and that they are very on top of things."

Stigmatising a particular child as a biter or smacker is detrimental for everyone concerned. "I've seen little children smack or bite, and burst into tears themselves, they get such a fright," Stapleton says. "Dealing with children, you can't be thinking in terms of adult-style discipline. If a nursery is genuinely run in a child-centred way, there is no question of expelling or stigmatising. There are exceptional children whose needs can't be met in groups, but it is rare. "It takes a few weeks of working closely with parents, identifying underlying causes, if any, and ensuring children get lots of positive attention - encouraging good behaviour - but it is possible to get a child who bites or smacks to stop.

"Stigmatising the child is terrible for their self-esteem and it interferes with the bond between them and their parents. How parents see their child is crucial to his or her self worth, and if they are considered especially bold, it can have a serious effect on that bond."