A mother has described the horror she was confronted with when she picked up her scratched and bloody 10-week-old baby boy from a Melbourne childcare center.
The mother, who goes by Rachel but did not wish to be identified, said she raced to the Only About Children center in Melbourne after receiving a call that her son, Noah, had been in an incident with another child.
Speaking to the media through a translator, Rachel said she and her husband were in disbelief at what happened to their son.
“We cried all the way along. We couldn’t believe a horrible thing could happen to our boy, we couldn’t accept this,” she told 9News.
After the incident, Only About Children sent the mom pictures of her boy’s clawed face, but Rachel said she could not bring herself to look at them because “they’re too graphic.”
The daycare center reportedly explained to her that Noah was scratched by another child when he was left briefly unsupervised by an educator who was trying to change a third child’s nappy.
But Rachel does not accept that telling of events.
“The explanation from the center is this thing just happened accidentally. But we can’t accept this explanation, because there was more than 20 scratches on Noah’s face – how can this happen accidentally?” she said.
“My husband says this is definitely not an accident, this is child abuse.”
The baby was taken to Box Hill Hospital where doctors examined and cleaned his wounds.
According to 7News.com.au, doctors were so shocked by the severity of Noah’s gashes, they checked to see his eyes and brain had not been injured.
Rachel said Noah was on the mend and doctors said his face should not scar, but he has not returned to childcare since.
Only About Children Melbourne Central has declined media requests for comment, but reportedly apologized to the family via an email.
In the apology, 7News.com.au reports, the center declared it will put an “action plan” in place to ensure such an incident does not happen again.
The Victorian Department of Education has said it was aware of the incident, and that the center had changed its policies as a result.
“The service has put in place measures to address this incident, including reviewing its procedures at nappy change times to include an additional educator at these times,” a spokesperson said.
“The Department takes the safety, security and well-being of every child extremely seriously.”
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