Ok! I get it!

The LGBB has always been pretty sensitive when it comes to nappy rash. One false move and our finely balanced nappy area can come undone in a matter of mere hours.

Such was the case two weeks ago when my poor girl endured what we detected on the first day as red hot and "a bit sore", from her reports.

Of course, I completely overlooked reminding the child minding place where she goes once a week to do their job and change her at least once. I collected her after the three hours was up and we went straight to do the grocery shopping. It's common practice at every child care centre I've ever come in contact with (either worked at or visited with my child or others' children) that they change your child just prior to the time they are due to be collected.

This is a new centre we've just started going to. The LGBB LOOOOOOOVES it there. Has made firm friends already with a couple of the kids and in general, it's just a very enriching, nurturing environment. It's close to home - within ridiculously easy walking distance - and I couldn't be more pleased with how well it's all turned out.

So to come home after our shopping trip (now four hours in the same nappy, unbeknownst to me) and change the LGBB's pants, only to find massive welts and blisters covering her entire front area, I tried as best I could to mask my horror. She reported, as you'd expect, that her bottom was now "vewy sore". Immediately, I began with a homoeopathic remedy, hourly, which prevented any new sores emerging. Each time I tried to reduce the time between dosages, new blisters reappeared. At one stage, they all joined up so that down both sides of her frontal area - okay, so I'm obviously trying not to be too graphic here.... this is the innernet after all and even I, apparently, have my limits to what I will write and how - were covered entirely in a wobbling mass of fluid-filled blisters. I was in tears every time I tended to her bottom changes. In fact, she spent days out of nappies, only having them on when she announced she "needed" one. Little cheeky minx, she is SO ready to toilet train. But will she yet? Nooooooooo. (Why would she when she's got two suckers doing all the work for her, I hear you ask)

Finally, those blisters have gone. It took a lot of persistence with the remedy I had her on (something called Ars Alb, but I'll be darned if I know what that's short for - all I know is, the stuff is potent and it works on a number of things!) and was even dropping it into her sleeping mouth nightly so as not to go too long between doses overnight. But we did it, is the point.

When I took the LGBB back last week to the weekly play time at the centre, I was greeted with a most apologetic (and full of explanations) carer. I wasn't really interested in hearing excuses, but I graciously accepted their claims that they had checked Lolly. Three times, in fact. And all times, she had been dry.

Now, forgive me for being pedantic but I just have to air here (cos there's no point after the fact, nutting it out with them).... how does a kid, in the space of what they are inadvertently claiming must have been an hour from the last time they checked to the time I got her home from shopping up the street, have a wet, full nappy hanging so low it's almost at her knees? And she hadn't drunk hardly a drop from her drink bottle either in the time she was there. Soooooo.... I just don't see that she had that much in her to make that much wee in that small space of time because she certainly didn't have a heavy nappy when I went to get her.*

I know it was just an unfortunate combination of circumstances - she was already brewing a sore bottom, she didn't drink enough (I've asked them now to remind her/encourage her to drink more often), they didn't change her. They didn't change her the week prior either, but her nappy was only a bit wet when I got her home - and checked out of interest how many nappies they'd been through from her bag and saw that they were all still there and she was still in the nappy I'd sent her in. That's just not good enough, for mine. Especially when they then make detailed excuses.

Anyway, the lesson's been learned from my point of view. I will never assume she's been changed on pickup again. I will always ask when she was last changed if I plan to take her out somewhere after collecting her from occasional care.

But what I found really quite pointed was, tonight, on tending to packing the LGBB's bag ready for the morning, I discovered a used nappy - plus wipes, oddly - inside a plastic bag tucked in the front pocket where I keep her nappies.

Okay, ladies. I get it. You changed her. I don't need to see the bloody evidence! Or if you believe I do, canya at least advise me you've gone against the rules, again, and put the used nappy back in her bag in a spot where I don't look until I check to see if I need to restock so that it doesn't sit there stinking up the bag for a week?? Ta!

And thank you for letting me vent that. I shall now let it rest.


* Trust me, they are ACE when it comes to planned activities and care and fun and, as I said, a nurturing and enriching environment. They will hopefully get their acts together a bit more during the course of the term (we started late, as an under 3's group, which formed out of a general need in the area which has been awesome for meeting other mums in the community - one lives just two doors up from me and we've already set a play date for, of all things, our dogs!).