A Sydney mum has slammed a daycare centre for reportedly letting her son sleep with a bib completely covering his face.
At 2.20pm on Wednesday afternoon, a mum was working as a chef in a daycare centre in Sydney; a place she decided to work so she could pop in and see her children throughout the day.
During her shift, the Sydney mum was taking the afternoon tea trolley to the babies’ room.
As she had done for all her kids, she popped into her five-month-old son’s room to give him a quick check.
She was horrified by what she saw.
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Mum finds 5mo son sleeping with bib covering his face
“I didn’t see my son in the playground, I didn’t see my son in the classroom,” she told Kidspot. “So I thought he’d be sleeping.”
Her baby was fast asleep in his cot, lying on his side, but his face was completely covered, his bib still attached around his neck and pulled upwards.
Earlier that day, she claimed she requested that daycare staff put a bib on him to stop his drooling, but she wanted them to remove it while he was sleeping.
“I freaked out,” she said, putting her hand on her son’s back to make sure he was still breathing.
Then she took a photo.
“I decided to take a photo because this is unacceptable,” the mum told Kidspot. “As a parent, that was worrying, and I just wanted to show the director.”
The Sydney woman explained the daycare used an app to log check-ins with the infants, but she alleged her son hadn’t been seen in over half an hour.
She claimed her child was checked at 1:43pm, but wasn’t checked again until 2.20pm when she walked in.
After taking off her son’s bib, she placed it in a locker and walked over to the director, who reportedly “brushed [her] off.”
She then took the photo to an educational leader in the baby’s area and asked, “Is this safe sleep?”
“And she said, ‘No, it’s not’.”
Babies should sleep on their backs with their faces and heads uncovered to reduce the risk of overheating and suffocation while sleeping, according to Red Nose.
This is recommended until they are at least 12 months old, as the chance of SIDS is at its peak between two and six months of age.
“I’m just in shock about child care in general now”
This wasn’t the first time she’d had trouble with the daycare centre and was scheduled to complete her final shift that week.
But this was the final straw.
Following the incident, she explained the director called and apologised to her, but the Sydney mum is still furious.
“[If] this is what’s happening to my son and I’m in the centre, can you imagine the negligence for those who don’t see this?” she asked.
The mum claimed that she has since contacted the Department of Education and filed a complaint about the daycare centre.
Now she’s sworn off daycare for good.
“I’m just in shock about child care in general now,” she said online. “I’m going to stay home with my kids.”
This article originally appeared on Kidspot and was reproduced with permission