Baby Room & Nappy Changing Facilities

[cleverclowns]

Hi Everyone,

 

This may seem like a silly question but I would be interested in the replies......

 

Our Baby Room is 12 places and at the moment the Nappy Changing Facilites are not in the same room (next door) as the Babies so this means when staff are changing nappies we are 1 member down.

 

My question is how do other settings approach this?

Do you have separate facilities or is your nappy changing area in the same room?

 

Staff in the Baby Room have asked can the nappy changing area be brought into the room?

 

Just wondered if we moved our air freshener and ensured that the blinds were shut, would this be enough privacy and there is also hygiene to consider?

 

Your thoughts please

[Rea]

Most places I've been in have a seperate area for nappy chnaging, one place had the changing station in the room, but there was no ventilation, so not nice! They used a community playthings changing station so the nappy was easily disposed of, anti bac hand gel was used but staff usually went to wash their hands too.

 

I personaly think it should be in another room. The child being changed needs your whole attention and when the changing is taking place in the room, theres always the possibility of you having to speak to another child who's toddled or crawled over to you. A nappy doesnt take long to change anyway so your staff shouldnt be on their own for long, but if you feel they are, is there someone who can cover for a couple of minutes? I dont think I've ever been concerned at the amount of time I've been alone, so do the staff need some techniques in quick changing?

[Guest]

hi

 

The last nursery that I worked at used to be a nursing home so the babyroom was a bedroom was an old en suite bedroom which worked really well, we placed the changing mat in the bathroom so technically no-one left the room. Previously I have worked in nursery's where the bathroom was next door or even once down quite a long corridor. It's not normally a problem unloess you do have staff that take ages. One thing that used to worry me was if a child had an accident in that time because on our forms we filled in number of children present and number of adults so if a member of staff was changing a nappy it would look as though we were under ratio. we would just put the staff members name and then in brackets write changing a nappy.

 

sorry this probably hasn't helped at all

 

Rapunzel

[redjayne]

My baby room staff have to leave the area and go into the bathroom to change nappies, but as we are an open plan setting all that happens is they give the room leader in the main playrom the 'heads up' that it is nappy change time, and she keeps an eye on the other staff in case they need assistance. The only other alternative if we were to remain strictly in ratio at all times would be to take three children in the bathroom at a time - hardly practical and less safe than a few minutes out of the area IMO.