"They didn't even call when it occurred - or notify me when I picked her up after work."
As parents, we trust that when we put our children into daycare, whether in a creche or with a minder, they are looked after and kept safe.
However, this was not the case for US mum Alice Martin, who was recently horrified to discover bite marks all over the 15-month-old daughter's back when she picked her up during her first week at a new daycare facility.
“At first, I was like ‘are those really bite marks?' Martin told
KOLD-TV.
“And then, my brain kinda stopped thinking and I started crying. It’s stomach-turning. It feels both angry and sad at the same time. There’s over 25 plus, it’s hard to tell."
Having recently relocated to Tuscon, Arizona, Martin said she chose this particular creche for her daughter as it was close to the university where she was currently attending classes.
However, after having collected her child from the daycare facility one day during her first week there, Martin made a shocking discovery come bedtime when she went to undress her 15-month-old.
Realising her child was covered in bite marks, Martin said she felt like she had "left her with someone that didn’t look out for her at all.”
The most shocking part? No one at her daughter's creche had alerted Martin to the bite marks at all, leaving her to discover her daughter's injuries herself.
“The fact that they didn’t notify me even when I picked her up is just, astounding," she explains.
“You always want to protect your children and I feel like that didn’t happen. Do I know what happened? No, but I know that a child getting bitten that many times would be crying and very upset."
The mum-of-one says she is deeply disturbed by the fact that no-one at the creche intervened and protected her daughter.
"The fact that nobody intervened in how many minutes, maybe they were left alone, maybe they just disregarded the cries, I don’t know. But it takes some time to do that kind of biting and my daughter would have been very upset."
Police report
As soon as she noticed the bites, Martin explains she notified the Department of Health, who in the states would handle issues regarding safety at daycare facilities. She also filed a police report against the daycare centre, and when doing so, the investigating officer told Martin – unsurprisingly – that her daughter's bites 'most likely came from another child.'
The Tucson Police Department told
KOLD-TV that officers began investing the incident straight away, but as the months went by and she heard nothing from the creche, Martin explains she saw no other way than taking to Facebook to warn other parents not to send their children to the international childcare chain.
“There have been no repercussions and there’s very unlikely to be any for the daycare.”
The Arizona Department of Health Services also released the following statement to
KOLD-TV about the incident:
“The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) is investigating the incident at Creative Beginnings Daycare and working with law enforcement. The investigation is not completed and ADHS cannot comment on pending investigations.”
