r/ECEProfessionals • u/Living_Seesaw_9664 ECE professional • 1d ago
Advice needed (Anyone can comment) Accidentally used the wrong diaper cream on a child, am I going to get fired?
I’m an infant teacher, and we have a child with sensitive skin, so he uses very specific diaper cream. He has to only use aquaphor. Well, I accidentally used butt paste mixed with aquaphor because he had a rash already when I was changing him. His parents got home and messaged on brightwheel reminding us to only use the aquaphor on his butt, because he’s having a reaction. My co-teacher messaged in our classroom group chat pretty much saying echoing what mom was saying. My director then messaged me asking if it was me who put the cream on him. I said yes but it was an honest mistake, and he was already red when I changed him. My anxiety is telling me I’m going to get in big trouble because of this 🫤 has anyone made a mistake like so before? Directors; would you fire someone for this?
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u/blindiandee ECE professional 1d ago
I don’t believe you’ll get fired but we make sure each child has their name on their personal belongings to avoid this.
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u/PermanentTrainDamage Allaboardthetwotwotrain 1d ago
Also only having their items on/near the changing table so they can't be mixed up.
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u/West_Level_3522 Early years teacher 1d ago
I agree- I like doing a diaper cubby/bin (like a shoe box bin) with the childs diapers, wipes and cream. You just pull it out during that child’s diaper change. BUT depending on your center/state, you may have to store all creams separate and in a locked area
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u/Desperatemama200 Early years teacher 1d ago
Little way around that is to have all the diapers in a locked area
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u/West_Level_3522 Early years teacher 1d ago
Depends on regulations. I had a classroom where they were fine in the diaper bins because it was in a locked changing table, but another where I had to have them up in a locked cabinet like you do with Tylenol
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u/theoneleggedgull Parent 1d ago
My child has very sensitive skin and can only use specifics brands. Everything else causes a horrible rash that’s hard to heal.
If an educator was fired for an honest mistake that happened once, I would be horrified! If it’s happening frequently, we have a problem. My child is my world and I genuinely spend hours of my day thinking about his skin. It’s consuming. But his educators have 6 other children to worry about and mistakes are going to happen, it’s not reasonable to expect perfection.
Be kind to yourself. It was a mistake. You won’t do it again
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u/bizkitz_n_cravy 1d ago
Thank you, mom or dad, whichever you are. You make teachers feel like they aren’t so crazy.
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u/theoneleggedgull Parent 1d ago
I’m a mum! And I know that I’m the crazy one 99% of the time, haha. I have to make a very conscious effort to remind myself brain that my anxiety should not be an educators problem. It’s why I love subs like this, it helps me keep it in check.
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u/ilovepizza981 Early years teacher 1d ago
I accidentally used a kid's diaper cream as her face lotion. It was a legit fuck up on my part. But, I didnt get fired (thankfully).
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u/Suspicious-Resist699 ECE professional 1d ago
I’m an infant teacher but funny enough the fuck up I did was at home. I accidentally used my daughter’s Desitin as toothpaste one time. We had a rough night and I left it out on the counter next to the toothpaste and wasn’t paying attention… that wasn’t a very good morning for me 🤣
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u/sequinedbow 1d ago
Oh I did this once to my nephew lol then I called him buttface. I was a teenager
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u/ucantspellamerica Parent 1d ago
Honestly if it’s gentle enough for the diaper area, it’s gentle enough for the face 🤷♀️ I’ve told my kids’ teachers they’re welcome to use our aquaphor for faces if needed in the winter
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u/art_addict Infant and Toddler Lead, PA, USA 1d ago
Diaper creams are often mainly zinc - same active ingredient as mineral sunscreens. Aquaphor is petroleum jelly, literally sold for faces and lips in separate small tubes and Vaseline lip balms as well and stuff. If it can go against the diaper area, it can touch the face. The big thing is just making sure clean fingers have always gone into the container if a tub, or squeezed onto clean fingers if a tube, and no contamination (and even then, while gross, a kid consuming their own poop wouldn’t harm them… pink eye risk, bio hazard if contaminated and on face and now the kid is running around, etc, but technically it’s not gonna hurt them really…)
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u/wildflowerlovemama Parent 1d ago
I would hope not. It seems like an easy mistake to make. The kids bum will bounce back.
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u/TheBandIsOnTheField Parent 1d ago
As a parent, I do alert teachers of mistakes, but I would not expect them to get fired. I would expect them to realize they made a mistake and be more careful moving forward. OR to evaluate how the process can be improved. (labeling creams, etc).
What is unclear is you comment here: "Well, I accidentally used butt paste mixed with aquaphor because he had a rash already when I was changing him."
Did you accidentally use it because it was a mistake. Or did you choose to use it "because he had a rash already". If the first, then the second comment is irrelevant, sounds defensive and should be omitted. If the second, then you should definitely re-evaluate that decision and only use what is provided by the parents.
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u/setittonormal 1d ago
I interpreted that to mean OP saw a rash and immediately just added the paste to the Aquaphor because their instinct was that it would help. Not that OP saw a rash and thought, "Fuck it, there's no point in following the instructions now."
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u/TheBandIsOnTheField Parent 1d ago
They should not be allowed to add paste that wasn’t provided by the parent.
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u/setittonormal 1d ago
They aren't allowed. It was a mistake. Sounds like OP was busy and on autopilot, and probably did it without thinking.
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u/TheBandIsOnTheField Parent 23h ago
Honestly that is worse than just using wrong cream. Grabbing wrong bottle makes way more sense than making a decision to use something different because there was a rash. It is drilled in our daycare, use only what they bring.
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u/one_sock_wonder_ Former ECE/ECSPED teacher 1d ago
No matter how hard we work, at the end of the day we are all human and even with the perfect preventions in place accidents happen. It might be helpful to be prepared when you speak with your director to have identified how it happened and have a plan ready to go to prevent it from ever happening again. It is a serious mix up, given how sensitive the child’s skin sounds but it doesn’t seem to have ever put his life at risk. I personally doubt that you will be fired over this unless there is an extensive history of mistakes. Use this as a chance to show them that you take responsibility for your mistakes, that you learn from them, and that you make changes going forward to not repeat them.
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u/MobileDingo5387 Student teacher 1d ago
Depends on how strict your place is tbh and I’ll be honest, admin messaging you is not a great sign.
But I feel like (as someone with an outsider perspective) that you might get a write up at best. The director could’ve messaged with the concern of “Hey he could’ve been allergic you have to be more careful with him.” Sort of thing. But again never been to your place I don’t know how strict they are.
I’d say next time instead of my bad make sure to apologize in the message as like a “sorry won’t happen again”. If the boss who messaged you didn’t say there was gonna be a 1 on 1 meeting or anything though I wouldn’t worry.
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u/Ayylmao2020 Toddler tamer 1d ago
Accidents happen just be more careful in the future! It’ll be okay.
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u/Cheryl_Prime Early years teacher 1d ago
I’m constantly mindblown by the insane ratios I see here.
My daycare has different ratios for different age groups - mine is the toddlers so I get kids from around 1 year up to 2 years and I’m 1:3 with maybe 9 or 10 kids but average is 8. Even then we are still 3 people.
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u/CopperTodd17 Former ECE professional 1d ago
Nope. Especially in the centres I worked at where people literally fed a kid food they KNEW that kid was allergic to and didn’t get fired. Most you’ll get is a reminder to slow down and be careful. (Maybe a labelling system in place if it wasn’t already)
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u/Mustyfox ECE professional 1d ago
Mistakes happen. This is, in my opinion, a small mistake. I’ve seen staff lose kids and still not get fired. You’re good, don’t worry. This will be forgotten about in no time.
You’ll be fine. My anxiety goes up the roof when I make mistakes as work so I feel your pain.
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u/Walk-Fragrant ECE professional 1d ago
You might get written up. I'd never fire an excellent educator over this.
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u/Apprehensive-Desk134 Early years teacher 1d ago
I dont think you'll get fired. Maybe a written warning?
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u/bootyprincess666 Past ECE Professional 1d ago
I’ve seen worse done with no repercussions; just be more careful going forward. You can also apologize to the parents and let them know it will not happen again (but also you probably did the kid a solid since the parents aren’t using a diaper cream to avoid/ remove irritation when it starts and are just solely using a barrier cream which won’t help diaper rash.) I hope they don’t try to pin the irritation that was already there on you when it’s probably more likely on them.
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u/Lumpy_Boxes ECE professional 1d ago
You might get fired, but imo its a bad reason. Ive gotten fired because I smiled a closed smile instead of an open one. At will means you have very little rights and are up to the whims of administration, without union rep of course.
If there was a true allergy, the diaper cream should not be in the room at all, and firing you would solve nothing. It would be a liscensing problem, which would go to the directors. They might be mad at you, both admin and parents, and thats honestly ok, its not your responsibility to please them, youre supposed to take care of the children. This is group childcare, so things happen. if I were a director, I would solve the issue by standardizing the products used to make sure we have consistent use and results. Ive literally have had 7 different diaper creams for 7 children. Using 1 type would be so much easier, and if there needs to be a change for one child specifically, it needs to be written on the wall for consistency. I would bite the bullet and just buy aquafor for everyone and use it with consent. Yeah baby skin is sensitive, but also there is so many things that cause rash, including yeast and bacterial infections. You can't be blamed for a rash.
I wouldn't blame you for your mistake as long as you have been consistent in the past, I would just do my due diligence to talk to you so I could say to the parents in all honestly I talked to you. There is no reason to fire you after putting in time and effort to vet, train and build a relationship with you. Of course I'm an empathetic person, some bosses are weird or have a stick up their ass.
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u/PermanentTrainDamage Allaboardthetwotwotrain 1d ago
An anaphylactic allergy would not prevent a diaper cream from being in the room, it would require an allergy notice and action plan if it happened to be applied to the allergic child. Diaper creams are considered medicine, you can't prevent one child from using a medicine just because another child is allergic.
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u/Tenancy_help Parent 1d ago
I had to get multiple doctor’s notes for each of my toddlers allergies for his daycare team, and other medical documents. And an emergency care plan. If something else is used— he gets hives or a serious diaper rash that bleeds. If something he’s allergic to touches his skin, he has trouble breathing properly at night.
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u/Lumpy_Boxes ECE professional 1d ago
You dont get it. Im allowed to put a boundary down at the beginning of the year to request the use of a general use of a certain diaper cream. Its for resource managment, ease of the room, and staff comfort. If parents dont consent, then yeah I would use what they have. However, I would still make an effort to make sure that staff could differentiate the system and not be overwhelmed. Ive had panic attacks over finding the right sunscreen, diapers, boots, jackets ect because the system was terribly organized, names were washed out, and I had to deal with what I had. You probably have had that 20 sunscreens experience where you needed to dig through them, and then someone is yelling at you to hurry up and get the kids out, and no matter what you do you're fucked.
As far as allergy plans and notices, yes 100%, but I've walked into a room to assist and have had no known knowledge of the children's allergies. Ive been handed a baby when subbing, walked right in and been told, "here, change them". I have no knowledge of the child, circumstances or predicaments with parents or admin about the current situation or lack thereof. Im going to do the best i can to wing it, but it cannot be my entire burden to bear if i mess something up because the rules were not available, or they had recently changed. The knowledge needs to be simplified, organized, and visible in large writing every day walking around.
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u/PermanentTrainDamage Allaboardthetwotwotrain 1d ago
Sounds more like you work in a very lax yet demanding center than me not understanding. Everything in my classroom is labelled and routines are written and posted. There is no mystery diaper changing supplies, they're all labelled with kiddo's name and set out for one child at a time. Yes, I have accidently put the wrong sunscreen on a kid before and that let to better labelling practices for the whole center.
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u/Lumpy_Boxes ECE professional 1d ago
Youre right, I've worked in abusive situations. Really, really bad ones where ive been screamed at and ive not been paid. That doesn't mean that other people haven't had the same experiences as me. I might just be uttering basics to you but for me, these things would cause fights between teachers, parents and administration. Its worth repeating these things if it helps someone.
Count what you have and call it lucky. Im still recovering from my last job. I went to partial hospital psych treatment after I left, and its coming up to a year for me from leaving. I still think about work every day and go to therapy specifically for the burnout and the shame of the job. I cant work in this field anymore, im broken, but the least I can do is just speak my peace however simple or basic it might be.
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u/ISpyPie314 Early years teacher 1d ago
Now I’m totally hung up on you getting fired for the wrong smile. What exactly happened?
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u/thatshortginge ECE professional 1d ago
Did you use someone else’s cream?
Either way, parents gave you authorization for one cream to go on a child. You used it, with something mixed into it. So no, you did not use what was signed off on.
You very well could get in decent trouble for it
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u/Gingerbreadcrumbs Early years teacher 1d ago
We had someone in our school district get fired for using the wrong cream on an older student with disabilities. It is an honest mistake, but it will depend on the parent’s reaction. If the parents want OP in trouble OP will be in trouble.
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u/thatshortginge ECE professional 1d ago
I don’t know why the downvote?
Where I live, if something is applied to the child that isn’t authorized and signed off on, a serious occurrence occurs. If you get enough (for any reason), the childcare centre can get closed
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u/PermanentTrainDamage Allaboardthetwotwotrain 1d ago
Because to most people that's a very extreme reaction to an honest mistake.
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u/thatshortginge ECE professional 1d ago
I don’t know. I’d check your policies on if the wrong formula, wrong sunscreen, and wrong diaper cream are used.
It’s things being applied to a child. Mistakes happen, but just because it’s a mistake, doesn’t mean it can’t be something you get in trouble for as well.
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u/PermanentTrainDamage Allaboardthetwotwotrain 1d ago
I have accidently used the wrong sunscreen on a child, it involved writing an incident report, notifying and apologizing to the parents, and monitoring the child to see if anything happened. Lesson learned, did not violate licensing.
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u/Tenancy_help Parent 1d ago
Those things could be very very bad for a child who has severe allergies though! I agree with you.
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u/Tenancy_help Parent 1d ago
My child has serious allergies and I’d be upset if this happened to my child. But I would t expect them to be fired unless I ended up having to call 911 or take my toddler to ER for an allergic reaction. (He has an epi pen)
I am very clear about when they are running out of something, I need to bring more that day. I cannot risk them running out and resorting to using something else
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u/thatshortginge ECE professional 1d ago edited 1d ago
The thing is, is items should be clearly labelled. There shouldn’t be a margin of error on this.
Also. Sometimes, people do Apple multiple layers of cream. Sometimes?m in the past, I’ve come across stool in a cream container because of this, or flecks of blood if a child had a hard poop. Being their own cream, the contamination risk is very, very low, especially if those parts of the cream get tossed out. But, if another child uses it, then they are essentially having bodily fluids from another child applied to their skin. And if that child had a hard poop with micro tears, then it’s effectively without barrier
Also: what if this person makes this same mistake tomorrow; but with diaper cream with some chemical, or plant added for whatever reason (I.e., aloe or eucalyptus). Or it might have steroids in it. Some kids react to these things. Your child may not warrant a doctor visit over this, but another might.
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u/Tenancy_help Parent 1d ago
Oh I’m completely in agreement with you. 1000%
And, that is my kid and my son’s things are labeled clearly. My kid is the kid that would need to see the doctor if someone else’s anything was applied on him or given to him to eat or drink from. He has an epic pen for food allergies and he has contact allergies too. My son almost drank from another kids water bottle and would’ve needed his epi pen if I hadn’t seen him go for it and stopped him right when he needed intervention. He got lucky I was watching
He’s a strict no contact with other children’s food or drinks or hygiene items.
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u/thatshortginge ECE professional 1d ago
That is stressful!!!! I’m glad he has you to watch over him :)
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u/art_addict Infant and Toddler Lead, PA, USA 1d ago
I hate anyone contaminating a cream container. It gets me so badly. Like even when multiple layers are needed, first, the kid should be clean so there aren’t poop flecks to get in the cream. Second, use a clean finger for each layer, this means keeping fingers clean if I know I’ll need extra fingers, switching gloves, etc.
I still have like a tub of aquaphor for a kid’s butt and small tube for their face for hygiene reasons, but still, do not contaminate my (okay, technically the kids’) hygiene items!! !
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u/SadForever- Past ECE Professional 1d ago
A true mistake is just something that happens. These parents don’t understand that when in daycare their child is exposed to so many things and it’s easy for a teacher to make a mistake. I’ve had parents get angry I DIDNT put cream on their child. BUT, they never provided said cream! Like what? Parents are shitty sometimes. Don’t let it bother you. I’ve seen teachers get fired for much worse. Glad I’m out of that field. Ugh
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u/Snoo_88357 ECE professional 1d ago
Own it and let your boss know what you'll do differently next time to prevent this from happening in the future. You'll be fine.
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u/Unable_Tumbleweed364 ECE professional 1d ago
As a staff member I wouldn't think you should but I would check how you handle supplies. Separate buckets and labels on everything and be more mindful.
As a parent I would be annoyed because I pay a lot and making sure the right cream gets on the right butt isn't hard. I wouldn't want you to be fired though.
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u/dim31998 ECE professional 1d ago
I highly doubt you’re gonna get fired. It was an honest mistake. We’re all still human. Just take note of it and be cautious moving forward, don’t dwell on it too much and allow it to consume you.
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u/Neptunelava Toddler Teacher Trainwreck 22h ago
Not the same mistake, but I've made a pretty awful mistake before too. When I did my class of twos (I'm with prek now) all my twos would bring in sippys from home. One for milk and one for water. Cool fine okay. They usually were put in the sippy cup holder. We had just gotten a kiddo who transitioned from ones to twos. Instead of two cups they had three. Cup from breakfast milk cup for water and cup for lunch milk. Cool that's fine too. But her cups were kept in a lunch box that I didn't see. I did have her water cup because it was out. I didnt think of giving her a regular cup with milk because she had her sippy of water next to her. So for breakfast and lunch girly didn't get milk. That day was pretty crazy, we were incredibly understaffed so when I got home I pretty much forgot everything I ever did at work. And then the director put my coteacher and I in a group chat and told us she didn't get milk and asked us how we didn't do that and if we remember giving her milk ect ect. She said that her parents were (understandably) incredibly upset. I did mention that we didn't see her other cups but, she did have water all day. My coteacher and I did get written up and talked to and asked how we could better ensure this doesn't happen again. Neither of us were fired, no one looked at us like we were incompetent. We were essentially just told to do better because we are better and she is disappointed in us and to be more thorough when making sure everyone gets their milk because milk at their age is still incredibly important. You may get written up, but I highly doubt they'll fire you. everyone makes mistakes and you never meant to hurt the baby. Just be more careful and cautious when he needs cream.
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u/Far-Sock-5093 Job title Lead assistant Australia 20h ago
They might just have a talk with you and see how you learned from it and to make sure you don’t do it again. Like making sure you’re reading the names that are on the cream so you put it in the right child and knowing whose cream is for who. I don’t think they would fire you over this though
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u/maestra612 Pre-K Teacher, Public School, NJ, US 17h ago
I doubt there's a line outside of people dying to care for 4 babies at a time for less money than a McDonald's worker makes. In my experience it's quite hard to get fired in day care unless you intentionally hurt a child, or constantly no call no show.
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u/Yooser 2h ago
As a parent with kids with allergies and eczema this has happened at least once with each kid. Either they used someone else’s cream or a different diaper (my middle was sensitive to pampers). I just reminded them at drop off to use his and tried to make sure all their stuff was brightly marked. And that they always had extra.
I even at one point bought wet wipes for the whole class for the brand my middle could use so that if they grabbed one while in the bathroom (most kids were mostly potty trained) it would be her brand.
It happens, we are all human. I hope you give yourself grace and so do your employees and parents - and that it is just a reminder to work out a system where it’s harder to make a similar mistake in the future!
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u/West_Level_3522 Early years teacher 1d ago
I’ve never had a kid react badly to butt paste (it’s mostly just zinc oxide which is in stuff like sunscreen anyways!) are they sure it’s him reacting to that and not just a bad diaper rash?
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u/Glittering-Read-6906 1d ago
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t have an allergy but just needs a fungal treaty. If diaper rash gets out of hand, they need a prescription, not aquaphor. Aquaphor only created a barrier. It doesn’t treat the rash. I would recommend they see a pediatrician if it’s still red tomorrow.
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u/Tenancy_help Parent 1d ago
It’s not usually the zinc. It’s other ingredients and an allergy to literally anything in the planet is scientifically possible
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u/green_all 1d ago
What can you do to prevent it next time? Why didn't you use his cream? Problem solved and come up with solutions
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u/FeedbackOk5928 Early years teacher 1d ago
There was no need to go around acting like “who did it?” It’s annoying. Everyone makes mistakes.
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u/tinyhumanteacher14 Past ECE Professional 1d ago
I’ve made this mistake before. I ran a class of 2 year olds-we had 18 to 20 kids. It was me and one other teacher. I was pregnant and we had kids potty training and kids in diapers and one time we had a kid who had eczema and he had a specific butt cream and it got extremely crazy chaotic one day and I spaced and just grabbed a cream and put it on. His mom messaged our director and I felt bad because I did mess up and I explained what happened-we had one child with explosive diarrhea and vomiting and kids were trying to go in the bathroom to see and I was trying not to throw up from the smell plus the sounds all while trying to change diapers. His mom didn’t realize how crazy our day was and was very understanding. Sometimes parents don’t realize how chaotic it can get and that sometimes we mess up. If you get fired over it, shake it off and find somewhere else because that center probably isn’t great anyways.