A mum wants people to see what happened to her baby after they were scratched at childcare.
Images of the 10-week-old are being shared after he was scratched by another child at a childcare centre in Australia.
Advert
The pictures show baby Noah's face with lots of bright red scratches.
His mum was called up by Only About Children Melbourne Central where she was told her son had been involved in an incident during their routine nappy change.
But when she got there, she burst into tears after seeing Noah's face with more than a dozen scratches across it.
Advert
Through a translator, she told 7NEWS: "We were both in tears. We couldn’t believe such a horrible thing could happen to our boy."
She said a staff member at the childcare centre told her Noah was scratched by one of the other children, while a staff member was busy changing another's nappy.
The young baby was taken to Box Hill Hospital to be examined, where doctors cleaned his wounds.
And the mum claims the doctors were in disbelief that Noah had been so severely scratched. Medics also checked his eyes and brain hadn't been injured as well.
Advert
"I feel lots of pain in my heart. I don’t even want to click the images," the mum said.
Only About Children did not give a comment to 7NEWS but sent a letter of apology to the baby's family.
The Victorian Department of Education told the news publication they are aware of the incident, and said the centre in Melbourne have now changed their policies in response to what happened.
Advert
A spokesperson said: "The service has put in place measures to address this incident, including reviewing its procedures at nappy change times to include an additional educator at these times.
“The Department takes the safety, security and well-being of every child extremely seriously.”
However, the mum does not seem totally convinced as she said: "We just can’t accept this explanation because there were more than 20 scratches on Noah’s face. How could this happen accidentally?"
However, the mum has said the family are very traumatised and have not sent their son back to childcare.
Advert
A spokesperson for Only About Children told Tyla: "Education and Childcare provider, Only About Children confirms an incident occurred at the company’s Melbourne Central centre where a baby sustained scratches to his face caused by another child in the nursery.
"Staff at the centre provided first aid to the baby. The parents subsequently took the infant to hospital for additional checking and was released on the same day.
"Only About Children immediately commenced an internal review of the incident. The Victorian Department of Education has also completed a review of the incident.
"Both reviews concluded the scratching was an accident. Only About Children confirms staff were on duty and in attendance at the time and that four infants in total were in nursery care at the time."
Chief Executive of Only About Children, Anna Learmonth said: "This is obviously an upsetting issue for the family involved and we would like to apologise for the distress caused.
“The health, safety, and well-being of every child at our centre remains our top priority, and we will continue to strive for excellence in all aspects of our operations.
“While this is an extremely isolated event, we have put in place additional measures to address this incident, including reviewing our procedures at nappy change time to include an additional educator.
“We are pleased to know the infant has now made a full recovery and look forward to welcoming him back to our centre in the near future."
Jess Battison