Fava beans and a nice Chianti

AJ got bit this week.  By another child.

This is not something that I anticipated having to worry about as part of the world of daycare.  His transition has taken a major turn for the better-- no more crying when we drop him off.  Its all kisses and hugs and see you later.  He found his groove and I was feeling awesome that things were going so well.

And then my phone rang one day this week and hearing the center's director on the other end, my heart took a time out.  He was ok, but another kid bit him-- on the BACK! so he didn't even see it coming.  Poor fella. He cried, but not for too long.  She told me it "looks scraped" but didn't break the skin.

Well when he got home that day and I saw what this bite remnant actually looked like I wanted to both cry and start a manhunt for this Mini-Hannibal Lecter. At that moment I understood why it is against their policy to tell the parents of the bitee who the biter was.

Apparently at daycare, at this age, bites are not uncommon.  Toddlers love to swarm together and are often right on top of each other and in that sense they are sometimes hard to prevent.  The center did a good job of laying out how they approach these situations, who they have brought in for extra teacher training to this end, and how they have handled the more severe situations in the past.  But even knowing all of this, it makes me go back and question whether it was the right thing to do to start sending him.  Or whether it is the right thing to do not to wrap him in bubble wrap and attach him to my leg so he will never stray or get hurt or be in trouble ever ever in his lifetime.

The good thing is, outside of a cringe when I touch where his marks are, he doesn't seem phased by it.  He didn't cry that day when i picked him up and he didn't hesitate in the slightest going back the next day.  And that is my main concern, that he is happy, and ok.  And that I can sneak some kind of forensics into that classroom and analyze teeth shape to match the bitemarks and slap a face mask on the culprit!