A mother has described the terrifying moment she discovered her two-year-old son cold and motionless inside a grit bin at his nursery in Edinburgh. The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, arrived at Maybury Primary School to collect her son on Friday, January 16, only to be told he had been missing for nearly an hour and that police had been alerted.
She said: "When I opened the box I thought he was dead because he was curled up in the foetal position and wasn't moving. He was cold, shivering, his skin was pale and his face, mouth and nostrils were covered in grit." The boy was taken to A&E with raised salt levels but was released after further tests.
The mother claimed that under a tag-team supervision arrangement with the nursery, staff were supposed to communicate the child's whereabouts at all times. She said she has not been given a full account of what happened and was told conflicting information about CCTV coverage. "They described it as an unfortunate incident but that is just completely not acknowledging how serious this situation actually was," she said.
City of Edinburgh Council leader Jane Meagher expressed shock and said the Care Inspectorate was immediately informed. "It's simply unacceptable that such a young child could be unaccounted for and put at risk," she said. "Urgent improvements have already been made at the nursery, and I am insisting that these are independently reviewed."
The boy has now been kept at home after a brief return to the nursery, as the mother said trust had broken down.
