If you see the signs and symptoms of daycare abuse in your child, you have good cause to be worried. You can take some actions to determine whether or not there is a situation that needs to be addressed going on at the facility. Making sure your child is out of danger is the first part of the process.
Get Your Child Out
You should remove your child from a situation that you believe is abusive. You can speak with other parents who use the facility to find out if they have suspicions, as well, but remember that children are sometimes singled out for abuse and just because all of the children aren’t being abused doesn’t necessarily mean that none of them are being abused.
Call a Counselor
Your child may have been intimidated into not saying anything about the abuse and it may not be possible for you to reach out to them. In fact, whoever is abusing them may have made threats to your child involving you, your pets or your child’s brothers and sisters if the child said anything. A counselor can sometimes get through to children that have been intimidated in this way. Make sure you take them to a qualified counselor with a good reputation. There are bad ones out there and it’s possible to get a child to say anything, even if it’s not true.
Doctors
Take your child to their physician and have an exam performed. You don’t have to tell them why. The doctor can casually look for signs of abuse while they’re performing the examination. Good pediatricians see it all and, when something seems out of place or suspicious, you can be sure that it will raise a red flag with them. This is also the best way to document physical evidence of abuse.
If your child was the victim of daycare child abuse, you do have legal recourse after the criminal part of the case is taken care of. Daycare negligence is cause to sue and a lawyer that specializes in these claims can help you put together a case that could win you compensation. There’s no way to guarantee that any legal action will win in court, but a good attorney can let you know if you have good odds of winning and if you should consider taking such an action to seek damages for what was done to your child and your family.