Cameron Park Early Learning Centre

Enrol babies with caution and be explicit with what they can and cannot eat! In early April 2025 my son started care at Cameron Park Early Learning, he was 7.5months old. By late May, my son was 9months old, feeding through a combination of baby led weaning and purée’s for 3 months - to him, food was still very new and he had a sensitive gag reflex. At this age and developmental stage, he was fed a corn thin. This resulted in a serious choking incident which required first aid back blows to dislodge. Room leader, Sandra was wonderful and honest about the incident (2-3 minutes choking and he turned blue) but from all other aspects, the incident was handled poorly. Our concerns of children’s safety, communication barriers and foods offered to babies were completely dismissed by Director Julie, who argued that ‘corn thins are a soft suitable baby led weaning option for babies and not on a chocking hazard list’ - ultimately we agreed to disagree here and interactions (or lack of interaction) from educators following the incident resulted in a lack of trust. We decided we could not send our child back to this service. Admin Sharon handled our feedback and decision to unenrol well, and met all of our requests and more without hesitation. Management Catherine reached out to us regarding the incident after we unenrolled. I can’t fault her actions and she’s expressed that she has worked with the service to implement strategies to prevent incidents like this occurring in the future. She was very understanding and wanted to repair the relationship following what was described as behaviours that were not acceptable. Our child required medical treatment for abnormal breathing that followed, x-rays for suspected aspiration and did not eat for around 4 weeks following the incident - it was clear he had suffered trauma. 3 months have passed since the incident and we are working with a feeding therapist, developing strategies to support our son in increasing his delayed feeding skills after not eating for a month. At his new daycare he will not sit in a high chair to eat and has an insecure relationship with food, with is slowly improving. While upper management, administration and some educators are wonderful here, I would not consider reenrolling my child under the current Director.