maternity Archives - Little Cedars Day Nursery

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Congenital Toxoplasmosis: Information for Expectant Parents

With a new baby on the horizon, pregnancy is often a time of excitement and anticipation. However, it is often also a time for heightened awareness around health and safety matters — and rightly so. Indeed it’s instinctive to want to protect both the expectant mother and the unborn child. While many expectant parents are familiar with common pregnancy risks, one lesser-known yet serious threat is congenital toxoplasmosis. This parasitic infection can have devastating consequences for unborn babies. In today’s post, we’ll explore what congenital toxoplasmosis is, the risks it poses, and practical steps pregnant women and families with young children can take to minimise exposure.

What is Congenital Toxoplasmosis?

Toxoplasmosis is an infection that’s caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. While the infection is often harmless and asymptomatic for healthy adults, it becomes particularly concerning when a pregnant woman contracts it, as the parasite can cross the placenta and infect the developing baby. This is known as congenital toxoplasmosis.

How Common is Congenital Toxoplasmosis?

According to the pregnancy and baby charity Tommy’s, approximately 350 people are infected by toxoplasmosis each year in England and Wales. So, the chances of infection during pregnancy are small. However, this article is inspired by a real-life case where such an infection occurred during pregnancy. Sadly, the adverse effects for the child were severe and permanent.

What are the Risks to Unborn Babies & Young Children?

The timing of any exposure to the Toxoplasmosis gondii parasite during pregnancy affects both the risk of transmission and the potential severity of the effects on the foetus/child. While the transmission risk is lower during early pregnancy, the possible adverse effects for the developing foetus are much more severe. Conversely, the risk of transmission to the child is higher in late pregnancy but the potential effects may be milder or appear later in their lives. Depending on the timing, therefore, the risks to the child could be anything from mild effects that appear later in life to something as severe as brain abnormalities, eye damage, or even stillbirth. Other potential effects include seizures and neurological issues, miscarriages, hearing problems, learning disabilities and more. It is therefore incredibly important for expectant families to understand how to avoid toxoplasmosis infection.

“If you get toxoplasmosis while you’re pregnant it can cause miscarriage. If it spreads to your baby it can cause serious complications.” — NHS

How Pregnant Women Can Reduce The Risk

Preventing toxoplasmosis during pregnancy is crucial. Here are key measures expectant mothers should take:

Food Safety

Avoid touching and/or eating raw or undercooked meat, especially lamb, pork and venison.
Avoid touching and/or eating cured/dried/smoked meats like salami, Parma ham etc.
Avoid handling and/or eating raw or undercooked oysters, clams and mussels.
Ensure that fruit and vegetables are thoroughly washed.
Avoid unpasteurised dairy products that may carry the parasite, especially those containing unpasteurised goat’s milk.
Wash hands, kitchen surfaces, and utensils, especially after handling uncooked meat or indeed any of the above.

Pets & Animals

If you are pregnant and own a cat, avoid changing the litter box yourself. If that’s not possible, ensure that you wear protective gloves while doing so and thoroughly wash your hands once you’ve finished.
Consider keeping pet cats indoors during pregnancy to prevent them from hunting infected rodents or birds.
Don’t give pet cats uncooked or undercooked meat.
Avoid contact with sheep, especially pregnant sheep and lambs.

Hygiene and Environmental Care

Always wash your hands after gardening or handling soil.
Wear gloves while gardening or handling sandboxes (sandpits may be contaminated with cat faeces).
Ensure meat is cooked to safe and sufficiently high temperatures.

Protecting Young Children from Infection

For families with toddlers and young children, it’s important to maintain hygiene practices to reduce exposure:

Teach children to wash hands after playing outdoors, handling pets, and before eating.
Cover outdoor sandpits to prevent contamination by neighbourhood cats.
Ensure family meals follow proper food safety guidelines.

The Cat Myth

Many who have heard of toxoplasmosis believe its cause is linked primarily to cats. While cats are a host for Toxoplasma gondii and it can be contracted through contact with their faeces, they are not the most common way people get infected. Most often, contaminated food (such as undercooked meat, unwashed vegetables, or contaminated water) is the primary source of infection. Pregnant women should therefore be cautious about handling soil, raw meat, and unpasteurised dairy — not just cats. The NHS itself says:

“You cannot catch toxoplasmosis from stroking a cat, having a cat as a pet or from coming into contact with someone who’s got it.”

Stay Vigilant

Congenital toxoplasmosis is a serious but preventable condition. If they take the proper precautions, expectant mothers and families with young children can significantly reduce their risk of infection. Awareness and education are crucial, so feel free to bookmark and share this information with loved ones to help protect future generations. Learn more about toxoplasmosis and its symptoms here.

Little Cedars Nursery, Streatham, London SW16

A high-quality childcare service for your child at Little Cedars Nursery in Streatham

Little Cedars Nursery is a first-class nursery and preschool in Streatham in London’s SW16 postcode. The childcare setting offers high-quality weekday childcare for babies, toddlers, and children under five and opens virtually all year round. All major childcare funding options are supported and the nursery has ‘Good Provider’ status from Ofsted.

Find out more about Little Cedars Nursery in Streatham by choosing a button below. We’re here to show you around, answer questions, and welcome your child to this wonderful Streatham nursery.

Apply for a Place Arrange a Visit or Message Us 020 8677 9675

Important Notice

^{These are introductory guidelines only — parents/guardians will need to do their own comprehensive research to learn more. They may also wish to consult our related tips on food safety and hygiene around children.}

31 March 2025/by Mark

Babies, Childcare, Early Years, Maternity, Nurseries, Nursery, Parental Leave, Parenting, Paternity, Pre-schools, Streatham, Under-5s

Flexible Working Requests — Your Rights as a Parent

If you were a full-time employee when you had your child, perhaps you’d rather go part time while your child is under five. Or maybe you want to explore the option of flexitime with your employer. Perhaps you’d like to ask if job sharing is possible, or whether you can work only on specific days of the week. What are the rules, though? Does your employer have to offer part-time or flexible working now you’re a parent, or are they under no statutory obligation to do so? Today we take a look at the rules.

In particular, new parents may start to re-think going back to work full time once maternity* leave comes to an end. The nearer their return date gets, the more new parents begin to think about the possible complications that may follow. These may include the ability to drop off or pick up their infant in time from the nursery, or even getting home in time to see them before their bedtime. Being apart can also be a real wrench after spending perhaps every hour of their parental leave with their infant.

Example

Florence works in sales of new homes for a large house builder. She works full time on weekdays, from 9.30 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. The sites where she works can be anywhere from 10 minutes away to over an hour-and-a-half from her home depending upon where she’s based at any particular time of the year.

Florence goes on maternity leave, fully intending to go back full time once it comes to an end. However, when the date for returning nears, she has a change of heart. Firstly, she’ll miss her child growing up too much if she goes back full time. Secondly, this may be compounded if her employer still expects her to work miles and miles away from home. That would make pick-up from the nursery in time impossible — indeed, she would have to find someone else to pick her child up. It may even mean that she will miss her infant’s evening bedtime on working days. She’s concerned that she just won’t get to see her child much and will miss out on a big part of their early childhood if her working pattern isn’t changed.

Florence decides to ask to go back part-time (3 days per week) and makes contact with her employer to make the request.

Considerations when making a Flexible Working Request

The rules state that employees can only make ONE request for a change to their contracted hours/days per year. This must be in writing and is called a ‘Flexible Working Request’. So Florence’s request will need to cover all bases because she won’t get another chance for another request until another year has passed.

So, Florence’s particular application needs to include:

the request to reduce from five-days-a-week to just three;
the request, if applicable, to reduce or alter the working hours so that the timings fit better with nursery drop-off and pick-up times;
a request to only be sent to working locations within shorter distances, so she can still make drop-off and pick-up times for her child’s childcare.

If she misses any of these out, she’ll have to wait another year before being able to re-apply, according to the rules. This assumes her employer is sticking inflexibly to the rules, of course; kind-hearted, family-friendly employers may indeed allow more flexibility but employers are under no statutory obligation to do so.

It’s important to understand is that, while an eligible employee has a right to apply for a flexible working request and their employer is obligated to consider it, they are not obligated to accept it if it means that their business will no longer function properly.

The employee must also have been employed in the job for no less than 26 weeks (6 months) in order to be eligible to make the request, by the way. However, again, some more family-friendly employers may be more flexible even though they’re not obliged to be by law.

The Employer’s Response

The employer must give the employee who makes the Flexible Working Request a decision within 3 months unless the employee agrees to extend that time. This must be done having considered the facts carefully and fairly and without basing it on just a ‘personal’ opinion. They should also discuss the application with the applicant and, if it’s not possible to accept the specific suggestions requested, they should consider whether alternative options are possible.

Unsuccessful Applications

Employers can turn down requests outright if they feel their business will not be able to function properly if the new suggestions are put in place. Examples of reasons why an application for Flexible Working Requests may lawfully be turned down can be seen here. It is possible for the employee to appeal the decision if they feel all factors have not been considered or if the correct policies have not been properly followed. It’s also possible for them to take legal action (an employment tribunal) or to apply to the ACAS Arbitration Scheme in some circumstances (see previous link and scroll down for further information about that).

Successful Applications

If the employer approves the parent’s flexible working application, then the employee’s employment contract will usually need to be updated to reflect the new working pattern. Employers should also confirm the agreed changes in writing, including start dates, working hours, pay, location, holiday entitlement and so on.

Little Cedars Day Nursery: Good Childcare in Streatham

We hope this rough guide to Flexible Working Requests is useful and wish anyone making one the very best of luck for a successful outcome.

We are Little Cedars, an excellent nursery and pre-school in Streatham. We’re also very convenient for those looking for nurseries and childcare services near Streatham Common, Streatham Hill, Streatham Park, Furzedown, Tooting, Tooting Bec, Tooting Broadway, Tooting Common, Balham, Norbury and Colliers Wood. Please contact us with any questions, to arrange a visit or to apply for a place for your child. We’ll be happy to help:

Apply for a Place Arrange a Visit or Message Us 020 8677 9675

*N.B. we say maternity leave throughout this article for the sake of brevity. However, the rules also apply for those who have been on paternity leave, parental leave or even if parents haven’t been on leave at all — and simply want to alter their working days/times to better suit their young families.

28 February 2022/by Mark

Babies, Childcare, Early Years, Maternity, Nurseries, Nursery, Parenting, Pre-schools, Streatham, SW16, Under-5s

Statutory Maternity Leave & Pay (Rough Guide)

When women have a new baby, they will need to take time off work to give birth and to look after the newborn during their first weeks or more. It’s a precious time for both mother and baby and the good news is that employed mothers are legally entitled to maternity leave under UK employment law. Today, we’ll take a look at how much time and money mothers are entitled to under Statutory Maternity Leave and what the eligibility requirements are. We’ll concentrate purely on the rules for mothers who are employees in this post. However, we will follow up to cover paternity leave, shared leave and support for self-employed mothers separately, in future guides.

Statutory Maternity Leave Entitlement

Eligible mothers are entitled to take up to 52 weeks of Statutory Maternity Leave:

The first 26 weeks (i.e. first 6 months), known as Ordinary Maternity Leave;
The last 26 weeks (i.e. months 7 to 12), known as Additional Maternity Leave.

These are the statutory maximums, i.e. mothers do not need to take all 52 weeks off. However, they must take off the first 2 weeks from the date of birth as a minimum, or 4 weeks if they’re factory workers. (They can also arrange to share some of the remaining 50 weeks of their leave with their partner under Shared Parental Leave (‘SPL’) rules, which we’ll cover in the future).

Timing

Statutory Maternity Leave can begin up to 11 weeks prior to the baby’s anticipated due date. It must, however, begin no later than the day after birth if the baby is born early. For eligible mums, Statutory Maternity Leave (& Pay) must also start automatically in the event that the mum-to-be is off work for a medical illness, related to pregnancy, during the 4 weeks prior to the week the baby is due.

Eligibility

The good news is that, to be eligible for Statutory Maternity Leave in the UK, just two main rules apply. You need to:

a). officially be an employee of a company¹ and
b). give your employer the right amount of advanced notice.

How long you have been employed is not a factor and it also doesn’t matter what you are paid or how many hours you work.

^{1. Not a ‘worker’, ‘contractor’, ‘office holder’ nor ‘self-employed’ (like a sub-contractor) under UK employment tax law.}

Notice should be given at least 15 weeks before the baby’s due date. The notice may need to be in writing, depending on your employer’s preference. It needs to confirm the baby’s likely due date and when you would like to begin the maternity leave. Once notified, your employer then has 28 days to officially confirm the beginning and end dates for that leave.

Statutory Maternity Pay (‘SMP’)

Statutory Maternity Pay (‘SMP’) is available to mothers who:

earn £120 minimum per week on average;
have given their employer proof of pregnancy (usually an MATB1 certificate or letter from their doctor/midwife);
have given their employer the correct notice (min. 28 days) of going on Statutory Maternity Leave;
have worked for their employer for a minimum of 26 weeks (6 months) including into the 15th week preceding the anticipated due date;
have not been in police custody during the SMP period.

Those whose income has dropped below an average of £120 per week due to being on furlough during the pandemic may still be eligible for SMP.

How Much Do You Get?

You can receive SMP for up to 39 weeks. For the first 6 weeks, you receive 90% of your average gross weekly earnings. For the remaining 33 weeks if you take them, you receive the lower of £151.97 per week, or 90% of your average gross weekly earnings. They’re paid to you from your employer with tax and National Insurance deducted as if they’re part of your usual wages or salary. (Figures correct at August 2021).

Your Employment Rights

When you are away from work on Statutory Maternity Leave, a number of statutory employment rights are still protected. These include your right to a possible pay rise, your right to accrue holiday leave and your right to return to work when your maternity leave comes to an end.

Company Maternity Schemes

Some employers have their own Maternity/Paternity schemes. These must be at least equal to the statutory leave and pay schemes, however, many offer even greater allowances and benefits. So, always check with your employer or HR department to see what may be available.

Try the Online Tool

There’s a great online tool that you can use to check whether you are eligible to claim maternity/paternity leave and pay (as well as Maternity Allowance, which may help self-employed mums). It’ll also calculate how much you could receive. Head over to the Government tool here, ensure you have everything ready in the ‘Before you start’ section and click the green ‘Start now’ button.

If You’re Not Eligible

If you’re not eligible for Statutory Maternity Leave or Pay, other Government help options may be available. For example, for the self-employed, those who have recently stopped working, or are receiving one or more benefits. Click the bold blue link for more details.

Unpaid Parental Leave

Did you know that it’s possible to take unpaid parental leave if your child is under 18? In fact, eligible employees are entitled to up to 18 weeks off work before their child reaches the age of 18. Rules apply, of course, including a maximum of 4 weeks of unpaid parental leave being allowed in any one year. We cover eligibility and the finer detail in a separate post, so click the bold link earlier in this paragraph for the complete picture.

Outstanding Childcare in Streatham, for Your Baby, Toddler or Under-5

Are you looking for a high quality nursery in Streatham for your baby, toddler or under-five child? Little Cedars Day Nursery offers outstanding childcare in Streatham, close to Streatham Common, Streatham Hill, Streatham Park, Furzedown, Tooting, Tooting Bec, Tooting Common, Balham, Norbury & Colliers Wood. We’re one of the very best nurseries in SW16 and open on weekdays throughout the year. We’d love to show you and your little one around, so you can see the setting in action, and to answer any questions that you might have. Please select an option:

Apply for a Nursery Place Arrange a Visit or Email Us Here Telephone 020 8677 9675

31 August 2021/by Mark