Melbourne mother ‘horrified’ after picking up baby covered in scratches

Warning: This story contains graphic content.

A Melbourne mother says she was "horrified" to pick up her 10-week-old baby from a childcare centre, bleeding and covered in scratches.

The woman, who goes by Rachel and doesn't want to be identified, claims the childcare centre told her it was an accident that occurred while her baby was briefly unsupervised.

Noah's face was left completely covered with scratches.

She told 9News the Only About Children centre in Melbourne Central told her he had been scratched by another child.

"I felt lots of pain in my heart, I didn't even want to click the images because they were too graphic," she said.

"It was such a horrible thing that could happen to our boy, we couldn't accept this."

She has concerns about the explanation she received from the centre.

"They explained that this happened accidentally but we just can't accept this explanation," she said.

"More than 20 scratches on Noah's face, how can this happen accidentally?

Only About Children did not respond to requests for comment on Monday but the early childhood regulator has been notified.

"The service has put in place measures to address this incident including reviewing its procedures at nappy change times to include an additional educator at these times," a Department of Education spokesperson said.

"The department takes the safety, security and wellbeing of every child extremely seriously."

Rachel took Noah to the Box Hill Hospital where doctors told her the scratches should heal without scarring.