Health visitors

[rendeer]

Can anyone give advice here?

10mo dc.

Attachment parenting which includes baby-led routines including sleep schedule.
I have a chronic illness so shan't be returning to work or putting dc into nursery. (relevant)

Health visitor attends today and demands me to go there to get dc weighed despite me having my own baby scales to keep track of weight.

Health visitor also says I need to put dc into a routine whereby they are asleep by 8pm and wake up around 7am.
As previously said, I don't work, dc doesn't go to nursery so I'm not sure why these sleep/ wake times must be implemented.

Are health visitors mandatory now?

Do they report to social services with "concerns" if I don't go there?

Can they demand I change my parenting style to put dc into a routine?

@rendeer I totally agree with you about the scales too, it's always better to weigh them on only one set of scales rather than lots of different ones.

My DS was slow to gain weight and one of the things stressing me out was someone different coming over to my home every day with a different set of scales to weigh him. When I look back in his red book the numbers are all over the place. And don't get me started on all the absolutely dreadful an varying breastfeeding advice!

You don't have to go to the clinic, but is the hv concerned about your ability to care for your dc? are you getting out sometimes perhaps to a free toddler group once a week? Exact routines are not necessary so young but mostly they should be awake in the day and asleep at night (mine slept 10pm to 9am at that age). Whilst you can set your own schedules, once your dc is 3 (2 if you are low income) they get free nursery hours and whilst not compulsory, it's a red flag to hv's and sw's when parents don't want to engage with society kind of. There's been lots of high profile child neglect cases so they are very wary of parents who won't engage with them - my advice is to minimally engage now so they leave you alone, go along be weighed a couple of times, nod and take their advice - you can ignore it when you get home!

There are regular threads about the poor quality advice given by some HVs...do they just make stuff up as they go along depending on their own prejudices or is there mandatory supervision and training to weed out the poor attitudes? Speaking as an ex CPN we were regularly reviewed on knowledge and approach ..seems like some HV just go their own way .