What’s the most unhinged/blatantly untrue thing you’ve been told by a health visitor?

[claudiawinklemansfringetrimmer]

Inspired by the health visitor who confidently told me yesterday that “Pom bears have more saturated fat than a Big Mac” and the ones on a birth preparation course who stated “breast fed babies are 70% more intelligent” and “they didn’t have formula in dinosaur times!” (The latter is technically true I suppose…)

i got told my children would be obese as I was bottle feeding, now slim healthy older teen girls

I had a physiotherapist who told me to stop breastfeeding my son at 15 months as it was the cause of my swollen legs - and that I just needed my partner to massage my feet for me. Turned out I had primary lymphodema. My GP who is wonderful btw was equally shocked by this as he had been by the health visitor.

Eh? Reptiles are not mammals. They don't feed their young

DMum wanred me how bad they could be based on her experiences in 70s and 80.

However first ones I had with pfb were good very helpful.

Then we moved - and entered a doorstepping nightmare. Everything they told us was wrong and they knew nothing about local area at all - even the GP surgery they turned out to be based in they had no idea about.

One fo the worst I had to queue up at council and get the welcome pack or it would count against me - so long queue with toddler and young baby coucnil had no idea what that was - had never done one felt such a fool. HV just shrugged when I told her.

Then other time door stepping threating SS if I didn't let her in - was on way out to a local group she claimed didn't exist - tell her only children center they new about with low numbers has said nothing I could attend as their groups have strict age criteria and nether child matched and couldnlt take both to anything - told me I was stupid and had clearly missunderstood marched to my landline - phoned got told same thing relayed it back to me like I was an idiot and no acknowledgement I had said exact same to her before hand.

I was very lucky we went for a random walk and found a child center opening and spoke to woman running it - she knew everything and was so helpful - from GP surgeries to other local groups to bf support. I think I could have ended up with pnd otherwise as everything was so much harder than I expected and I was tired with effort of trying to get sorted by then.

I was visiting my friend when her HV came for her first visit. We were both agog when the HV told my friend not to complain about her hard day with her baby when her DH got home from his hard day at work.

...

I was told by a new HV that I had to stop co-sleeping with toddler DS because otherwise "there would be consequences" (the implication was that I would get in trouble from someone).

I rushed down to see the GP who was also new. He said he believed the HV over me and that I must stop co-sleeping with DS immediately or face consequences. He was quite threatening about it.

I had to set up a single bedroom for toddler DS to move into immediately, and move him into it.

Then I had to ring the chief HV and report the horrid HV and explain that DS had obstructive apnoea. He could not sleep alone because he repeatedly stopped breathing at night and needed to be supervised.

The chief HV found the mean HV and told her off, which was impressive, as I had got the woman's name wrong. The chief HV said she knew who it was without being told the name.

The mean HB then rang me and was mean again on the phone, which was helpful. Not.

Four weeks later I had a nervous breakdown due to extreme sleep deprivation. I was housebound for most of DS's primary school years. Shortly after I recovered, DS had a nervous breakdown from grinding through the school system without an EHCP and without any NHS help for his many medical problems.

The HV service is a disgrace.

I used to be really pro-NHS, and pro-state schools, but tbh I'm pretty fucked off with the whole shooting match now.

Met my health visitor while I was out buying sandals for my dd for summer, she looked at her shoes which were also new her feet grew rapidly and told me she doesn't need 2 pairs , as if I asked her to pay for them. I wasn't a fan of hers she had previously spoke to my mother instead of me when she came to do check up. She also tried to interject into some decisions I was making about my own life , I chose to ignore her. All other hv I had were lovely even if I didn't see the same one twice for subsequent babies. When they are good they are invaluable when they are bad they are dangerous

Well a cigarette alongside a very strong coffee can certainly get me going in the morning sometimes 😂😂
But as for it actually being good for your bowels, well, I’m pretty certain three’s no studies anywhere that would say that!! 😄

I’ve just noticed your name 🤣 love it!

Has the cabbage leaves thing ever shown to be true? How many here were told that by a health visitor? I know I was!

I am so sorry to hear about so many awful experiences. I was very lucky, like @ilovesushi . My HV was very supportive and reassuring. When one of my DC did not follow the growth line as expected, she pointed out she was probably like me and would be fine, which, luckily, she was.
Conversely, I have also witnessed the enormous challenges faced by parents of SEND children battling to get help and referrals when I worked in a Special School.
I’m sure it can be a very challenging job but empathy should be the key attribute when working with people at such a vulnerable time.

I solely breastfed DD for 4 weeks, I hated it and ended up with raging mastitis, so told my Nazi midwife I was going to switch to mixed feeding. She hotly informed me that if I gave DD so much as a sip of formula, it would immediately negate any 'goodness' from the breast milk.

She also kindly informed me it was 'a shame I didn't love my baby more'. Bitch.

I was told by a new HV that I had to stop co-sleeping with toddler DS because otherwise "there would be consequences" (the implication was that I would get in trouble from someone).

I was told similar in second location and that it would lead to death. Luckily HV and MW in first area had been realistic and told us how to do it safely.

I just lied to the HV about it from then on.

In end my parents and DH came to the weigh in sessions they insited I had to attend - vauge threats about SS if I didn't - there were no weight concerns. Family felt need to show visible and vocal support and HV did evenutally backed off and tried very hard not to see them by myself at any time going forward.

They tried door stepping no appointments with next child and as luck would have it DH was there or my parents and they weren't as vunerable as me. They actually complained to me about it - and I did point out I had no idea they were coming and if they wanted to see just me and the kids an appointment and some warning would be helpful.

That our 18 month old should be able to dress herself at this stage.

All of my 3 were okay too. A lot of the moans people had were things like ‘the HV is the breastapo, etc’ but often it’s because they asked daft questions that they already knew the answer to. ‘HV should I give up breastfeeding’ HV advises them to stick with it (predictably). Make your own decision, then inform them of it was my approach so she just said ‘uh huh, yeah’

I’m sure some of these comments on this thread were actually the health visitor trying to be humorous and the bat shit mumsnetters taking everything to heart.

But the thing is there are risks with co-sleeping like there are risks with everything. But some people are like dogs with bones and just get hold of one thing. There are risks with tiny babies in Moses baskets too as you can easily tip them up.

Maybe the HV had been involved in a horrific case where a baby had died and it shadowed their judgement?

But you see it all the time on mumsnet, people say things are ‘dangerous’ when they actually mean ‘the risk of this isn’t zero’

But the thing is there are risks with co-sleeping like there are risks with everything. But some people are like dogs with bones and just get hold of one thing. There are risks with tiny babies in Moses baskets too as you can easily tip them up.

Maybe the HV had been involved in a horrific case where a baby had died and it shadowed their judgement?

But you see it all the time on mumsnet, people say things are ‘dangerous’ when they actually mean ‘the risk of this isn’t zero’

this was a midwife, but when I had DD 17 years ago, we had attended 3 ante natal sessions where they banged on and on about the importance of breastfeeding and how it was best, and they said that a midwife would come out to every feed if necessary to help you. In hospital every midwife showed me a different way to feed and then gave me a leaflet on formula when I was struggling to feed.

Went home, the midwife rang to say my midwife was sick and did they need to send somebody else out or was I ok. I said that I was still really struggling to breastfeed, and she said

"you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink".

At that point, I gave up trying to breastfeed. So much for their help .

Pom bears are utter shite though tbf.

Mine talked about how my son had sickle cell. Which he doesn’t. He has an unusual haemoglobin type but it’s not sickle.

Then she got annoyed when I challenged her and told me to tidy up. It was a day post discharge or a post-partum hypertensive crisis. And less than 2 weeks post CS.

I have zero interest in listening to anything most Health Visitors have to say. All except one were judgemental, unhelpful, and unpleasant.

My absolutely lovely GP had just returned to work part time after having her first child. I was visiting her with my 5 month old second DC. I mentioned something my HV had said about my DC that I disagreed with. The GP said she declined any further visits from her HV as one was more than enough and now she knew her patients definitely weren't over exaggerating.

The USA has no health visitors (apart from a few rare cases.) A health visitor would have saved my ad ,dopted children the hell of there first years.

My mum is a retired health visitor. She had colleagues give out bad advice - as a mother of five she thought HVs should only be mothers themselves, though her best friend, a HV for years in the Traveller community was unmarried and really good. I guess it's a lack of common sense that is the issue.

My HV warned me that I needed to pay special attention to my FB when their subling was born as most mass murderers are first born children ! 😲

This was surely a joke? 😂🤦🏻‍♀️