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…)

@Lifelover16 so in effect you prove my point. you are highly unusual to have qualified as a HV at 22. it was also almost 40 years ago and the option to start some sort of nurse training at 17 ended in the 90’s.
i didn’t say never, i said highly unlikely and by the standards of at least the last ten years almost impossible.

im not a HV but i work very closely with them. some, like any profession are questionable but most do a very good job particularly with vulnerable families and those where there are child protection concerns.
this type of thread pops up
periodically and HV’s are generally lumped in as all mad, bad and dangerous busy bodies.

anyone who currently has a HV that they are unhappy with can discuss their concerns with the locality manager. things can’t change if there is no feedback.

i can only talk about the team i work with but the supervision is robust and certainly not a tick box. they have regular case audits, 1:1’s reviewing complex cases, safeguarding supervision and open access to a management team daily for case discussion, risk assessment and practice guidance.

I know this is off topic, but I was 17 in 2009 when I started uni to do nurse training. I believe it’s still possible, but student nurses have to turn 18 by their first placement. I had a colleague the same age as me who also did the same, I don’t think it’s very common though. Most people on my intake were mature students.

@PDZeus same here I was 17 when I started uni as were many of my cohort in 2005

there must have been some local variations because where i am nurse training begins at the point of staring uni post a levels so all are 18. i can’t think of anywhere in england where you can be 7 and staring uni due to how the school and academic years run. this was the case 15 years ago when i interviewed for pre reg nurses at uni. as a project 2000 nurse in the 90’s i started when age 17 recruitment was being phased out and by the time i qualified was not available as the full migration from school of nursing to university entry was complete.
either way 22 year old health visitors were and are as rare as rocking horse shit and i know my trust would not recruit straight onto the scphn training from pre reg or without experience as a registered nurse demonstrating they met the minimum experience criteria.

maybe the recruitment needs an overhaul f the UK is littered with these dangerous and batshit practitioners causing havoc at every twist and turn

I was 17 when I started my nursing course in 2003, only exclusion was I wasn’t able to do night shifts as part of placement until I turned 18. I think I was in one of the last cohorts that could qualify after 3 years - hons year was not compulsory - so technically due to when my birthday fell I would’ve qualified before I was 21. Unfortunately I had to leave with 6 months to go due to a life changing injury.

I think I had a rare HV as she never gave unhinged or untruths, very lovely and supportive 💖

I suspect they don't and never have existed.

In fairness, my mother may have made it up. Wouldn't put it past her! Glad you lived to tell the tale!

I’m so dismayed to read all of these from recent mums. My DC is over 25 and I had hoped it would have changed. I’m sure there are good HVs out there too. With interpersonal skills that are more focussed on baby and mums health as opposed to mums saggy boobs and boxes that needed unpacking 24 hours after a house move (like my Hv seemed to be focussed on).

So poor was my experience it put me off having a second child.

I had another HV that encouraged me to have a second baby when Dc was a year old. We were very poor and on the breadline of poverty and she said ‘just do it and you’ll get free housing from the council’. Utter crock when we were just starting to get back on our feet. Also irresponsible as I was 18 at the time!

@PDZeus DipHE entry courses weren't phased out until around 2010. It meant that you could start on the DipHE and then if their attainment allowed do additional modules for the BSc +/-hons so you received a non repayable bursary for the first 2 years or topup to the degree after. The entry requirements for those were gcse/btecs and you could certainly start at 17
When I qualified in London there was a huge drive to recruit trainee schpn posts and I know many newly qualified nurses who went straight onto the course (albeit with 6 months ward experience as we were a March cohort)
There are currently 2 trainee scphn posts on nhs jobs that don't require any experience and the majority only have experience as desirable rather than essential. None of them have any requirements about being a parent or any specific life experiences.

That’s kind of my point. The focus is more on case audit, safeguarding and complex cases. So the majority of us, I imagine including those of us posting in here, do not fall into the category of a ‘complex case’ or needing safeguarding. It somehow seems that just the average case receives tick box generic ‘advice’. There isn’t the time or the resource to give HV the space for reflective supervision where lots of these interpersonal / relational issues can be addressed. Like many have said, it may be that only those with safeguarding / risk involve benefit HV involvement as things stand.

@Plastictrees the point is also that women should be told clearly that the service is optional and that there is no obligation to engage with it and certainly no obligation to sit and wait in a grubby baby clinic for a baby to be weighed, unnecessarily. I did it once, as instructed. I took my four week old baby to a filthy waiting room, alongside sick people, at a huge GP practice where the hvs operated from. Presumably they thought the environment was acceptable.

To this day, I cannot think of a single question, I'd have directed to an HV.

If I had concerns about the health or development of my babies I sought the advice of a suitably qualified doctor and if more was needed they were referred to a suitably qualified and experienced paediatrician: dd's umbilical hernia was reviewed by a paediatrician, ds's intractable wheezing/asthma was referred to a consultant at the Royal Brompton, their rank ears were referred to an ENT consultant.

Mothers at school, meanwhile, were being fobbed off, particularly about ear issues "because glue ear resolves naturally and they catch up and reach average by 7." Stuff that, my DC weren't average!

If the service is under resourced then it needs to better manage its resources. Midwives could easily flag families at risk - they ask multiple social questions. Women not identified at risk could attend prior to birth in a group, be given information about immunisation schedules, general feeding and worrisome flags or even sent an online link. I assume the red book must now be available as an App?

anyone who currently has a HV that they are unhappy with can discuss their concerns with the locality manager. things can’t change if there is no feedback

And feedback is no use if its ignored or disparaged.

Posters self describing as HVs have said that women describing problems with the service are liars or, that well known NHS line for women - we were "mistaken”.

When I raised issues of factually incorrect advice (dangerously factually incorrect) and the casual racism underlying some of that advice I was dismissed. Full NHS defensive mode engaged and the only point they accepted was that they are not legally entitled to enter our homes and the service is optional.

We are in our own homes usually without witnesses to back us up. Accepting the feedback requires the NHS to admit to an error or a quality failure. That HV continued to give the same dangerously wrong advice to other women, not all of whom felt able to ignore her.

Why would women bother to keep feeding back on any service when we are dismissed in that way?

Red book is still a same format red book can you believe!!

Unbelievable! I would nowadays expect to be able to access the full notes via an App, just like my GP notes.

The locality manager was not very helpful when I complained initially, ignoring my request to disengage from the service when I confirmed that's what I wanted.

Only when I formally complained to the CEO of the Trust was my complaint taken seriously and upheld.

Let's be clear. I only had the confidence to take the complaint forward because DH and I were professionals, in our 30s and very privileged. I did it because not only was the service and transparency atrocious, I realised many couldn't as easily or safely complain.

What was notable was that despite being indigenous, UMC professionals, I was still patronised and encountered a far from respectful attitude. I suspect they discriminate against other women regardless of other protected characteristics.

To give my son cheese sandwiches for tea to help him sleep. He was 4 months old and breast fed

I know. I was surprised to get one for our second last year. That being said, maternity notes have moved to an app which used to crash & lock me out a lot so I wouldn’t say it’s a good replacement.

Good on you for committing though & seeing it through. I discussed declining them for our second as not only were they unhelpful, they delayed our first accessing appropriate care (for what turned out to be a genetic disorder) but the general consensus was just tolerate a couple of visits & move on with my life as it may raise questions if I decline. Not sure how true it turns out that is! Did you not have them come in at all?

Not at all after four interactions with DS. I didn't see them again from when he was 8 weeks old. His vaccinations were done by the practice nurse who did them in any event. I never had any of the developmental checks. If I'd been worried about growth or milestones I'd have requested a referral to a paediatrician, caveated by the fact that I could afford to pay privately.

With dd I wrote and confirmed they were not to visit because I did not want their services.

When the children went to hospital there was always a space on the paperwork where you had to write the name of your hv. I always wrote, I had declined the service due to experiencing inadequate standards and poor advice. Nobody ever contacted me.

Both the children were wheezy, DS quite badly and both had recurrent ear infections. I'm not sure what a health visitor could have advised that qualified doctors couldn't. Our GP told us and others that grommets weren't available on the NHS because the DC's speech was so well developed. HVs were telling mothers grommets weren't required for glue ear because it resolved by age 7. We paid. The DC were put of pain immediately and off ab's thereafter. DD was a clear and early speaker as was DS. When I parked the car when I got back from the hospital after dd's grommets it was under a tree and the birds were singing. She was clearly excited, she clearly hadn't heard the birds or at least as well previously.

Most people I know who had affected children had to pay privately for grommets. It’s truly shocking that children should be left with impaired hearing whilst their speech is developing and then for up to three important early years at school as the so called glue ear is expected to resolve itself. This is aside from the constant need for AB’s which is obviously not desirable from several points of view.
Fortunately my own DC were not affected, though my neighbours’ DS was, as was my DIL, and many parents we know paid privately if they could afford it. They were all born in the 70’s and 80’s, I’m appalled that this is still happening, I didn’t realise.

It was mid to late 90s for our DC. Amazing that they survived without HV input really 😀. I believe it's still the case.

I agree, we also went private and saw appropriately qualified professionals for our DC (who are still very young). I appreciate not everyone can do this though, and I’ve got several friends being fobbed off currently. It isn’t made clear that HV is an optional service. In my case, here in Scotland, I see no point opting out as the service is so infrequent! And no, we still have the red book - certainty no app!

edit: I’ve just remembered, during my second HV appointment the HV marked my child down as being in the 2nd centile for weight… he was previously 95th! He was having some feeding difficulties (which went undetected by HV - I went private to have tongue tie diagnosed) and was a FTM so understandably stressed. She just announced this significant drop and promptly left, offering no advice or suggestions. About half an hour later we checked the red book, and saw that she’d put him at 5 months old rather than 6 weeks and he was at the 91st centile! We all make mistakes, but the HV just walking away when I was so concerned is just not okay and we did complain about it. It would be so much more effective (and less errors I’m sure) if the system was digitalised.

Were you there when this HV supposedly said this @Campingisnexttogodliness ?

I have had to correct incorrectly plotted points on both my maternity growth charts and in my baby’s red book.

It’s shocking how many HCPs seemingly do not know how to plot a point correctly?!