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 once saw my health visitor while I was out walking in the town centre with my 2/3 month old, who was wrapped up nice & snug in the pram. It was probably around April/May, and a lovely sunny, but cool & crisp day. I was told off by the HV who said I should have kept the baby at home and not ventured out for my own (clearly selfish) benefit.

When my eldest was a week old & breastfed. I was told she was concerned about his weight loss & I should top him up with formula as he wasn’t getting enough nutrients from me. He was over 10lbs born btw & had only lost 4oz

it very nearly stopped me breast feeding. I don’t take any notice of anything they said after that

I had one advise me that we needed to work on my almost 1 year old’s clapping. She wasn’t clapping yet and it was in the 12 month review. Cue anxious first time mum worrying something was wrong with her. Absolutely nothing was wrong with her, she just wasn’t into clapping!

On a positive note, I will forever be grateful to the midwife who showed me how to breastfeed lying down. Bless her. I really needed that advice.

God I hate this sort of attitude. Your friend was amused 🙄 Just because the health visitor was young, it doesn't mean she doesn't know anything. If she was 22 she might actually have a couple of children herself if she started young plus she had obviously trained for a few years so there may well have been some really good advice from her.

My sister in law was apparently told to carry on smoking as giving up during pregnancy is more stressful 🙄😲

Also had a health visitor tell me she had been considering buying our house before we bought it, but the house would be too costly to renovate. She was very interested in the house and it felt so intrusive as she was there in an official capacity but wanting a good snoop. I refused all visits after that as I didn’t want her in my home.

Told me off for putting newborn ds down to nap on his tummy. I had put him down on his back but we would often find him on his stomach. The only possible explanation was that he was rolling himself over. She told me it was impossible for a baby to roll over and I must be putting him down on his stomach. Even when myself and 3 year old dd witnessed ds rolling over she said we were making it up. I wasnt and he was rolling over by himself at a really early age but she just would not beleave me.

@MadgeHawthorne I'm sure there are, and you were a very good health visitor. As you say, there are good and bad in every profession, just as I deal with good and bad professionals in my job every day.

However there is no need to take it personally. Be proud of what you do and your high standards.

Mums having the option to vent on here is an important outlet as I'm sure you realise. It is also a rich source of humour. These days we need as much of that as we can find.

My complaint was upheld, our HV forcefully removed our sons hearing aids and said if she ever saw them again she would report us to SS as he would swallow them and die, plus if we spoke slowly he wouldn’t need hearing aids. She also told me I was responsible for his birth mother abusing him, apparently people who become parents by adoption have some sort of voodoo power over birth parents.

My eldest is 24 & that advice was common from doctors back then. I chose to stop smoking immediately when I found out I was pregnant but most from where I lived didn’t stop because they were given this same advice. We were told if we could cut down a bit that would be good but not to worry if not as it’s more harmful to the baby to have a stressed mother than the harm from smoking

To take baby once a week to see In laws who had put my mental health at severe risk during the birth and after .

Actually, fully breastfeeding, without pumping so frequent regular feeding, can actually as a contraceptive for the first few months, up until 6 months if when mum's periods have not returned. Known as lactational amenorrhea method.
Though I suspect having a newborn to look after is a much more effective contraceptive.....

Idound out u was pregnant on the Monday,gave birth on the Saturday and went straight into crashing pnd

I was sat on the sofa breastfeeding ds when I burst into tears,telling her my baby hated me and how I wasn't coping

She patted me on the head,told me not to be so silly and fucked off

I ended up trying to throw ds out if a window a week later (I have zero memory of this and the guilt will never leave me)

When I complained I was told she would have been in a rush to get to the next new mum

I never saw her again but the next one told me nits don't exist and bottle feeding is like feeding a baby weedkiller

My own HV was very good. I believe in HVs, I think it’s a good service for a caseload that can rapidly become vulnerable even if it wasn’t before. But that means keeping a fairly tight grip on training and execution.

Tbf, this thread covers a couple of decades at a minimum.

God that sounds shocking.I hope your poor mum died in peace , got better help in the end?

That my 1 year old son was overweight and I needed to restrict his food as some boys “don’t have an off switch”. his weight had gone from 25th centile at birth to 75th centile at 1. She didn't measure his height. At his 2 year old check he was 75th centile for both weight and height and has always been tall and slim, normal weight at reception and year 6 checks and now a 5’8” ish slim 13 year old. Thank god I totally ignored her as what she said didn’t make sense. I’m 5’3” and his dad is 6ft so I assumed my body restricted his weight a bit in the womb and by the time he got to 1 he was taking after his dad in terms of height.

That milk doesn’t count as a drink.

I was with my young DS and the appointment was about bed wetting. She wanted him to drink more, but drinking milk wouldn’t count apparently. I did query it but there was no explanation given.

Reptiles don't breastfeed...! Only mammals breastfeed, that's why we're called mammals, we have mammaries.

(Not the point of the thread I know.)

Some reptiles secrete stuff through their skin for their young to lick off. But they don't breastfeed and neither did dinosaurs

Our health visitor I suppose was fine. She always smelled strongly of cigarettes and perfume, came dressed to the nines and never really engaged with the babies/toddlers or tried to build any rapport.
My son's two year check. She wanted him to pile 5 blocks up. He wasn't enjoying being told what to do and she got louder and louder with him until he put his hands behind his back and said 'you do it'.
One time we saw her we'd come from the park and instead of saying something supportive and encouraging she said she wouldn't go there as it was full of dog muck.

I went to visit the health centre with my first baby and when I gave my date of birth she said, you are very old! I was 26!

Can I just say that I am one of those babies! My mum was told theses exact words ‘when she’s hungry she’ll eat’. I didn’t…

At the age of 50 last year I was finally diagnosed with autism. Having learned about it and found out what ‘interoception’ is it totally made sense - I just wasn’t aware I was hungry!

’Interoception is the sensory system that provides information about how our body is feeling. Some autistic people may be under or over sensitive to certain internal body signals and not recognise when they are hungry or full’

by the way I have a healthy appetite and eat nearly everything now so anyone experiencing this have faith.

PS my son too - now 19 and will eat most things, but wouldn’t eat ANY food until 10 months…

I had a positive experience with my HV. And I know other mums in my area also liked our local HV.

She was down to earth and supportive. I hope she knew she made a positive difference.

That was the joke

A qualified youngish pharmacist measured the circumference of my ankle and wrote it down, 4 cm. I got her to think about it after she wrote it down.