So what is the point of Health Visitors?

[wonderstuff]

I've seen 3 so far, they all seem very nice, but really not very useful.

Today lovely lady came by, did PND questionnaire, weighed my baby. Talked about weaning - advised that some babies (especially boys) are ready for weaning at 4 months, to be aware of him taking interest in us eating couldn't give any advise about BLW as no reseach has been done and she doesn't want to get sued - fair enough, but seemed strange that on the weaning age she was willing to contradict research evidence. She also warned of 'missing weaning window at 6 months' I didn't ask what would happen - will I end up bfeeding forever, Little Britain style? Told me breastfeeding was tiring (there was me thinking it was the lack of sleep that was knackering but presumbably if I bottle fed I'd have much more energy?) She stayed for half an hour.

Really what is the point - could money be better spend on Midwifery or Social care?

Mines is entirely useless, as is the other one at our local health centre. We had problems when I took DS to weigh clinic only to be told that he might have a potential 'growth issue'. No discussion, no questions asked about how he was feeding etc. Just that one statement. I got quite upset, especially as she said I should see the GP. Made an appointment for the following day, and my GP took one look at DS and said he was born small, so he has to catch up. He spent ages going through all the questions the HV should have asked, and I was massively reassured by him.

At one point during the conversation, he said that everything seemed fine with me and DS until we went to clinic, and if I had any future concerns, to make an appointment to see him. HV wasn't too great on the BF front either, she was a bit clueless wrt my questions, and gave really bad misleading advice. I eventually managed to get great BF advice from an NHS breastfeeding councillor (who was mystified as to why my hv had said some of the things she had)

Needless to say, I don't see my HV anymore. I go to see the GP if I have any concerns as my HV is pointless and gives me unwanted stress!

I realise this thread hasn't had a post for a while but I had to come on here and vent. Remember reading this thread when it started and identifying hugely! Well, the HV home visit I just had to see my 10 day old baby hasn't really changed my view, to put it mildly.

1. She turned up with 2 hours notice. Left a message on phone to say her name and that she was coming and to expect her. But not what role she had. When she arrived, I thought she was the midwife (who we are also expecting today). It took a few minutes to clear up the confusion.

1. She spent the entire time talking about her own family; she did pause to throw some leaflets about SIDS and pelvic floor exercises at me and then continued to rabbit. She then offered some advice on social activities to be thinking about for when our DD1 is 5. WTF She is currently 2.5 years and doing very nicely thanks.

1. Told us this was her 'hobby job' and that she would be getting a proper job when she'd finished her MBA in 4 weeks time. WTF

1. we have been having problems breastfeeding owing to reflux, poor latch, etc etc etc. Slowly getting there though. She wanted to measure DS when he was clearly starving and getting crosser and crosser. God knows why she couldn't do it after he'd fed, as she stayed for nearly an hour.

Oh, and she asked me whether I was sleeping well at night. Er, no, I replied, my baby is 10 days old and breastfed. 'don't you express so someone else can take over?' she replied. Er, that'll be a no too, as it would likely cock up our efforts to establish breastfeeding and a solid milk supply which we have been struggling with. And would be a total PITA in any case.

Well I will stop now before I explode!

Jaffa, Ghostly - are you still out there. Do you have any comments or shall I rest my case?

The health visitors that I've come across have been useless. First of all they blank refuse to measure a baby's length, saying that it isn't exact. Well, there's a chart for baby length in the red book so those of us who want to know how our babies are doing should be allowed to without having to explain ourselves. For me it was important as my baby's weight was quite high for her age. They said that as she was breast feeding they wouldn't do anything about it (implying that my diet wasn't good and I was making my baby fat), but as she was getting too long for all her clothes I started measuring her myself (with great difficulty, I might add) and surprise, surprise. It turns out her length centile is even higher than her weight centile. Now every time I take her to be weighed they start quizzing me about what she's eating and I have to explain to them that she's not overweight (you can see how skinny she is), just long for her age.

Whenever I've gone to see them with a problem, the standard response has been "I've never heard of that". Apparently my baby is the only baby in history who was ready to be weaned at 18 weeks and made it known to us that she didn't want just milk. She's also the only one who struggles to fall asleep in her cot during the day. When she suffered from colic she was the only baby that putting her on her tummy across my legs didn't work for.

In order to qualify as a health visitor I think you must've had textbook babies.

Oh, and when my daughter started refusing to be breastfed (over 4 months old) the HV told me that I should just start expressing and feed her with a bottle.

Yeah... sure... I'll do that... It's hard enough as it is to fit in breastfeeding with running errands and everything you need to do during the day. Add to that having to sit and express every 3-4 hours, then sterilise the equipment for next time, then bottle feed her... I know I have a baby, but does that mean I have to become a prisoner in my own home???

Next time I go to have her weighed I'll just have "bad mother of the year 2010" tattooed on my forehead beforehand. Then they can go straight to looking disapprovingly at me without having to go through the whole conversation bit first.

I think there must be systemic problems with training of HVs, monitoring and review of their work, and continuous professional development, at least in my area. i am also sure they are very under-paid for the work they do.

I have seen so many bad ones over course of 3 years that i can't conclude otherwise. one that particularly irritated me told me with a shocking lack of medical knowledge that paracetamol lost effectiveness over time and that was the reason for the recommendation to not take it for more than 3 days .

"I always thought they were basically there to come and give you and your home a once-over in case you needed to be brought to the attention of social services."
100% true...they came to mine, decided that my DP was aggressive (they had done nothing except criticise me as had bad PND...btw, "aggressive" he was waving an empty plastic lucozade bottle and talking in his usual loud voice!!)...reported us to social services...got dragged thru child protection conference (PND was not getting any better I might add!)! After more checks, SS decided that there was no risk so case dropped....never spoke to a HV since. Don't see the point of them AT ALL!

Worth their weight in gold. Round my way they are anyway, in Barnes/Sheen area. I went into motherhood knowing nothing about babies - have found them invaluable. Not a waste of public money. My DC and me might be more unhappy without them.

We have had the same HV since our first child was born in 2008. At that point she only complained about the three steps up to our front door, because - I presume - of her large mass. Now, 3 years later, after the birth of our 3rd child, she is so "mobility-challenged", she is unable to visit us. This means that my wife, within a few days of a home birth, had to get herself and three children under the age of 4 to the Health "Come and Visit Me" Visitor in order to conduct very basic health checks.

If situations like this continue, the NHS is in all kinds of trouble....

well that's an INTERESTING first post, archman

This post is a year old!

Mines gives dangerous misleading advice. She told us that DS was overweight and eating far too much and we had to 'spin him out with water', telling me 'that it's not cruel to let him cry it out and just give him water but it is cruel to feed him whenever he wants.' When I refused she told us that if I didn't give him water he would end up in hospital with dehydration! (after telling me he was feeding too much), I made an appointment with the GP and was told that he was perfectly healthy and in no way dehydrated.

She also didn't bother to look at my notes closely enough to see that I wasn't 16! She revealed this is the age she thought I was around her 5th visit... I'm 21.

She also tried to diagnose eczema and told me I needed to use special cream for it when all he had was nappy rash, the pharmacist also told me he was too young to use the cream she had said.

She asked me what contraception I was using when I was 3 weeks post birth, I told her I hadn't decided yet and would probably just use condoms as hormonal medications do not agree with me and I was told 'well that just isn't good enough' and literally forced a leaflet for the FPC into my hands after I told her I knew where it was and would go if I wanted to.

She came one morning early after I had had no sleep and had been very ill, obviously I looked a bit worse for wear but I explained the situation and she suggested parenting classes!

There has been much more as well, including her demanding I take her advice as according to her she's a professional...

She really makes my blood boil and I feel much better for that huge little rant.

I hadn't noticed this was a year old when I posted!

I think I need to set the record straight her.e
HVs are there to protect babies/ family health in the interest of the wider public health agenda.
i.e. it costs the NHS biliions of pounds caring for people who have weight related illnesses such as diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular disease .......breastfeeding and healthy eating in childhood help to prevent these, which is why HVs promote breastfeeding, discuss weaning and baby excercise such as allowing toddlers to walk rather than being confined to a buggy. Also millions of pounds are spent on infections and baby related injury/ accidents which is why we discuss accident prevention, sterilising bottles, breastfeeding etc.
We also help to identify eye, hearing, developmental issues, speech and language which again cause problems with education. This then leads to long term unemployment which costs the economy dearly if problems are left uncorrected or unidentified.
We also promote vaccination to prevent serious disease that lead to dosability including ensuring that babies who are likely to contract TB are immunised.
We are also trained through UNICEF to provide baby friendly breastfeeding advice/ support.
We also assess families in terms of risks looking at factors which influence a childs development and chances in life holistically i.e. paternal employment, drug and alcohol misuse, relationships, post-natal depression which may lead to a childs death or hospitalisation if not addressed.
This also includes writing reports for social services in relation to a child if any concerns are raised elsewhere, discussing concerns with parents and child protection issues. There are many times when children may have ended up as social care referrals, that had the HV been contacted and had intervened it could have been avoided.
Believe me my life as a HV is certainly not cushy!

oops! Disability!

I've seen 2 in the time I've had DS. Bearing in mind he's not mine biologically and the first was involved in the SS meetings I had when going through assessments, she asked me if I was going to BF as it has added benefits to the baby! After my extremely puzzed look she did realise and apologised and said she was just so used to having to ask that question. After he was placed she came to tell me to get as much food over his face as possible to prevent him being a fussy eater later on. Needess to say, I kept his face relatively clean and he doesn't refuse anything! I just agreed with everything she told me at the time and then did it my way :) Unfortunately I had no choice but to see this HV for a while as her reports were valuable in the assessments. She was quite nice in all honestly - just never told me anything that was useful.

The second one, when I moved areas was just simply annoying. She always tried to pressure me into attending these mother and baby groups. I attend 'other' groups every week - ice skating, music/drama etc but these weren't good enough to her. She actually said I need to dedicate 5 days a week to him and then have 2 days off! I told her that I actually dedicate every to him and have no days off.

She also told me he didn't need to be talking so much when he was about 15 months. I couldn't resist asking what she recommends I do about it - tell him off for talking? And then she had to backtrack a bit and say "oh there's nothing wrong with it, I was just saying he can say a lot". They expect you to have a problem and when you don't, they have to make up some unhelpful rubbish to tell you just so they feel they're doing their job I think.

I decided not to see any again! They're of no benefit to me whatsoever.

I know this is ancient but my hv is bloody lovely. Even though I know more about my childrens needs (were both premature), more about breast feeding prems and expressing, more about PTSD and anxiety and even though I managed to get myself diagnosed without her input I still think she great.She genuinely cares about me and my ds and still checks in onus from
Time to time because she cares!

It must be hard just being kind to people and having it continually thrown back in your face.

Complete waste of taxpayers money to send them round lecturing eveyone on stuff which anyone half intelligent can work out. They should focus on helping people with real difficulties

I am a SW in Children's services and obviously work closely with HV's (and MW's).

I found my own useless when it came to any SN advice and had to tell her to leave my house, on one occassion, as she was talking utter rubbish (and the opposite of my DD's doctor). She didn't know my (or most of my families) job roles and got quite threatening about "having to make a referal".

The one's that i work alongside are excellent. The training seems to have improved, alot. However reading threads on here it seems that there isn't a consistancy with the quality and service provided, nationally and this is what needs addressing.

My HV is the best, She has been 100% supportive, Our DS is autistic and she comes to all of our appointments with him, She calls every other week to see how we're getting on, Arranged a Homestart volunteer to give us support AND has supported me when I was diagnosed with depression.

I really honestly don't think I'd cope with our DS if it wasn't for her. We saw her in town last week when we were shopping and DS was having a meltdown she came over and helped me out.

More to the point she never ever judges us at all.

However the HV I had with my eldest was the complete opposite, Absolutely useless!

Mines lovely. Have got some good advice, particularly on common baby practice here (putting baby outside to sleep) which hasn't been done in the UK for years. She didn't laugh very much at me swaddling DS, because that hasn't been done here for years. But she's very open minded. PLus my Mum is a retired HV.

we had one that lectured us because baby was losing weight.

turns out she couldn't plot a graph to save her life

i help with bf support and was talking to the hv and they said there new jobs were to act as social services on the cheap, none were happy about this.

the hv used at baby weigh in clinics were not required to be as trained anymore

Mine was nice but not particularly useful. She mostly seemed to see her role as having a chat and telling me what a great job I was doing.

I've got friends who have similar experiences to people on here, e.g. HVs telling them to stop b-fing and formula feed instead, or telling them the (perfectly healthy) baby is underweight for its age because it's in the bottom centile. The thing is, someone has to be in the bottom centile, don't they?

Quite funny to read AnxiousElephant's eloquent exposition of the HV's role and compare it to the reality as outlined by so many people on here.

Mine were lovely, supportive, complimentary etc. But pretty useless/harmless. Never returned a phone cal etc. Luckily I never had a real issue.