Bloody HV

[NinjaPanda34]

I could write a book about my health visitor. Today she said "oh x's eye looks really sore", er you silly moo, it's a birth mark and it's the same fcuking birthmark that you comment on every time you come. It's red. It's a birthmark. There is nothing wrong with his eye.
Sigh.

Don't diss the health visitors, they may
Be annoying and interfering but that how problems and issues out found out. They may be the only
Contact some woman have or they only person to see when things are going wrong.

My HV insisted that DD didn't have the eye problem I thought she had. Complete with a lot of condescending 'Well, dear, I think I am more experienced than you...'.

Two years later DD was diagnosed with the condition I'd always thought she had, and it was too late for treatment to be effective
How I wish I'd never met that HV.

So I can't 'diss' the HV who obviously thought I had bruised my tiny baby? When she could have just looked in my red book and noted that it was a Mongolian blue spot?

I agree, some are great and some are the only support for women. Doesn't mean we can't say how shit some of them are.

I meant not all are bad by my
Post I was rushing the message as lo is screaming in my ear, but I know some are useless. Mine was great, I had PND and she came everyday until my lo was 6 weeks just for a visit and lifted prescriptions a few times and visited us in hospital many a times. Lovely lady

My first HV team was a HV, staff nurse and nursery nurse who all took it in turns to see me. The staff nurse was nice. The nursery nurse told me i was feeding DD for too long and it should only take 20 mins. I tried that that afternoon and after a hellish 3 hours, went back to demand feeding DD for as long as she wanted. She was still a slow feeder 16 months on and now aged 5 takes an hour to eat her dinner .

I moved house when DD was 6 weeks and the new HV was lovely as were the ones I met when I took her for weigh ins etc. I remember being worried about how to stop breastfeeding when I went back to work and she said, don't give it a second thought it will just work itself out. She was right and I continued to bf mornings and evenings even when back at work. I had to go away for 3 days once and DD adjusted to bfing again straight away. There was one loon who randomly told me in front of another HV that DD's forehead was massive and that it was a cause for concern. The other HV just rolled her eyes. There is nothing wrong with DD's forehead and its not particularly massive unlike my own.

Just to give another perspective; HVs are a vital part of the multi-disciplinary team when parents are seriously struggling to cope with young children and social services are involved. They are the eyes and ears in the community for young children who are neglected and/or abused and may not otherwise come into contact with other professionals into they start school. I've not yet met a health visitor who isn't extremely over-worked.

I'm not condoning poor practice by the way but just passing comment on the general role of a health visitor for certain groups of people.

The very fact that they maybe the only contact some women have is all the more reason to be aware that some of them are crap.

I agree red but sadly, there are people in every profession who lack empathy, common sense and really shouldn't be in the job at all.

Mine turned up without an appointment and got really cross when I was on my way out (coat on, baby in buggy). I was and told her to make an appointment next time. She was FURIOUS about it

I think the problem is that HVs are expected to be a sort of jack of all trades.

as Arendelle says I suspect their most important role is to spot the children who are in danger of abuse or neglect or have major medical issues and might otherwise slip through the net. Also mothers with PND.

But they also get asked to dispense advice on every aspect of baby care under the sun, which they often don't really know about (or at least have no in depth training on) but of course they give their view anyway. That's where the problems come up.

I think we should either cut back the role of HV to spotting those in danger, or we should ensure they are properly trained to give advice on all aspects of baby and child care. The latter is probably unaffordable so I'd suggest the former.

Our local HVs are a mixed bag. There is one very good, very sensible one who was a midwife for years (she advised me to get DD1 checked for tongue tie - wish I had!) There is one who is knowledgable but SO overbearing and unsympathetic. There is one who can spin a 5 minute visit into over an hour while she has more tea and biscuits

HV with my first baby was lovely, but a bit useless, if you asked for advice would say "well what do you think?" - if I knew, I wouldn't be there asking for advice .
She's retired now and always remembers our crazy jack Russell, she was genuinely upset to hear that she died last year.
HV with ds3 was brilliant. Ds has a tongue tie which made feeding very uncomfortable, but he was still gaining weight fine. She came with me to the gp (who insisted that he could have a bottle) and helped me insist that he needed a referral to have it snipped.

Health visitors serve zero purpose. Mine mixed up my child's records with another one at the weekly weigh in clinic. Stupid me thought that she'd be able to give the right child the right book. Only noticed later that afternoon and they wouldn't do a damn thing other "maybe phone the other mother" I ended up going to the other person's door with their child's records as it had their address and swapped records. Logged official complaint as breached data protection and funnily enough they couldn't get enough of phoning to apologise then.....fuckwits

Tinandgonic "Health visitors serve zero purpose." This statement is complete and utter rubbish. Why do people post bollocks and state it as fact?! Your experience was obviously poor but the role is very important.

My daughter has a blueish birthmark on her ribs towards her back... Anyway I had to take her to a&e (asthma) as she was really struggling breathing and was very distressed. Anyway a DOCTOR saw her birthmark, put 2 + 2 together and made 29 and thought she had meningitis. He wad literally going to take her round to resus when I pointed out that it was a birthmark that she's had since she was about 3 days old. He was very embarrassed. not really complaining, pretty glad that he was looking into everything really but I think that these people see sooooo many children they cant possibly remember them all..

My hv's have been very good however (touch wood) I'm due to see another one in 2 days (currently 32 weeks preggo) so... We shall see what she's like x

As someone who worked in a team of health visitors I can honestly say their work is invaluable.

The amount of babies and children out their being abused and neglected is awful and without the HV's to spot it and address it then I ask you what would be the outcome? Just let the child he abused until it's 4 and then hope the school nurse picks up on it despite having nowhere near as much contact with children and families as the health visitor does?

We worked with families in dire need of help and support for a variety of reasons and had a huge role to play in child protection.

Anyone who thinks health visitors are useless and pointless should spend a few weeks with them, see what pressures they are under, see how much they care about the children and families who need their support and have their eyes opened to the kind of neglectful situations they see.

Prior to working with HV's I had my preconceptions about their role, thinking how easy it must be to visit and weigh little babies and what a nice 'cushy little number' they had but the reality is the complete opposite.

I worked within a team for two years and they had a caseload of 1200 children of which a very huge proportion of those children were in deprived areas and their workload was insane. I have seen Health Visitors in tears over some of the Social Cases they were involved with.

We also worked in conjunction with the GPs, Disability Teams, community Paediatric Doctors and community nurses, dieticians, physiotherapists, school nurses, family workers, social services, midwifery services, nurseries, Sure Start....the list is endless.

Visiting and weighing new babies and answering questions about care of newborns or young children is just the tip of a very big iceberg when it comes to the role of health visitors.

They were usually doing a minimum of 8-10 visits a day, five days a week, as well as attending Child Protection meeting, working with Safeguarding and Social Services and then leaving the office about an hour late every day in order to sit down to get their notes and reports written.

I'm not saying there aren't bad ones out there but HVs are vital in the protection of babies and young children and also in ensuring all health needs of children are met.

My first visit from the HV was unfortunately just as I had had the courage to sit on the toilet and attempt my first poo after birth, bloody painful and she interrupted me...

HV: Do you smoke?
Me: No never have
HV: Anyone in the household smoke?
Me: No no-one
HV: 10 minute lecture on how dangerous it is for babies to inhale smoke and how the breath keeps the toxins for up to 30 mins after a cigarette bla bla bla

So unnecessary

I've only seen my HV once, when DD was 2 weeks old. Haven't heard hide nor hair of them since then.

I think the system (in terms of general baby advice) probably worked better when the HVs were better educated and informed than the mums/dads they were advising - it's easy to read up yourself now. When I was a child my mum had the 'Dictionary of Symptoms' but it was very limited compared to the internet.

If the point of the system is as writer describes, it is simply a waste of everyone's time for them also to be dispensing (sometimes inaccurate, unhelpful or unwanted) advice when DC are not at risk.

It is probably better to see a GP with any concerns.

Mine was fab. Took my concerns about ds seriously when the gp wouldn't and pushed for the appointments and therapies he needed. I was sorry to lose her when he started school.