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.

OH FUCK OFFFFFF!!! joking

Well the forward I'd tend to agree. Stating my opinion and then being told by some unknown that it's bollocks warrants a piss off imo. After a day at work, a teething baby and a house to clean I would say I was being pretty darn tame. Remember if you want to call someone's opinion bollocks then you'd better expect a come back...

You two, have some

Thank you....I need a bottle and straw

DD has arthritis. The HV asked me "how did she catch that?". DS had a milk protein allergy and she put that down to the fact that he had been exclusively breast fed for 6 months

Well I certainly wouldn't be 'open' about something that's not actually the case

Well would you be if the county heads of the depts had actually instructed you to be?

Because that's what happens in one of the county's I work in.

They are told to actively discourage universal service users from baby clinic and all but the gov desired checks (obvious proviso of unless legit concerns exist. The only people here who can get almost any decent HV service involvement are families on UP or UPP

My DS is 8 months old an I've had 2 HVs in that time (moved house).

The first HV was fantastic. I was having a tough time after DS was born and I was not a confident mother at all. My relationship had also broken down and things with ex were not good to say the least! HV was like my own personal cheerleader ... she constantly told me I was doing a good job and said that DS was thriving which I really needed to hear and she was really supportive with problems with Ex... referred me to womens aid, reminded me that I was a strong person and that I didnt need ex as I was doing a good job on my own. She was the best support I could've asked for at that time and I will be forever grateful for it.

My new HV is ok I guess... ive only seen her once in 5 months. But to be honest I dont really need the support/ advice anymore and assume shes got a full caseload so dont chase it up.

All of them. Ignorant. Tick sheet fuckers!

Well I've been told no such thing and it's certainly not true where I am. Like I said I have done plenty of core service work this week already and we are taking on even more setting up community groups.

Redshoes - I wouldn't have thought most kids are on the radar of childminders or nurseries by two years at all. What makes you say that?

I had two, one was wonderful and one was a cow.

The cow gave me a leaflet I think she had put together herself including a daily mail article detailing all of Baby P's injuries. DS was only a few weeks old, my hormones are raging and I had other difficult things going on - I can't think why she thought it was appropriate. I cried for hours and had nightmares for months.

After that,I only took DS to see the nice one. She gave me tea and biscuits and had all the time in the world while I sobbed on her shoulder. I think she kept me sane actually.

I can't remember my first one. I was in a constant sleep deprived fug with twins who never slept at the same time - that was a fun 3 months.

The second was great. She had a student too and they listened to all my concerns about ds (who is autistic). They referred us to SALT and the child development centre (awful paediatrician who didn't believe in autism, but that's another story). She helped push for eye checks for him too as he had a really bad squint.

Is it just in my part of London that HVs are getting scarcer than hens' teeth, then?

With dd1 I saw a HV once. She told me not to carry her in a sling as a baby had suffocated between its mothers' breasts, in my very street, the previous year. And that if dd had a cold I must take her to A&E straight away, because babies can't breathe through their mouths. That was it - no allocated HV in that area.

I moved, adopted dd2 who was under 1. HV popped round once but the only help offered was an American leaflet about controlled crying (when I had already told her I would NOT be doing controlled crying). And that was it - no allocated HV in that area either.

Other than that, nothing. Neither of my children have ever been offered a developmental check.

No HV visits here either apart from the 14 day one. The only time I saw them was when I took DD to be weighed, as I wanted to keep an eye on her (dropping percentiles due to undiagnosed lactose intolerance). HVs kept telling me I was coming too frequently and that her symptoms were normal. GP and paediatrician disagreed...

I don't think I've needed visits from them so I'm not too fussed about never seeing them; I just didn't know they did all these visits people talk about because that's never been my experience!

Hv with DD1 was useless, DD had severe excema which made her cradle cap on her head worse. HV told me i should have seen a doctor by now as she clearly had 'thrush' on her head. So I duly made an appointment but made sure to say I had made it as the HV said it was thrush on her head. Doctor said she was speaking rubbish as it was cradle cap and he had never heard of thrush on the scalp.
Same HV also told me I was starving DD as no baby should sleep through at 5 weeks and I must set my alarm and wake her up for feeding. DD was having more oz of milk through the day as she should have for her age at that point.
I tended to ignore her views.

I was also told to put butter and cream into DD's food as she was far to small and needed feeding up. DD put on half a lb a week. She was obsessed by Dd not being on the average line in the red book. DD was 11 days late and just over 6 lb so was always going to be small.

I have 6 dc ranging from 18 months to 25.

Apart from the home visit at around 2 weeks, I've never seen a hv. I have never attended a weighing clinic.

The two youngest weren't offered any developmental checks. The older children had checks with the GP.

I've never found them to be offensive but nor have I found them to be helpful!

I wonder why some people seem to have so much contact with HV if they consider them to be so useless.

Ive had 4 DC and different HV's with them all. I dont go out with my DC alone so DH does all the baby clinic stuff. (I could go with him, but easier to stay home with the others while he goes rather than all 6 of us attending). Every single time he has taken a baby to be weighed they comment that he is - shock horror - the dad and not the mom! He is then questioned by the HV's who every time ask him why he cant bring me with him and they like to see the moms as they have questions about the baby - as if he wouldn't be able to answer questions about his own child!

HVs that came to the house couldn't understand that I wouldn't attend the clinics or groups no matter how many times they asked or I explained. My experience was they were fairly pointless tbh.

My hv spent so much time blethering on talking about the supposed negatives of vaccination that I really got quite cross with her... I am passionate about the importance childhood vaccinations, having grown up with someone who was completely deaf and partially blind because of measles in early childhood... she thankfully picked db the wrong person, but I can onky imagine how another woman might have felt.