To think that a health visitors should be allowed to measure a child's height?

[Augusta211]

DD is approaching 2. It's become apparent she's particularly short. I measured her myself but wanted to take her to the weekly weigh in clinic to see the HV to have this looked at as DH & I are average to tall.

Apparently it's only GP's who can now measure length/height of babies/toddlers. How does this make sense? What is the point of weighing them if they are not allowed to measure them?

DD is nearly 75th centile for weight which the HV was happy with. I know she's under the 2nd centile for height though. Where's the logic in not measuring them? Are they just so hung up on childhood weight & obesity that they've completely forgotten that weight should correspond with height?

At that age they change so rapidly.

I wouldn’t worry about height so much.

But I’ve not heard that only a gp can measure.

This also happened to my friend today. Her DD couldn't be measured at her 8 week appointment because she was wearing a harness for her hips: friend took her to the weigh in clinic today especially to get her measured and they refused. Totally stupid. They had the 'device' they use there too.

I can't remember the age, but I think it's like 2.5/3 that (in Scotland anyway) they go for an assessment. They take height, weight and then do a bunch of dexterity tests, kicking a ball, and some simple questions like "which one is not wearing shoes" when showing them pictures. Stuff like that. And it was all done by the health visitor at the local health centre.

Do they not do that anymore? If they do, yours will be coming up soon.

Our health visitor never measured the height, only the weight.

Kids grows in random fits and starts from birth until adulthood. I doubt there's much to worry about.

It is silly but I would go to your GP we went about my DS's weight which is particularly low and he has been monitoring it.

If the health visitor did notice a problem they would refer you to a GP anyway.

dozy the HV will not take a baby out of harness and stretch the legs down which is required for height. They have to pull the legs into an unnatural hip position which can actually cause more harm to hip dysplasia babies. I know as our daughter was in harness last year for 6 months from 2 weeks old. That's a good hv there.

Also I don't think this is standard practice as my HV measured my 15 month old length just last week. They don't do it as routine but the gp had asked for it and so I just told them that and they did it.

@divadee she's out of the harness now, hence going to the HV to be measured after NOT being measured at her 8 week appointment, last year, because she was in a harness.

dozy maybe she didn't feel confident in pulling the legs into a unhip friendly position. If your friend is still under the orthopedics they can take a height measurement. Ours do every visit.

Ds was investigated for pituitary dwarfism when he was 17 months (found to be fine and he's small and slight but otherwise growing fine at 6) but the endocrinologist said growth issues are more easy to 'treat' when noticed early.

If you have a bit feeling that she's not growing at a usual rate then I'd get her seen.

It was just frustrating as I called the HV on Friday to discuss. I explained that I was a little concerned about her height and had also noticed she has knock knees. She said to bring her along to clinic and they would check her over. She never bothered telling me until we arrived that only the GP will measure her until we actually arrived there. Seems a crazy system in my opinion.

My DS is weighed and measured every time I visit the HV. When this this ‘rule’ begin?

the endocrinologist said growth issues are more easy to 'treat' when noticed early.

This is why I feel length/height should be measured. I'm not saying at every check up, maybe when they're 6 months, a year and then 2 years? No one has ever measured DD's length in her whole 2 years of life. She has always seemed short, it was only recently I decided to measure her and realised just how short she actually is, but the HV's aren't bothered in the slightest.

I live in Wales and as far as I'm aware Health visitors still measure height- they did for DS at his last check up and have said they will at next weeks appointment? Assume you're in England OP? That's so frustrating that they won't!

Yes, I'm in England. It's frustrating that some children in the UK are being monitored more closely than others.

My 2 year old was just measured in her two year review. She is very short. They weren’t fussed. She’s also has size 4 feet and is generally petite.

I have never heard of health visitors not being able to height children that's ridiculous. It's a basic part of nursing care! I can't see any logic behind it at all! I bet the gp will be over the moon at appointments being taken up to height children .

To the poster that said about measuring a child in a hip harness that was correct health visitor can't remove the harness and unless you can fully straighten the leg the length is pointless. They were 100% in the right to say no much better that then risk undoing all the work of the harness.

But I will say my oldest was never measure and this was the first time my two year old has been measured.

Go with your gut. It was the HV and a nurse at a separate hospital appointment who both advised getting ds checked out. My gut was that he was fine but I'm glad we took him. The endo was fairly convinced that he did have dwarfism at his first appointment but it was ruled put after monitoring

I bet the gp will be over the moon at appointments being taken up to height children

My thoughts exactly. I've suffered with quite debilitating health anxiety after DD was born and also have a (genuine) health condition which means I need to visit the GP fairly regularly. Now that my HA is much better, I hate going to the GP unless it's 100% necessary for fear of seeming like a time waster. Just annoying that I may have to go for something so basic.

Odd. Our HV team measure height. My 13m old was measured recently. We use two different teams depending on what day we go, and which children’s centre we go to. Both are prepared to measure height.

So make a gp appointment?

HV teams look out for signs of the most frequently found health issues but they can't be trained for everything. If they measured your dd the and found that there was an issue, the only result would be to refer you to your gp who would measure again, so why bother with the interim step?

How tall is she?

I dont really understand the issue. Being 'short' isn't a bad thing, or a sign something is wrong. And height at a year or 2 old means nothing in regards to their future height.

I've never heard of HVs not being able to check, but this isn't something I would give a second thought to.

My baby had his one year check yesterday with the HV and she measured his height

I think the difference here is between length and height. Length is easy to accurately measure on babies and my HV does it (in fact, don’t think the GP ever did either of them). But height needs to be done properly in the office once they’re standing and mobile. I suspect though because they only do it when they have concerns that she referred you to the GP so you could talk over your concerns (as doesn’t sound like she has any).

That said, you can easily measure height at home yourself (though not as accurately as the GP probably). We’ve done it on the back of a door with a book and tape measure since our oldest was 2. Then you just plot it in your red book on the growth chart. Mine is also short 9th and now 25th centile but proportionate. If height and weight are vastly different then I’d book an appointment. I probably wouldn’t bother them just to get height measured though.