AIBU to think that all this conflicting advice drives mums mental!!!

[lilnutter]

Just had my 3rd DC. My other children are 11 and 7 years old. DC 3 was a bot of an unexpected surprise (read: failure of coil) so we decided that we would make take this last opp to enjoy parenthood and enjoy every second of it.

So that's the background.
DC was born with a minor medical condition at birth. Cue a succession of contradictory information from Doctors, Midwives and Health visitors. Sure they all look interested when you talk but no one had any answers or showed any interest either. Think of advice a long the lines of : 'Haven't seen this before, very unusual, wouldn't be worried though'. No I've two children already and so have been through crazy moments and so have looked at the advice given in a relaxed way but think often of what I would feel if I was a first time mum.

Current issue that caused me to post was the DC is ebf (the others weren't) and hasn't pooped for nearly 11 days. Just mentioned it to health visitor during weigh in and she said you must take him to A&E immediately! I felt alarmed at the near shriek, but Doctor has said that this is completely normal for ebf baby at 5 months. Again, who to believe.

It's enough to make you

Surely it's not UNREASONABLE to expect those advising Mother's to agree on some things!

Well it would.

However, it is normal for breasted babies not to poo everyday. As long as they're getting plenty wet nappies and are alert.

HVs are a law unto themselves though. I've always taken what they've said with a pinch of salt.

Agree completely.

It was me that reassured my HV when dc3 hadn’t pooed for 12 days. She didn’t have a clue it was normal for an ebf baby.

Quality of HVs was a bit variable for us. My daughter was constipated for a while and the GP told us to try a little cooled boiled water in a bottle between feeds but didn't say how much. Rang the HV service to check how much water and the woman who answered the phone made a big song and dance about how the GP was MAD to recommend water and she didn’t know WHERE that had come from because plainly my two month old should be having prune juice I'm not a sugar fascist but even I could see why you'd try water first.

HVs are interesting creatures.

DD did not poo for 6 days last week... word of warning... expect a potential poo fountain at some point. We had at least two all hands on deck situations at the weekend. (Whilst she just lay there and grinned her cute little face off)

Exactly, my husband told me to stop mentioning baby troubles to them so they don't feel obliged to give advice!!

Last week at immunization casually chatted to nurse who insisted a bit of sugar water would do the trick. (Prunes/water/massage/cycling-all haven't)

What else can you talk to hovering HVs when you're trying to re dress a wriggling baby??? Just need to shut up obv.

Just feel like there's a lot of opinion not always factual. Tgat would be my new advice to all new mums: nod your head, say hmmm, and trust your instincts instead!

OP even doctors don't agree on things so don't expect other HCPs to.

I was told that the reason breast fed babies don't go for so long is because the milk is so perfect for them there is no waste.