To be annoyed at baby weigh clinic?

[FroddyLoop]

My daughter has a medical condition that requires her to be weighed every week in order to administer the correct dosage of medication. I was told by her pediatrician that this would be a home visit. My GP then said they cannot facilitate this at this time (understandable as NHS on its arse), and I need to go to the weigh-in clinic locally.

It is unreasonably difficult to get an appointment at the weigh clinic and they refuse to make a ‘standing appointment’ for the same time every week, I need to ring every week and fight for one, I have no idea what day and time this will be so I need to be available at all times.
I then need to ring the GP myself after this appointment and tell them the weight. Most of the times it’s hard to get through and the GP’s receptionists are sometimes so rude to me and make me feel like I’m asking for some really out there request by asking them to note the weight.

Am I right to be annoyed by this and maybe see if I can take it higher to get the standing appointment or ask that these services communicate with each other?

Has anyone else had to do this? I’m just wondering if my trust is in line with others or my experience is different to others who may have had the same situation.

I had to have DS weighed weekly when he was born; he had a cleft palate so really struggled to feed, and I had to let the cleft team know his weight each week so they could monitor him. Despite this the health visitors initially refused to allow me weekly appointments, but my cleft nurse rang them and they were then able to book me in (although it was always a different day and time). Do you have someone at the hospital who can call on your behalf and explain why it’s needed? We were told the home scales weren’t accurate enough when so teeny.

Usually fine to get rough idea but if need exact weight for medication then need to weigh baby alone

They should do as I said above , I’ve /my clients have done this

Good idea, if I get nowhere on Monday I’ll ring the pediatricians secretary and see what she suggests.

I’ve weighed DD & plotted in the red book a few times. No one told me not to, means I can see the trends myself (which I am glad about as she is 13m now and still being fobbed off with her 12m check). If your GP are taking weights over the phone anyway I would do that, and email the weight in instead of calling!

I asked and we have been discharged from the HV so it’s not up to them to help apparently.

In our area there are very few weighing clinics any more but they’ve rolled out self weigh area in places like libraries, pharmacies etc so you can do it yourself when it’s convenient. So all the ‘proper’ equipment just no ‘professional’.

We were in a similar position and the weigh in clinic didn’t work with medical restrictions of the baby so our health visitor was able to give us regular fixed appointment. I will say she really understood how overwhelmed we were by the illness so did everything to make things easier for us. We were very lucky. Sorry you are having to go through this.

Discharges from HV or discharged from midwives?

Midwives usually discharge by a couple of weeks old. Health visitors usually discharge at school starting age.

Noone is discharged from the health visitor until they’re 5 unless you’ve asked to be discharged. It sounds like Paediatrics should be sorting this if they are monitoring the weight instead of them asking the GP to inform them weekly. Could you not ring the consultants secretary to let them know the weight? All sounds v strange.

Maybe suggest going in once a month for an 'official weight' to be recorded.

I would also ask (gp & consultant) what will happen in the event you can't get an appointment as that could cause issues for their meds without knowing their weight.

My DSiL recovering from cancer, had issues with her gp and she spoke her to her consultant who ended up having to contact the gp and insist certain things were put in place/followed.

If it was me I would write a group email to paediatrician, GP, HV and head of practice. Explain what you have said here, and TELL them that you will weight the baby yourself for 3 weeks and then come in for the fourth, so they have eyes on the baby unless someone can come up with a better solution.

My local library has scales for weighing babies,and blood pressure monitors for adults, They also have books that you can borrow, computers with internet access and today when i was leaving they were setting up tomorrows Lego Club, Highly recommended, just disappointed that the lego is for only for kids.

Put your request in writing and use the term reasonable adjustment due to your baby’s health needs. If they still decline you have everything in writing to make a formal complaint. I’m sorry you’re having to go through this treatment so your baby can get the medication they need, it is unfair and I hope you’re ok. You deserve support and compassion, raising a baby is hard enough let alone when they have health needs. mothers a d their babies are not treated with the care and respect they deserve within our society. our public services aren’t fit for purpose anymore (I’m a nurse and the lack of autonomy to use common sense when making patient centred decisions is infuriating)

I didn't think they discharged from HV until the go to school. There are HV checks at 6m, 12m, 27m and age 3.5, some with jabs included. I would definitely recontact them as they should be doing the weights or as others have said but a baby scale.

I had one as DD1 was small and slow to gain weight and was born during COVID when most clinics were cancelled. Think I paid around £30 on Amazon x

As others have said, you can’t be discharged from the health visitors.

I have found that with the NHS you just have to keep ringing, being polite but firm and asking to speak to the next person, until you find someone who is capable and willing to actually find a sensible solution. It’s a total pain.

I guess they run things differently near you as we didn’t have home health visitors (SW London) and there was a clinic every week at the local health centre and you just dropped in as and when.
But yea - just weigh your baby yourself.

Ds2 needed to be weighed each week and have his head circumference measured as a baby. I had to take him to the surgery but I had a standing appointment each week and they couldn't have been more helpful.

I think you should complain.

We had very similar with my ds but came to the arrangement that we would have once a month with the HV (up until he was 2 - I was told that HVs have involvement until 5 / they went to school, so you can push them for more support), once a month at a baby weigh clinic (a fortnight after the HV appt) and then would weigh ourselves with baby weighing scales from Amazon on the intervening weeks. His consultant was happy with us weighing because he was being ‘professionally’ weighed fortnightly. It’s scary how much their weight changes and how it affects meds doses. Keep going, you’re doing great.