AIBU to opt out of health visitor visits

[HVinterfering]

I have a very overbearing HV who has told me that she is ‘concerned’ by how I’m weaning dd!

we have a lot of allergies in the family - she has told me to give dd these things to ‘ desensitise her and stop an allergy developing’ that early exposure will mean she won’t be allergic . I said no early exposure will just risk an earlier reaction !

She also said baby led is now the default and she isn’t happy that we are doing traditional weaning. I’ve heard you can opt out - if I do this will it cause problems? I simply don’t want her interfering anymore and criticising me .

If your other children have severe allergy and have epi-pens as you say - they’ll have an NHS paeds allergy clinic.
I would seek their expert advice on introducing allergens to your baby. My middle son has an NHS paeds allergy clinic that is great.
if you don’t get on with your HV simply request another one.

Haven’t seen a HV once and have had 3 babies. Sack her off you know what you’re doing

I mean, she’s right- but it’s up to you if you engage with her advice or not.

Nothing has said that early exposure to allergens will completely stop a child developing allergies but the advice is that it’s likely to help. 100% of allergies won’t be eradicated by early exposure but some are likely to be. Perhaps could be the difference of a child having 3 allergies or 1… worth that, no?

As for weaning, there’s reams on the benefits of BLW, but none for spoon feeding. I like a combo of both methods as I find positives in them both.

We had a different HV every visit for each child. You could opt out or maybe just request a different one?

The route HVs support is not generally hard line BLW as in put a piece of steak on their tray on day 7. It's more early promotion of finger feeding and exploring and having family meal times. Also not encouraging pouches and prepped ready meal type stuff.

The top allergists?!!! Please link me to the top allergist peer reviewed research. Here’s where I look for evidence based allergen advice https://www.bsaci.org/resources/allergy-management/food-allergy/allergy-prevention/early-introduction-of-food-allergens/ ps it’s my job.

Health visitors are optional so you absolutely don't need to see her if you don't want to, you can just tell them you're opting out. Unfortunately many of them are pretty useless and some have a very overinflated sense of their own importance!

I doubt this is the case.

Op, not sure where you are coming from and to but I never kept any advice and ate in pregnancy absolutely everything and mixed everything in my daughter's purees and she does not have any allergy

I had a poor experience with a HV and then moved counties (not related 😂). Once I registered at the doctors in the new place a HV phoned and offered a home visit, I declined as I didn’t feel she would add anything to my life. Nothing bad happened.

BLW is just the latest trend. It'll be out of fashion soon enough and I think most of us who weren't weaned in that way have perfectly good swallowing and co-ordination skills.

How on earth is it a trend? I did BLW with my DD 15 years ago! When is it supposedly going to go out of fashion?

My HV in 2012 gave me a printed out link to an advice website with multiple letters etc cut out with scissors. Literally a line of text cut out complicated website. I looked at her like wtf? There had been abuse in my relationship before I gave birth but she put in my records that I was post natal, which was completely false, never had any issues with my baby. Interesting to hear that 14 years later they’re still hopeless. I went once to get DD weighed and the people there were really weird so I didn’t go again. Seems the service is still a joke. It’s ridiculous in this day and age!

Don’t most people do a bit of both. My oldest is nearly 30 and my DF loved giving her a chunk of crust of bread with butter. Not sure how much she ate but she enjoyed it!
I also started weaning at 4 months! I also use to put chunks of different food on high chair but I fed her food. Plus I gave her a spoon to play with.
I’m also glad the internet wasn’t really a thing as I would have an anxious mess!

Actually pureeing food is a more of a trend than BLW which had been the way of weaning throughout history. Do you think the Romans got their nutri bullet out 🤭

Of course not everyone who is pureed led has mouth and swallowing issues. Medical reporting of issues doesn’t work like that. They work on averages. And on average those that aren’t BLW report a whole lot more of these problems - and often they impact into adult life.