to think that a HV should have pointed out the health dangers associated with...

[becaroo]

...putting a 6 month old baby on cows milk????

Was a baby clinic this morning - I go in, weigh my son and then leave - and the girl next to me in the queue was talking to the HV who was stood next to me and said...

Mum:"I've taken her off formula as it was making her sick and put her on cows milk as shes much happier on that"

HV: "How old is she?"

Mum: "26 weeks"

HV:"oh, alright"

Shouldnt the HV have mentioned iron deficiency/anaemia etc etc that occurs when babies are put onto cows milk before 12 months? There are plenty of formulas out there for babies with sensitive tummies...she never even mentioned taking her to GP to see if it was reflux....bloody HV's....I was really shocked....have a mind to complain to someone!!!!!

If that was all the conversation and you had it on tape so in no doubt of what was said then yes complaining might be an idea. What you are talking about though is another parent's conversation with a health professional that you overheard about 20 seconds of. You don't know what else was said before or after - you were concentrating on your child and then were on your way out. I think maybe you should wind your neck in a bit.

Not sure if you need to give formula to prevent anemia though, do you? Ds2 was exclusively breast-fed and I was told not to worry about his iron levels as long as he was getting some iron-fortified foods such as baby rice or breakfast cereal. I guess at 26 weeks the baby was probably weaning.

Agree with Northern, maybe you've got it wrong and you shouldn't really be listening anyway.

If i were you i would be posting about the lack of privacy at the your baby clinic. Maybe the HV thought it wasn't the best place to discuss it and perhaps called her at home later, who knows. If your concerned your HV is doing a rubbish job, complain about her.

When the HV said oh alright was it in a breezy type way or a dubious way IYSWIM? Could it have been oh alright.... as a kind of introduction to the telling off she was about to give? I hope so!

yes and maybe she was bf but using formula for cereals etc thats what i used to do because of the faff of expressing so it would be perfectly reasonable to use cows milf for this instead.

Milk obviously but lol at milf.

YABU

You have no idea of the rest of the conversation. My child was allergic to cows milk formula and put onto Soy milk, I'm sure that the conversations I had with my HV could have been misconstrued.

back in the 70s it appeared to be accepted practice to give boiled cows' milk instead of formula from 6 months, so maybe that's why HV sounded so relaxed about it.

Cows milk has little or no iron in it....unlike bm or formula.

Obviously I did not hear all of the coversation (apart from the lady saying that her other 2 dc had had cows milk from 6 and 8 months respectively) and didnt want to listen in (though couldnt really help it was the HV was stood next to me) but found the HV attitude really shocking.....she was just so...blase about it, I suppose.

As I was leaving, the mum then complained to her friend that the baby hadnt put much weight on!

Gosh you are really determined to have a go at that poor mum aren't you? The child probably hadn't put weight in because of the vomiting - which mum was trying to address and fwiw I think that there's a good chance the HV would have been planning to support her in more depth - she just wasn't going to do so in front of you - perhaps she thought you were self righteously and impertinently showing more interest than was healthy?

By all means complain about duff advice given to YOU but don't come on here slagging off a situation you actually know bugger all about.

...and I have lots of sympathy for mums who have difficulty with feeding their babies...god knows I did with ds1, but I would never have just put him onto cows mlk at 26 weeks!!!!

Surely there are other options til they are 12 months??

However, as general opinion seems to be that IABU, I will leave it at that.

northern As for "self righteously and impertinently showing more interest than was healthy?"
Erm... not really...just weighing my baby. Cant really help but overhear a conversation that is taking place (very loudly) about 10 inches away from me! I was shocked at the HV response, but thats all.

I stand corrected - obviously I only had half the story, don't know the context or what happened next so really should keep off my high horse on the internet about it.

Most of us were given cows milk at 6 months we all seemed to have survived, althou i didnt give my dc as a main drink till a year.

How do you know she doesn't bf as well?

Oh god this is why I hate baby clinic, bored mothers in an overheated room , some of whom choose to nosy in on conversations they shouldn't be privvy to.

Agree with Clayre.

Sometimes I despair a little. I love the fact that modern medicine is ever moving forward. I love the fact that the more information we are given, the more choices we can make.

I hate the fact that every small percentile change is reported and makes us frightened as parents, I hate the fact that the more information we are given, the less choices we feel we have.

Just as an aside - my grandmother raised my uncle on (wait for it......) diluted cows milk from birth. Breastfeeding didn't work out (which must have been awful for her because she had breastfed two children previously) and apparently he couldn't tolerate the formula of the day so that is what she was advised to do. 60 years on she is still quite confident in that decision even though it would of course raise very serious concerns today!

becaroo, baby formula has only been around for 60 years or so, not all mum s could bf, and cows and goats milk worked fine.
How on earth do you think the human race survived in the previous 2,000 years?

Perspective needed!

I think it was 6 mths when my DD was born. Although I didnt give her cows milk till she was 12mths

My MIL's 12 children were raised on........................... Carnation Milk . A lot of them have problems with digestion etc.
I know that was a while ago (OH is the youngest at 39) but SILs did it too and would forever ask me 'is she on carnation yet?' when I had my DD. It drove me made,that and the flippin Cod Liver Oil when she was a few weeks old. One SIL fed her babies on jars at about 4 weeks old and added salt because it made it taste better. She never seemed to make the connection between this and bloody diareahorea (sp).

Message withdrawn

YANBU. You aren't appalled by the mother's decision, just at the lack of info the HV seemed to offer, and that's not uncommon, I don't think.

One of my husbands cousins is a HV. A few years back she advised her SIL to stop bf her 6 week old and give her formula with a rusk in it instead, to sort out reflux. SIL and I caught one another's eyes and studiously kept straight faces, but sheesh. This is a woman paid by the state to advise mothers on infant feeding - and that's her advice.

Chips, fish fingers and double cream are all part of a balanced diet if eaten in moderation. Provided you are watching the salt levels they are fine for babies and toddlers. Your hv was trying to help you by giving you a range of foods. Babies need fatty foods.