Health visitor checks

[Courtney91]

I don't think my HV is measuring my DD correctly. My DD was 57 cm born (just over 10 weeks ago) they measured her at the hospital when they weighed her. At my 6 week check with the HV she measured her on a mat that didn't look like it measured her straight and she said that she was 56.5cm now I'm no medical expect but I'm sure you can't shrink when your meant to be growing. I asked my doctor about it at the 6 week check she told me to get her to measure again as that didn't sound right but didn't measure DD herself. The health visitor came round the other day I told her what had been said at the 6week check and she measured DD at 58cm at just over 9 weeks old. When we had measure her at 61cm our selfs. The HV is writing all this down in her red book and I believe it to be incorrect information. I have told her this but she doesn't seem bothered. Is there anything I can do as I don't want someone else to measure her and get it right and think that she has abnormal growth because the HV isn't getting it right

Correct it in your book yourself, or put a small correction note in the book beside what she's written.

Are there concerns about her growth and feeding? If not then try not to panic.

HV are flawed individuals, just like the rest of us, and mistakes can happen.

I wouldn't worry too much about the red book as both my dd (11 months) and toddlers hasn't been updated since the age of 12 weeks.

Thanks, it just didn't know how much notice was taken of the red book as they got older as she is my first.
No concerns about her height or weight, just know she will probably be a very tall child as both me and my partner are 6ft 1.

Most HV seem to refuse to measure length as it is pretty hard to get good measurements. Nappies stop babies from getting their legs straight and they wiggle about. I know of a baby who "shrank" 6 cm between measurements.

Either do it yourself or stop getting her measured.

My DD is 11 months and they haven't measured her length since birth, i thought they didn't really bother until they were older as they can't measure accurately when they're that age. I don't think it matters if it's slightly inaccurate in the red book, I can't really see what the information could be used for in future unless there are concerns about growth.

Measuring height regularly is not really important. But the reason she , sy have appeared to have shrunk from the hospital measurement is that hospitals use a soft tape measure and run it over the babies body. And HVs use the board, which measures differently as the baby will not fully straighten, especially when very young.