big winge about hv and gp's looong sorry

[mothersmilk]

iv just come back from my weekly weighing session where i work along side the hv as a breast feeding helper ui recently qualified and am continuing my training to become a suppoter,
anyway i dealt with three ladies all of wich had been told to give top ups either by there hv (one hv imperticular) or gp and subserquently there supply has diminished

none of them wantd to do this and all wanted to exclusivly bf all of this is down to the norrmal growth spurt pattern on 4-4 1/2 months were baby seems to be feeding continuously for a few days to bump up supply

so now thse poor ladies who want to cut out the bottles have got what could be a hellish week or so ahead of them
i feel so ticked off that both the hv and gp do not inform themselves more on the subject of bf
also the same hv told my dear friend to put her daughter on to solids at 3 1/2 months and the gp told one of my ladies to give her ds pure orange juice at 13weeks old
sorry had to get this all off my chest exuse the spelling trying to bf my ds at the same time as typing

: ( How difficult for you!

Do you have a mentor or supervisor in connection with your training? This is something to share with them, too, and you can also discuss what to do about it. Do you share your concerns with the HV - you might want to approach it like this, 'I am worried that women who want support for their breastfeeding are getting conflicting advice - they tell me they have been told X,but this worries me, as I know that they're describing normal behaviour in a baby, which extra feeding could address....it's not good if they hear different responses....how can we resolve this?'

Sorta thing.

With my first when I told the GP I was going to start my baby on solids he said to give him what we were having that night. When I told him what we were having he said it was fine. We were having curry.

One of my H/Vs is doing a breastfeeding course and she says that's a national program?

Is this program running at the surgery? Is there a contact at the PCT who could be contacted as far as standards?

am about to e-mail my tutor and we have supervision nxt monday as it happens was thinking of addressing it with the hv in a very softly softly way trouble is she's newly trained and i get the impression she's not at all impressed with my being there although the whole reason im there is to take the weight of her and deal with the bf issuse just feel as though im banging my head against a brick wall

although on the plus side its held at childrens centre and im getting more and more bf just coming along to feed have a coffee and chat wich is good were getting quite a little group together

Four (yes, four) women out of 7 of my baby group with babies of similar age to DS (16-21 weeks) have been advised by our local HV clinic to wean. 2 because they are not gaining enough and 2 because they were feeding too often! All four women admitted they felt obliged to wean before they had expected to, all were committed exclusive BFers and 2 have abandoned weaning and gone back to BF after discussing it at the group.

HV also suggested to me that I wean DS and looked slightly surprised when I said 'can I just offer more feeds?' (his weight gain has slowed a bit).

Gaaaaaahhhhh. Perhaps if more of us complained about this we'd achieve something? it seems insane that advice isn't more up to date. Even if HV said something like, 'I am obliged to tell you that DoH guidelines are not to wean before 6 months', like formula companies are obliged to make certain statements about BF.

not 'my' baby group obviously, one I attend.

its insane isnt it when health proffessionals are taught one thing i.e no solids befor 6 months breast is best and so on that in the same breath they basicaly tell you the complete opposite no wonder no end of women end up actually believing there bm doesnt stand up to formula and give up bf not actually wanting to