2 year check over the phone?

[Danikm151]

Just had a letter advising my son’s 2 year development check will be over the phone.
His 9-12 month check was over the phone too but we ended up being able to see a HV in person.
Surely over the phone means a lot of children will have gone under the radar? I’d like to speak to someone in person, the HV office is round the corner from our house!

Ours was on video, but yes I feel the same it would be much better in person!

Not sure what the ‘official’ situation is with health checks now (if there is one - I think it varies by region). But I’m in London and we never had an in-person or telephone health check for DD (now 4) at any point - we were sent a checklist of milestones on the post and told to speak to our GP if we thought there might be an issue. This was pre-pandemic; I’m assuming it’s even worse now.

Luckily DD was progressing normally and due to my work I had prior knowledge of child development/psychology. But yes, lots of issues will have gone under the radar, which will often only be properly picked up once the child is in the school system.

Why would they " go under the radar"?
But, yes, checks in person are much better!

@Bitofachinwag

Because babies/toddlers aren’t being seen at an early stage by professionals, and potential developmental delay/speech and language/autism/auditory issues consequently aren’t being picked up?

As I posted above, in our area of London we’ve never had any formal developmental checks of any kind - whether in person or over the phone. Had there been any issue with DD it would have been up to us to identify it and work out how to navigate the system to access professional help. Along with most of our peer group we haven’t had any contact with a health visitor since DD was about 4 weeks.

@Bitofachinwag some health conditions that parents may not know about could be missed.

I guess on my part it’s frustration with lack of support being available if you need it. I’m a first time mother, i’m winging it to be honest 😂 on the phone doesn’t feel like a proper check.

I see what you mean now. I thought you meant "under the radar" as in parents could hide their children.

Yes I think face to face checks are better than phone checks.

I cancelled ours as I thought it would be a waste of time over the phone. Haven’t seen or heard from a health care professional since. It’s essentially a govt box ticking exercise.

You could phone and ask if they will come? They might?

I had a two year check in person a few months ago (not sure why I was chosen for in-person- others in same area got phonecall).