Accidents and health visitors - sinister?

[Pingubugaloo]

My toddler broke her collarbone 3 weeks ago in one of those freeak accidents - falling off a chair1. Amazingly, its all healed now and we're finally calming down and happy that she's back to normal - although keeping a close on her of course. However, I've just had a call from a health visitor requesting a visit - at home, not at the health centre - to discuss the accident and prevention etc. Should i be worried? Is my daughter about to be put on the at-risk register? Has anyone else gone through this? I dont object to them doing their job, but would like to know what to expect! Its the first i've heard from the health centre for over a year!

They often (normally?) call you following attendance at A&E it gets routinely reported to your HV. Mine has never wanted to actually come and see me or DS, though just a phone call to "check that everything is OK with [DS] now". Probably yours is just a bit keener.

A&E depts routinely advise the HV when children are taken in. I am sure the HV is just following procedure by following it up, so I wouldn't worry!

Don't worry. HV's often visit you at home after your child has been to A&E. You can refuse if you feel you don't need telling to try and make sure it doesn't happen again.

I had that when DD broke her arm just before her 2nd birthday.

Mine was at the centre though, and as she gave me a speech about watching them at all times.... DD decided to dive through the playhouse window head first I took great delight in saying "See, you were watching that!"

Thanks all, it's reassuring that it all seems to be routine. Maybe I'll see if they can just talk me through it on the phone, as they dont seem to be v flexible on times and its a bit difficult to fit around work - didnt want to stress that when i spoke to them in case it made me sound like an uncaring workaholic!
I dont know about keen though - it took them 3 weeks to get around to calling, I thought i'd got away with it {wink}

when I took DD to A&E after a fall, there was a poster up saying health visitors would be notified by letter of EVERY child visiting A&E. I guess they just pick a few to follow-up. I'd definitely book a time that suits you though, if you're going to have to sit through a spot of patronising .

Actually, the HV's last call about DS (left message on answerphone) was around a month later and went something like this: "Hello, it's [hername] the Health Visitor here. I was just calling because I see that [DS] had a head injury [noise of shuffling papers] ... ahhh .. quite a while ago now. [starts to sound a bit flustered] So I was just calling to check that he was fine now and there was nothing you wanted to talk about..."

I was surprised to get a call from a HV I'd never met after my toddler attended A&E with a cut lip - he did it when he tripped over the dog.
She said she wanted to visit to see if ds was OK and to discuss accident prevention. I said ds was fine and he'd been to the GP for a check. She was quite persistent about a home visit and really rubbed me up the wrong way. I said there was no need as I'd already had advice on accident prevention from the Practice Nurse (I'd picked up a leaflet when I went for my pill check). That was about 6 months ago and I haven't heard any more from her. I expect she checked with the GP to make sure I was a fit mother.

When DS broke his arm at 13 months I saw posters in A&E saying for all pre-school children the HV would be notified. I heard diddly-squat but my HV is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. And I would have liked to see how anyone could have "prevented" his accident - both me and DH were within arms length and failed to catch him fall off the side of a slide!

We had a visit from the HV when ds1 was small after a visit to A&E. He had hit his head on a door frame after falling over and was being sick. After a night in hospital turned out to be a badly timed bug that had probably made him more wobbly on his feet and had caused the vomiting!
The HV rather helpfully suggested taking the doors away in the house - when I pointed out it was the door frame he hit his head on, and enquired about the front and back door, she muttered a few things and left!

I never knew about this.

I have taken mine to hospital with numerous bumped heads, took my one year old when he came down a playbarn slide with his leg tucked behind him and then started limping, and my older son when he fell on his pine bed and had a ? fracture cheek bone (goodness that was awful, black eye, the works!).

No-one has ever checked if we're ok......

Not that anything could be changed though, boys will be boys!