please can someone clear up once and for all how extended breasfeeding is viewed from a child protection point of view?

[StealthPolarBear]

Is ebf initself considered a concern? Is there any official guidance?

Sorry, badly worded. There are many behaviours that most good parents/people agree are right and agree are wrong. Most bad parents know they are "wrong" iyswim, even though they may choose to do them. Not getting on my high horse - when I shout at the DCs I know I am being a not very good parent. When I ebf them I have no such knowledge.

We co-slept until DS was 2 and he self weaned just before his third birthday - but I don't see myself as an 'alternative' parent at all, TSC.

Dirty sheets next to washing machine waiting their turn - good - the parent has changed the bed, they care.

I do know SWs sometimes feel/check the bedding to make sure child isn't still sleeping on soiled/wet sheets (fair enough, IMO). Through the BF side I know quite a few 'alternative' style parents, much more crunchy than me, there is such a wide spectrum and a big grey area between what is traditional/acceptable and what is reckless and woo. Some of it boils down solely to opinion and preference though, and to try to legislate for that gets 1984ish.

Will have a look at the link too, I am really curious to see exactly how many ways I am failing my children With their freshly cooked free range chicken, their boden tshirts, normal development and great family relationships but Ohh! splashes on the hob. I hope no one looks in the oven - no oven pride in this house.

Surely each case is Different and asessed on its own merits. There must e more to it, one persons "bit untidy" may be unhygienic and a health risk.

There is usually other concerning factors regardless of parenting style.

IME, its only ever taken into account if its deemed to be a sexual act and not in the childs best intrest eg; if mum was doing it to make herself feel better when her 7 year old clearly only does it to please mum iyswim.

There isnt guidelines on it, so you need to have reason to believe the above.

That would seem the common sense approach and the best for the child and mother lisad. Like I said, if it was a tickbox exercise I could do it.

I am a qualified sw. My hob is well manky. Have washing everywhere and I shout at my kids. That's normal - not child protection. Complain to your local authority.

Nope dont think i ever came across a tick box in my old job. Sadly alot is done via proffessional opinion, which is why there is always so many proffessionals at a CP meeting and why decisions are never made by one person alone.

Personally i bf dd2 till she was nearly 2years and would have carried on if she wanted but she didnt :(

This is scary. I co-sleep and ds2 bfed till 12 weeks ago and he was 4 end of December. I have a pile of washing waiting to go in machine (once tumble drying load done), I plan on bfing dd as long as se wants (12 weeks old at present), I did blw with ds2 and he still is a bloody messy eater (might veer off blw a bit with dd ), I had severe PND with ds1 and because of it ss were involved tho that was a long time ago as he is almost 12.

The link posted above is the framework for child in need NOT child in need of protection. The one link is a tool used to assess what area's parents might need help with, NOT what evidence you need to remove children.

I love how no one ever knows that you cannot remove a child from their home without Police say so and court say so. The police can and do refuse sometimes.

My washing pile is huge, my kids get yelled at and my house is in no way spotless. Most sw do use common sense, and know when they are being lied to.

I always did bedroom checks, I learnt early on, that just because the rooms downstairs are nice and clean, doesnt mean the kids rooms are.

One house i went to had nice sofa, carpets downstairs, clean floor, tv, ime looked like a normal family house. I went upstairs to find a kids room with 1 cot and 1 bed. No bedding, no curtains, urine soaked carpet, a lock on the door and the kids had got so hungry they had started to eat the foam in the cot mattress! There was soiled nappies in the corner, poo on the walls and no toys. If I hadnt gone and checked upstairs, I would never have known :(

A job?

They ignore the mother picking up her child with a can of larger on the go but investigate the parent that is disabled!

I also think that the scare tactics they use is just wrong.

Im not bashing SW i know 2 that are great - its the people that are in that job that have no idea about having children and the people who have prejudic that i would like to see bashed IMO!

In my experiance a sw who asks "Does he normaly get this distressed?" when a 2yo throws a tantrum about going to bed and Dad reading the book and not mum as mum is talking downstairs to the SW - I think should not be in that job.

(I will stop posting now as i do have an axe to grin as i just feel so let down by the people that were ment to help us. I have lost all confidence in them thru their own actions - sometimes sorry is just not good enough)

I will say it, some sw are idiots, some have no clue and the biggest downfall of the sw world is using naff agentcy staff, who couldnt care less as long as they get paid.

I wasn't being sniffy TSC :). I appreciate that my post was a bit random though, sorry!

lisad I have heard of similar, it is so sad.

Sometimes it feels like you are applying for the job of adequate/good parent, but no one will tell you what the person specification is, and the responsibilities change all the time.

I have very MOR tendencies, yes to BF, but also yes to routine imms, children can go veggie when older if they want, but not at present. I don't HE but admire those who do/can. Horribly ordinary I think. But I would probably be in the poo for being non-compliant rather than anything else. Oh I don't know I am very interested in it though, it is all about the balance.

I work for Children's services alongside social workers and 75% of them are vastly inexperienced for the high risk cases they are working. I have to chase them for minutes, info etc. The young people they're working with have no trust in them and don't get the chnace to get to know them properly because they change every 5 minutes.

Oh, don't get me started!

I've done cosleeping, breastfeeding toddlers, when they're not chucking blw food into the carpet, also a vegetarian. Also a social worker.
No tick list for social workers, as lisad123 said. I have never seen any of these things come up unless very incidental and related to another issue, for example a parent cosleeping while continually drinking like a fish or through not prioritising giving an older child their own space/routine due to a chaotic lifestyle rather than parenting philosophy.
I've only ever heard breastfeeding described in glowing terms by colleagues, it's rare for families I've worked with, though the opposite seems true for social workers I've known. It's depressing to hear such crass work going on.

not forgetting the idiots who bf and still take their drugs :(

These things are all about context and interpretation, aren't they? I knew someone once whose extended breastfeeding was, I thought, part of a pattern of abuse of her dc. And I was an extended breastfeeder myself.

Another social worker here!

Whilst social workers may (very rarely) be called out to investigate such matters IME it is highly unlikely that issues such as EBF and home education would to lead to child protection intervention (assuming we're talking about genuine home ed here and not children simply missing from education - important distinction there!). However if I were called out on such a case all I would want to know is:

• Were these informed decisions? Where did parents source their information? If health related, did they discuss these matters with their GP or HV?

• Has the parent made the decision in the child's best interests? So for example with ebf, I would observe the child to see how they respond to being fed (if possible). Do they seek out the breast or is it always the mother instigating it? If the child is old enough to talk I would ask their views. What does the child's behaviour tell us about the attachment between Mother and baby? Is there any EVIDENCE that the child's health or development had been impeded in any way?

I ensure my reports are underpinned by latest research and guidance so for example when I did an assessment of a child who was home educated I referenced the Badman report in order to support my argument in favour of the parents. I would sometimes reference the WHO or medical journals where appropriate.

These are incredibly nuanced matters and the social worker should be constantly reflecting on how their own cultural expectations or experiences may be colouring their professional judgement of the situation. As a layperson if I felt a social worker was either deliberately or inadvertantly imposing their personal beliefs on me without clear evidence that this was in the child's best interests I would make a complaint.

I do find a couple of issues on the list above absurd though, vegetarianism?! No TV?? Whilst the person making the referral to social services may have highlighted these as the cause for their concern I doubt social services would give them a second thought. I can guarantee you I've never had anything like that on my caseload!! My caseloads have always been made up of domestic violence, neglect, sexual harm (often child on child sexual harm) and issues of physical chastisement/ abuse. Whether or not a parent feed their child tofu is of no interest to me.

In my case they are involved because (i think unoffically) i had pnd with my frist 3 yares ago and now i have a 7 week old. The HV sdaid last week that i'm doing better than what they all though i would be! Yes i'm still on Anti-d from my first child!

But what if all the ticks are their and the parents have made change case closed but then revert back?

So unsafe kitchen cleaned but then messed up again - then what is the course of action?