Health visitors

[Lily7050]

A health visitor has contacted us recently first time since the beginning of 2020. Said my child needs a health check as he approaches 2.5 years in age.
Apparently they now do this via video calls.

Really? They have not been interested in my child's health for almost two years.
How are they going to measure weight and height of my child over the video call?
Have they been on furlough all the time until the government stopped furlough?

HV have always been accessible by phone throughout the pandemic. Generally speaking they don’t contact people unless they ask for help. The vast majority of their work is child protection and working with parents who have issues beyond the average parent. The 2 year check is a developmental check so can easily be done over the phone or by video. If you want to decline it then it’s your choice to.

You can always call them and ask for a face to face appointment if you think it's necessary.

I don’t understand the angst tbh. I’m sure if you’d been concerned about your child’s health you would have sought advice.
HVs in my area have been redeployed to district nursing, paediatrics wards etc since the start of the pandemic and when able to do their own jobs are constantly playing catch-up

We just had ours in person this week. She just ran through a bunch of questions about his speech and ability to do certain things and watched him play. It sounded like it was just to check there were no significant development issues.

They didn't measure height and weight.

You don't have to have it if you don't want to.

I got sent the forms and told to do it myself

If it was a health assessment you were asked to fill in kevinthesnipe would you not be the best person to fill it in? As the parent?
Health visitors have continued to work , families have really struggled in lockdown .
I don’t understand why people who have no issues with there children seem to enjoy making an issue out of routine checks?
Don’t want it, decline, simple!
Now waiting on all the comments of my health visitor is so hopeless she told me to microwave my child etc …

Everything @Fallagain @Didyeaye and @DessieSaysDiy have said.

Every parent is offered a check for their 2 and 1/2 yr olds.
If you don't want to take up the option, then don't. If you already have concerns, then you will have arranged an appointment previously. If others have concerns about your child and have contacted the HV, then they might be a bit more persistent.
Over the pandemic, there haven't been that many opportunities for many new parents to meet up with others with similar age children and many parents don't realise they ought to be concerned about their child doing / not doing x, y, and z at this age, so a developmental check can be really helpful.

I dont know why you're so incredulous about this.

They're not getting in touch because they're suddenly super interested in your child. They have to get in touch and offer the appointment because its literally their job. Just decline the invite if you dont want it.

You can also measure your childs height and weight yourself, then let them know if they ask.

They havent been on furlough. They were probably working at reduced staffing and dealing with the families who need their input.

Honestly OP, if you dont want their help, dont take it. Coming on to MN and calling health professionals shit at their job is getting old.

@Lily7050

A health visitor has contacted us recently first time since the beginning of 2020. Said my child needs a health check as he approaches 2.5 years in age. Apparently they now do this via video calls.

Really? They have not been interested in my child's health for almost two years.
How are they going to measure weight and height of my child over the video call?
Have they been on furlough all the time until the government stopped furlough?

NHS staff were not furloughed, no. A huge amount were redeployed to other duties.

Not sure what your issue is? 2.5 is the standard check in point to assess development. Also it your job to monitor your child’s height and weight…not there’s.

Just don’t do it if you’ve no concerns. We were sent the list of activities to check what she could do, she could do them, so I didn’t book a call.

My point is HVs have never contacted during the first lockdown to find out how 9-10-11 month old child is doing with two parents working full time and no childcare. Last time when DS was in A&E the nurse asked if HV sees him and laughed herself.
Now all of a sudden there is a 2 year developmental check. So no checks are required between?
Our last meeting with HV was in March 2020 just before the lockdown. HV notes say "review GM skills in 8 weeks". 20 months passed since then no one ever contacted to review anything.

If you do not want to engage with the HV, it is not compulsory. Just let them know you are not interested.

There is a 13 month check then nothing until 2.5. they're always there if you call and need anything but given you've not heard from them then I suspect you so not fall into the category that requires additional help which is a good thing.

The only reason I've heard from my HV in-between 13months and 2.5 is because we had a second baby.

It was a pandemic.
Operations and cancer care cancelled.
Schools closed.
Increased pressures and risks for vulnerable families.
It could be presumed that parents seek help if worried about child’s health or development.
If the health visitor visited you and all the other families who are similar to you, risk of covid transmission would increase.
I don’t think many parents would be happy at contracting or transmitting covid.
It was a hard time for all.
OP I hope you are ok as in the grand scheme of things many families lost loved ones.
If your child is well I’d try not to worry.
If you have concerns call them and set the ball rolling
Two is a lovely age for Christmas, hope it’s a good one 🎅

Are you worried about GM? Did you call to chase?

@Lily7050

My point is HVs have never contacted during the first lockdown to find out how 9-10-11 month old child is doing with two parents working full time and no childcare. Last time when DS was in A&E the nurse asked if HV sees him and laughed herself. Now all of a sudden there is a 2 year developmental check. So no checks are required between? Our last meeting with HV was in March 2020 just before the lockdown. HV notes say "review GM skills in 8 weeks". 20 months passed since then no one ever contacted to review anything.

Like others have said, it’s your job as a parent to chase these things up. It’s been an exceptionally year and a half for the NHS and lots of areas have suffered while they have needed an extraordinary respond to an extraordinary situation. It’s generally normal to speak to HV a couple of times when they are new born, around and year and around 2 years. I chose to turn down the 2 year check (its 2 years not 2.5 yrs in our area) as I checked DD2 development against the questionnaire myself and was happy but we were having issues with potty training so when they contacted me I asked if we could arrange a chat about that instead.

You need to ask yourself if you are really angry with the lack of HV contact here or are you angry with the whole covid situation/worried about your child’s development/concerned that you should have asked for support earlier? All potential valid things to feel btw

I also don’t see the issue. If you were concerned about your child you could contact someone. Routine check ups were hardly priority in the pandemic. You can weigh and measure your child if you’re concerned. I’m sure HV are going to families where they think that’s an issue to check child is being fed etc. However if you have no red flags they can surely see child looks healthy over video link. If you’re not a concern to them it’s good they’re spending time with other children who have issues in their lives.

I don’t really understand your anger. Even without a pandemic the HV don’t do regular checkups unless you think it’s necessary. I think you’ve misunderstood what they’re job description is. If you have concerns your welcome to contact them but apart from the normal checks which includes the 2-2.5yr check then it’s unlikely you see or hear much from them

My 2 year old is developmental on track, so we've had little contact with her health visitor. We had a phone call at 1, and have just had her 2 year check face to face, where she was weighed for the first time since 6 weeks.

My just turn 5yo has autism, and went through the diagnostic process during the pandemic. His health visitor attended teams meeting every 2 months with us, nursery and other health professionals, and rang us in between to check how things were progressing.

Contact is based on need, but it's your job to raise concerns, if you have any, so they know you need extra input.

2/3 of health visitors were redeployed to other areas of nursing. The remaining 1/3 would mostly have been working with high risk families where there are child protection risks. No NHS staff were furloughed.

We have a 10mo check and a 2yo check and you can contact them in between if you need to, it was the same pre pandemic. They told me all this in our initial meeting when both my kids were born and it's on the website. I had several calls with HV re new baby in lockdown 3 and they came out within a week of calling to see us over the summer for a concern about DD3.

Your employment status and childcare problems are nothing to do with the HV.

Even before the pandemic the Hv would not have been in contact at 9/10/11 months unless you went to see them with concerns.

As others have stated - the 2 year check is standard.

They are the normal checks. You see your health visitor less frequently as your child grows but the service is there to be contacted if you need it (like other nhs services)
They were stretched before and will be even busier now with more families needing support.
You need to be proactive with your childs care instead of waiting for people to come to you.