In praise of HV's (well mind anyhow) some of them are fabulous :-)

[FarcicalAlienQueen]

Just been and had DS3's 8 month development check. He's nearly 8 months now a weeks short.

LOVELY, LOVELY HV who I've had for nearly 6yrs now. We'd just moved to the area and she knocked on the door about 6 weeks later, introduced herself and told me that they'd had a letter from my old HV asking for an extra check on DS1's talking.....he wasn't really talking at all.

She came in, watched him, while chatting to me, for about 10 minutes turned round and declared "there's nothing wrong with him........but we'll do an extra check just so the paperwork is ok" . She was right (and I knew there was nothing wrong too) and now at 7 I can't shut him up .

Anyhow, back to today with DS3.

Her: Is he sitting up unaided yet
Me: Sort of, but not for very long - started on Boxing day to sit for short whiles unaided.
Her: (looking at his attempts to sit up and grabbing toys at the same time) - he's fine, nothing to worry about.

Her: Is he eating much yet
Me: No, we're doing a sort of BLW, likes to taste food but doesn't eat much yet, still prefers his milk - 5/6 8oz bottles a day
Her: That's ok no rush, he'll eat more when he wants to

Her: How's his sleeping
Me: Slept through the last 2 nights, but usually still wakes once in the night
Her: Are you worried about it
Me: No
Her: Ok, no problem then

Had him weighed and measured - and he's crept up the charts again to the 98th centile for both (started on the 25th).

Her response - well he's all in proportion, don't worry about it - he's obviously just going to be a big boy (as in tall and well built - as opposed to fat she meant).

Her: Is he weight bearing at all yet?
Me: A little, but not a great deal
Her: Well bigger babies sometimes do take a little longer, more to hold up - and there's still plenty of time

Basically - she was really lovely, and didn't make an issue out of ANY of the things which I've read about a lot of HV's making issues of

(like my first HV with DS1 who was constantly going on about him not sleeping, not rolling, not crawling, not weight bearing etc etc etc).

Almost makes me want to have another baby just so I can have her as my HV for longer (but it's NOT going to happen LOL)

Oh, I'll join in on this!!! Mine were lovely!!! They never fussed or bothered me about things that weren't important, but when there were potentially very serious problems with dd's weight gain, and later with her walking, they picked up on it much quicker than I did. Had it not been for their support I don't know if dd would be alive today- or at least I might have found myself in court on a charge of neglect; it's happened to other mums whose children have later been found to suffer from rare disorders! Instead, I had constant support and encouragement- including the encouragement to to become more independent when things improved.

All we ever seem to have on MN are HV "bashing" threads - which is a shame as there are lots of lovely ones around

mine all lovely too, much better than one of my gps at diagnosing rash and v reassuring and lovely about blw and extended bf, all v lentil weavery

My first one was lovely but then she moved out of the area ,the next one was ok professionally but I didn't like her personally. My current one is fabulous,she has twins herself so understands multiples and when dd4 was in hospital she phoned from her home number on a bank holiday to get an update.

Mine are lovely too - don't make a fuss if the DCs don't quite meet targets and refer straight on when they think there is something wrong.

I think my HV thinks most of the "targets" are a waste of time LOL.

Yay! I hated mine to start off with, a mixture of her new mum reassurance voice being patronising and the fact that I was a new mum and therefore hormonally bound to hate anyone who tried to tell me how to look after my baby. That and she kept coming over when I wanted to leave for baby group

Anyway ds had his 12 month check the other week. She didn't care that he has gone to somewhere between the 9th and 25th centile and doesn't even weigh 20lb yet, didn't really ask anything else, just said he looks fab.

When I asked about his excema, as we have started to have problems she was well informed, made lots of suggestions, agreed it seem likely to be diet related (given the timing of flare ups) but also agreed that messing with diet shouldn't be done without proper advise. She told me to give her a ring if he flared up again and she would sort out an appointment, have someone to help with finding out if it was a food allergy and give proper nutritional advise if we had to cut things out and offered to do a prescription for creams etc so that we could get them fo free.

All in all a star

What a good idea! Mine is great too. I had problems with bf with ds and our hv was super supportive, came and watched me trying to get him latched on and offered help, but was very honest in admitting she wasn't a bf expert - turned out she later rang the infant feeding specialist at the local hospital to get some more advice for us and to see what else she could do to help. She continued to ring me every so often just to see how ds was doing (and me too), tell us how well we were doing and made sure we were back on track. I'd call her in an instant if we had problems again... Given how many mnetters seem to have negative experiences (and I did in the hospital when ds was born ), this has made me wonder if I ought to send a proper thank you to the gp surgery!

my HV is lovely though I haven;t seen her in nearly a year (ds is 3.3).

Well informed and experienced (as parent as well as HV).

She was my lifesaver when ds was younger.

My HV's were really lovely as well.
The HV bashing on this site is awful.
I'd much rather listen to HVs who have had experience of hundreds of babies, whose advice is based on common sense and experience, than some of the myths that seem to go round mumsnet and seem to become fact.

Funnily enough I was thinking of starting a thread like this!

Lucky for me the HVs at the clinic have been lovely, very supportive regarding breastfeeding, introducing solids and other things. Overall, they've been reassuring and not patronising at all.

Saw my HV today with DD2 and when she told me her weight I answered (while being completely distracted by DD1 and her snack issues!) Ok, whatever you say, but to be honest I don't know what that means.

'Oh good,' she replies, ' I love it when mums don't care about weight, it means you are not stressing the small stuff, well done'