8 month check with HV - does everyone get one?

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

I hadn't even thought about this until I saw it mentioned on another thread. DS will be 9 months old next week and we've not been contacted.
I do vaguely remember somewhere in the fog of the first visit from the HV that she said something about an 8 month check up.

I don't particularly want one, DS is happy and healthly and developing along broadly normal lines I think! Just curious to know whether she will come knocking one day.......

they dont do 8 month or 2 year checks here (north lanarkshire, scotland). It is up to the parent to notice anything wrong and then contact the hv about it.

I had one for ds but HV said it just depended what doctors practice you were under, some practices did it, some didn't.

I had a letter from the HVs when DS2 turned 1 to say that they wouldn't be in contact until he turns 2, but that I could contact them if I had any concerns or I could go to the mother and baby group they run for one last time.

Don't remember them telling me about the mother and baby group when DS2 was born! Just had a vist from the HV at about 3 weeks, really didn't take to her and was not impressed by what she said.

Went to the drop in baby clinic (only because in the Drs surgery waiting after ds had his first jab) and had a massive argument with one of the other HVs because she wouldn't let me weigh ds2 with his clothes on despite me knowing the weight of the clothes and nappy (something that they used to do at different surgery with DS1). She actually said:
'I cannot weigh DS2 with clothes on because I have only been trained to weigh them naked, I have not been trained to weigh them with clothes on'. But that is a whole other thread

Here (Wilts) they do an 8 month check and then supposedly a 2 year one. However, by the time I got round to my 3rd baby they seemed to have forgotten me and only called DS2 for his 2 year check when he was nearly 3 (I told them I didn't think we needed it!)

What I would stress (although reading your OP it seems you do know this) is that any check-up of this sort is entirely optional, as is any contact with your HV. It really depresses me when I hear people talking about how you 'have' to do this or that the HV 'won't let' them do that... ultimately it is your baby and you decide on the level of support you want.

zipzap, re weighing babies with clothes on. Department of Health guidelines say that if babies are weighed by health care professionals they should be naked (the babies not the HCPs)and that regularly calibrated medically approved scales must be used. Sometimes HVs break the rules about babies being undressed if mothers are insistent about clothes staying on and there's no time for an argument/discussion about the intricacies of Government Guidelines.
Complete accuracy is important for babies who may have a growth or feeding problem.
For general "social" weighing, (baby healthy, no worries just want to see how big he is out of curiosity etc) bathroom scales are fine no need to take up the HVs time. Get on scales holding baby (one or both of you can be naked, fully or partially dressed, your choice ) write down wt, then weigh yourself on your own. 2nd wt taken away from 1st wt = baby's weight.

Thanks everyone. I'm going to see my GP in a few days so I will ask her then.