Health visitors

[hunkermunker]

Can I take a big gun and go and shoot lots of them? Please?

need any ammo?

(anything in particularly bugging you sneaky?)

((if you say anything to do with feeding I am going to shoot you btw))

LOL!

Not the F-word - this time

Just reading through some weaning advice threads and seeing red re idiot HVs

ha ha ha .. just noticed this was in weaning section assumed it was in general chitter-chat .. I withdraw my double-parenthesis comment

I could talk about follow-on milk, I suppose...but I won't! LOL!

PMSL at fictitious carrot and parsnip!

Erm..can I just say my kids' HV is fantastic. DS & dd have both had the same HV & I really like her. She's pro b/f in a big way & really supportive & encouraging. She keeps going on courses to keep her knowledge up to date and coming back all enthusiastic about breast milk!

I know what you mean about some of the idiots referred to on here though - I can't believe there's such an inconsistent service out there.

She also told me not to even think about weaning until 6 months.

Magscat, that's fab. Really pleased to hear there are some good ones (Aragon, I know you're great ).

There are some real shockers out there, aren't there?!

hmmmm

My hv caused me a lot of distress the first time she saw me. (told me to top up dd with formula) I stuck by my b/f guns with the help of the great women on MN and once she saw dd thriving on bm she has not offered me much advice since. just came along for perfunctionary visits to tick her boxes i suppose.

bye the bye I spoke to a different hv last week at the clinic who mentioned a weaning group. i mentioned that I going back to work so could not attend - to use as a handy get out clause. i then dropped in that i do all my own cooking at home and had a book of baby weaning recipes. noting that dd was 4.5 mo, I said that I was waiting to wean her after her tongue reflex goes. to my pleasant surprise she applauded my decision and the fact that i cook regularly. I thought thank goodness. they are not all daft.

Why are so many of them useless? Do they get fixed ideas in their heads, then want mothers to abide by what they say? Is it a power trip for some of them? I KNOW not all of them are like that, but when you hear about the bad ones...it does make you wonder!

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Yep - agree there are some real shockers out there.

Worst of all is that in many cases the NHS lacks any willingnes to do something about the really crap ones.

giraffeski - that's shocking.

I am amazed that there are so many bad health visitors. The stories I hear on here are shocking.

I haven't seen much of mine as my mum was one (now in management) and is excellent.

She would never have reccommended weaning before 6 months and is very pro breast feeding etc. Also hates jars of baby food. Although always supportive of peoples choices.

Can be quite frustrating having such an opinionated ex HV looking over your shoulder all the time!

But I just wanted to add that as I know for a fact, although I am biased, they are not all bad.

giraffeski, am speechless! (Well, nearly ). Did you say anything at the time? Or were you too busy trying to pick your bottom jaw up off the floor?!

Pruni, yes, I know there are often no answers with babies (awkward little blighters!), often just suggestions - but lots of HVs do give appalling anti-breastfeeding advice for instance - and the weaning stuff is just abysmal so often.

Aragon - you're a ray of sunshine!

Yes, again, because it can't be said enough - I do not include all HVs. But a large percentage of them are shockers.

I confess to not knowing much about HV training - how do some get away with being so bad?

To add to that weesadie, one of my best friends is a HV and she is superb.
I have asked her for advice on numerous occasions. She was a general nurse (we trained together) then a qualified midwife and now a HV.
She has 3 kids of her own and so is up to speed on parenting.

My mum was a highly qualified nurse (G/H grade I think) and did one years training to qualify as a health visitor, which seems a fair amount of time to me.

She trained years ago when the advice re. numerous topics was no doubt different but has kept up to date with all the changes, etc.

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I think it's that that's important - I suppose it's like any job. Some people are dedicated, remain current and realise there are reasons for changes. Some don't.

She has worked in a lot of different areas and has found in certain areas people far less interested in accepting her advice so her success rate in getting people to continue breast feeding/get babies off the bottle (on to a cup), etc very much varied!

Although in some areas her worries did not so much concern weaning etc as unhygenic living conditions and so on... it was a totally different situation and she had to deal with some truly terrible things.