Do we HAVE to take our baby to be weighed at the HV?

Nicki

I suspect it's not a legal requirement to have 2 home visits from the HV as when I had my Ds2 last year I am sure we only had one home visit by the HV, who was an agency HV who lived and worked in a completely different part of England and knew nothing at all about local services so was a complete waste of time! Our allocated HV for the area refused to weigh my Ds twice a week as requested by the paediatricians at the local hospital when he hadn't regained his birth weight by day 28 :eek: and after he had been in hospital for a week being monitored for failure to thrive :mad: When we tried to press her to do it, she complained about us to her line manager for causing her too much work. The hospital were livid with her, and when she said she was too busy, they told her she must be spending a lot of time weighing babies who didn't need it if she couldn't find time to weigh one as poorly as ours was!

tiamai_d

jaibaby wrote: »

Back onto the subject of my HV, she was also my brothers HV. He was a little on the chunky side when he was a baby, and she told my mum not to give him biscuits because he would end up fat. If you could see him now! He ate like a pig, on solids from 3 weeks, breastfed until he literally ripped my mum apart, he still eats like a pig, but he is as skinny as a rake! Put it this way, he has 4 huge meals a day, on Sundays he has 3 sunday dinners!

Did she recover from that? Messy...

OP, no, you don't have to go every month. My boys were under paediatric care and only saw the HV for their jabs. She didn't see the point of doing what was already getting done regulary.

building_with_lego

narabanekeater wrote: »

Would anyone please happen to know what rules say about HV home visits after youve been discharged from your midwifes care which is at 10 days where I live
I was told at college the rules say 2 home visits from HV then your on your own
Im pregnant and am genuinally intrested is my HV has to visit us at home. I know clinic attendance is encouraged but im wondering about the HV coming to your home
Thanks

I'm not sure about HVs but midwives do have a duty of care to you until your baby's a month old (28 days) so, although they'll officially discharge you into the care of the HV at day 10, you can request that they continue to attend you if you like.

My first HV (:A) visited me while I was still pregnant as "they don't like to intrude as a stranger when you have a newborn" :T. She was wonderful but has now left our practice- with DS I think the replacement came once, got wee-ed on and never returned. I may have taken him to the clinic once to get weighed but as they've abolished the 9 month and 2 year checks and nurses do the jabs he's not been seen since he was a newborn.

jaibaby

tiamai_d wrote: »

Did she recover from that? Messy...

I'm afraid to say no..... her boobs have never recovered!

And to Sam. I would seek a professional's help if I was worried about any of my children. But I would see a real doctor. And that would be after I had spoken to my mum. My three are happy and thriving.

Nicki

jaibaby wrote: »

And to Sam. I would seek a professional's help if I was worried about any of my children. But I would see a real doctor. And that would be after I had spoken to my mum. My three are happy and thriving.

I think Sam's point was that HV are professionals too.

Personally I would not take any childrearing advice from anyone who introduced solids to their child at 3 weeks old :eek: That has never been advised medically, and can only have been done for the parent's benefit not the child's. Tbh there is little advice I would take from my own mother as life has moved on since she had her children and we know so much more about risks of SIDS, car safety, food hygiene, etc. Whilst mum's advice would be well meaning it wouldn't be the most accurate necessarily. I'd rather be told by a professional what is recommended from a health point of view and why this is recommended, then I could take an informed view as to whether to let my mother's instinct override the official advice, or whether there were in fact good reasons to do things differently.

thatgirlsam

jaibaby wrote: »

I'm afraid to say no..... her boobs have never recovered!

And to Sam. I would seek a professional's help if I was worried about any of my children. But I would see a real doctor. And that would be after I had spoken to my mum. My three are happy and thriving.

a real doctor?

like a GP? they know a little about everything.. but are not experts in child development

i can understand that you have been put off HV's but there are reasons for them giving the advice they do.. they ahve to follow guidelines although i agree they can be too rigid

the weaning thing - i weaned my own kids at 4 months, against the HV advice but i made an informed choice.. i am aware why the guidelines are set at 6 months and chose not to follow them

do you really beleive mothers should not be given the advice so then can then make an INFORMED choice?

SingleSue

thatgirlsam wrote: »

thank you for pointing that out as the thought hadn't crossed my mind but i can see where you are coming from

what amused me at the time was the thought of dragging my moody hulking teenager to baby clinic

obviously it wouldn't be amusing if a teenager had to be weighed and measured through abuse or neglect

i meant no harm by what i said

Sorry, I had a little giggle at that (apart from the last sentence)....eldest was going through a diagnostic phase last year and because he had been refered just before he was 16, he was seeing the paediatric specialists.

Anyway, imagine if you will, a hulking 6 foot almost man sitting in the children's waiting room with all the little chairs, the bright pictures and pretend play items and then having to go with all the babies and toddlers to be weighed and measured :rotfl:

More silly was he wanted his mum to come with him when they did!

thatgirlsam

SingleSue wrote: »

Sorry, I had a little giggle at that (apart from the last sentence)....eldest was going through a diagnostic phase last year and because he had been refered just before he was 16, he was seeing the paediatric specialists.

Anyway, imagine if you will, a hulking 6 foot almost man sitting in the children's waiting room with all the little chairs, the bright pictures and pretend play items and then having to go with all the babies and toddlers to be weighed and measured :rotfl:

More silly was he wanted his mum to come with him when they did!

aww sue im glad you didn't take offence at what i said

bless him

barbiedoll

narabanekeater wrote: »

Would anyone please happen to know what rules say about HV home visits after youve been discharged from your midwifes care which is at 10 days where I live
I was told at college the rules say 2 home visits from HV then your on your own
Im pregnant and am genuinally intrested is my HV has to visit us at home. I know clinic attendance is encouraged but im wondering about the HV coming to your home
Thanks

Midwives will only discharge you and your baby at 10 days IF your baby is well, has regained any weight loss after birth and does not have any other health concerns. If your baby is jaundiced (incredibly common) or has not regained his/her birthweight, they will not discharge you. Midwives do have a duty of care up to 28 days but once you have been discharged, it will be very difficult to persuade them to come out to you again, unless there are serious health concerns. And even then, they would probably refer you to your GP, or back to the hospital.
As for HV visits, you will be lucky to get more than one home visit, normally, you are expected to attend the baby clinic after that, again, unless there are any other issues. (If you are disabled, for example) My HV, lovely as she was, seemed to constantly be at my door, but that was 13 years ago, budgets and staff levels have been cut since then!

jaibaby

Nicki wrote: »

I think Sam's point was that HV are professionals too. Shame mine wasn't and missed a huge problem with my child that only a student nurse picked up!!! Not very professional

Personally I would not take any childrearing advice from anyone who introduced solids to their child at 3 weeks old :eek: That has never been advised medically, and can only have been done for the parent's benefit not the child's. And how does that figure? My brother needed it. He is now 21, and as I have said, 6ft3 and skinny as a rake. He has no problems feeding, and has about 5/6 meals a day. So tell me something was wrong with feeding him at 3 weeks!!!!
Tbh there is little advice I would take from my own mother as life has moved on since she had her children and we know so much more about risks of SIDS, car safety, food hygiene, etc. Whilst mum's advice would be well meaning it wouldn't be the most accurate necessarily. I'd rather be told by a professional what is recommended from a health point of view and why this is recommended, then I could take an informed view as to whether to let my mother's instinct override the official advice, or whether there were in fact good reasons to do things differently.

My mother brought me and my siblings up perfectly. Nothing wrong with us. So why the hell shouldn't I go to her for advice??

If I spent 2 years reading up on the mechanics of a car, say 10 years ago. Does that mean that I would still be able to sort out a car that was made this year? No, because things change. And don't say that doesn't make sense because it's not a child. You read a baby book from 10 years ago. Totally different to things now.

The problem is, if someone unfortunately loses a baby / child, everything they did is looked into. If they were weaned early, that is then condemmed. If they slept on their stomach instead of their back, that is condemmed. The MMR thing that was going around - found that children who had autism had their MMR jabs - most silliest thing I've ever heard! Just because so many kids they studied that had autism, and had their MMR, they suggested it was linked, so not to give your child it. And now this year they have proved that to be cr*p. But I bet there's a few of you that panicked and didn't let your child have it done, did you? I turned to my mum on that occasion, and she told me that me and my siblings all had it, and we were all ok. So all three of mine had it done.

If I were that concerned over my children I would make an appointment to see a pediatrician. I am sorry though, as I don't understand how seeing a normally doctor would not be ok? I mean, I went to see him when I was younger. He sees sick people everyday. What is there that he can't tell me. Oh yeah, that my child isn't gaining enough weight