Health Visitors!

[PrincessPea]

Ok, so we have a thread for silly/stupid/hurtful things members of the public and family have said to us but what about Health Visitors?!?!? I know there are some fab ones out there but I can't be the only one who has a dafty!!

I'll start, dont get me wrong she has come out with some idiotic comments but today takes the biscuit!!! This was during Jessica's 12 week check:

HV: Heres a leaflet I want you to look at and have a think about, its about a scheme run by the local council for pre-schoolers (!!). They have educational teachers who will do home visits for people whose children have severe developmental delays and they help bring them on.

ME: (HV just having finished Jessica's checks). Is Jessica doing everything she should be for her corrected age?

HV: yes, definitely

ME: So where are the severe developmental delays you are talking about?

HV: emmm???

DOH!!

Now dont get me wrong, Jessica may well have delays along the way, and at that point we will deal with it and then hand me all the leaflets you want to help, but come on!!!!!

 

[pink.crazy]

Ok, the first words HV spoke to me, after saying hello.... "oh.... well.... he doesn't.. look prem?"

What's he supposed to look like then?!? Coz he looks like a BABY to me!

 

[pink.crazy]

BEFORE his due date.. "is he smiling yet?"

At 6 months actual/3 corrected... "is he crawling?"

Ugggghhh, you just DON'T get it, silly woman!

 

[toothfairyx]

oh yeah - we had the "any smiles yet?" at 5 weeks before due date. Fortunately we don't see her anymore as the funding was cut!!

 

[pink.crazy]

I have to go to the weigh clinic next week booooooo

 

[PrincessPea]

You mean Leo doesnt have 'prem' tattoed on his forehead for her to see!!!!!

After Jessica had been in the hosp for her hernia op and she caught what they called 'an aggressive infection' for which she was hospitalised for a week, the next time I was at baby clinic I was saying that I was surprised and pleased that despite that Jessica had put on a good amount of weight and the HV replied 'yes, welll its not like she was ill or anything was it'!

 

[Dasy25]

Yep there sure are some belters out there. What a silly woman! My health visitor today kept saying "Oh she's really losing that `prem baby` look isn't she?" I must be feeling sensitive. Dont like anyone saying that. Makes me think...well what were they thinking before???

 

[AP]

Yep there sure are some belters out there. What a silly woman! My health visitor today kept saying "Oh she's really losing that `prem baby` look isn't she?" I must be feeling sensitive. Dont like anyone saying that. Makes me think...well what were they thinking before???

Yup, had that one!
My HV had to give up seeing us I think I was quite happy to listen to her advice until we hit weaning and we debated it in the stair. I told her Bliss said otherwise and she swore it was too early.

About a week later we had a neonatal appointment and they wrote a ketter to her saying they actually expected Alex to be on 3 meals now

She returned today (9 months later) a bit shocked to find that I was married and had Tori, and Alex was quite happily doing well.

 

[PrincessPea]

My HV told me that I shouldnt be weaning Jessica until 6 months CORRECTED! That would make her 10 months actual. She would have been eating my sofa by then!!!!

 

[Dasy25]

SB22 and PPea. You girls crack me up

 

[AP]

wtf is a 'ketter' , bloody ipad

aw btw, this is the same HV we have seen in the street 3 TIMES in the last 9 mo ths and we say hi, and she ignores us!

 

[Dasy25]

Kette isn't even in the dictionary

Did she not even see that you were expecting? She sounds right ignorant to me!!!

 

[lozzy21]

I cant fault my HV, shes lovly.

 

[AP]

Kette isn't even in the dictionary

Did she not even see that you were expecting? She sounds right ignorant to me!!!

na, i seen her in Tesco once and I hid my lil bump at the time cause i didnt want her hounding me

 

[Foogirl]

The day after I got home....

HV - "So, where is she then? Is she upstairs sleeping?

me - No, she's still in hospital

HV - Oh? Is she not well?

me - (Looking at her like she was mad) No, she was 11 weeks early and is in NNICU

HV - Oh! No-one told me that. We'll go through the visit anyway and I'll make another for when she comes home. Do you know when that will be?

I could have fekking slapped the woman. She even had the nerve to call the unit to ask them to keep an eye on me as I seemed to be awfully upset.....

Then there were the leaflets. She seemed incapable of coming here without a piece of paper to give me. At 8 weeks old, we got one about toothbrushing.

And what's with practically forcing me to go to baby groups??

But, to be fair to her, she was actually very good the one time I had a meltdown because Abby wasn't feeding properly.

And it was she (not the NNIC consultant) who spotted during her 12 month check up that there may be something wrong with Abby's lower back and offering a referral for Physio. 3 weeks later, the consultant only agreed to do it because I forced her hand. She phoned me a fortnight later to say she was going through her notes and didn't think it was necessary so I had to convince her to do it all over again.

My new HV is very good. She's dealing with all the stuff for Abby's CP and when I called her to ask her to come she had done heaps of research into what we both needed to do and she's been back fairly regularly too. She's also sweetly very concerned about how Mr Foo and I are dealing with it all. I wish we'd had her from the start!

 

[EmSmith1980]

Yesterday I got "oh Anya is starting to look like her brothers and sister now, before she just looked like every other preemie with that funny head shape" for my HV. Still raging. Clueless woman.

 

[AP]

Maybe we could end up creating guidelines for THEM !

And what's with practically forcing me to go to baby groups??

Yes Foo, it friggin cracks me uuuuuuuup!!!

 

[Lottie86]

The 2 HVs I saw in Dorset when Findlay came out of hospital were absolutely fantastic and I couldn't have faulted either of them. I therefore believed all health visitors were like this, oh how wrong I was.

I arrived back up here (Dorset HV and neonatal had phoned and written to my HV up here to let her know what date we'd be back up here) and we heard nothing from her at all. The first time we saw her was when Findlay was 3 months old by which point he'd been readmitted to hospital very seriously ill and we nearly lost him and the first thing she did was make a comment about you could tell he was prem from the shape of his head!!! I could have smacked her. Other than for injections or when I have demanded that she weighs Findlay as the hospital wanted him weighing she's never seen him.

Before his surgeries in 2009 on the times he was allowed home the hospital wanted him weighing several times a week due to his serious weight issues due to vomiting 100+ times a day due to very severe GORD to which the HV told me she thought it was unneccessary to weigh him more than once a month -I was standing there thinking ummmmm I don't give a stuff what you think I care what the surgeon, his dietician and his gastro consultant think!- and then her and the midwife had the cheek to say to me that they didnt see why the hospital were worried about him or his weight as I'm small. Say whaaaaaaat!!! You could see every one of his ribs, see his spine sticking out of his back and the hospital were telling us that we just needed to try and get enough milk in him to keep him going until his surgery I'm sorry but in a situation that serious I don't see how on earth a HV can think that that is fine due to me beign 5ft 2

She reiterates her "well I wouldn't expect him to be big as you're not" opinion every time she sees him despite the fact I have explained to her several times that his poor weight gain is down to his chromosome abnormality. Yes I may be 5ft 2 but that doesn't make it remotely normal for a baby born at 5lb 7oz to weigh 13lb 7oz at 2 years old despite being pumped full of 1400 calories a day!!

 

[25weeker]

Thankfully I have been lucky with HV's as well. My first HV arranged her colleague to come out and show me baby massage over 5 weeks as she knew I didn't want to take her to baby groups until she was bigger. After the 6 week check she pretty much left me to it and I would go the clinic every fortnight to have Holly weighed. They never stressed that she was on the 0.4th centile and were happy she was following a line in the graph.

When we moved in Oct I was worried as we had to change surgeries but thankfully this HV is nice as well and seems to understand the whole premature thing.

My HV is letting the hospital do the development checks as she doesn't think they need to be done twice which I am glad about.

 

[bob2331]

the first time my health visitor got in touch was 2 weeks before harry came home (4 months actual, 0 correct)at our discharge meeting. She didnt say one word to us and i just thought, of flipping great, she will be a load of help!!!

Anyway, we came home and she came round the following week. Her first question was

'Do you have any other children'

Seriously, read your FUCKING notes!!!

Second week of coming round

'I forgot to ask last week, are you breastfeeding Harry' me : no, not since i stopped empressing at 12 weeks due to me having a breakdown and being put on tablets to help' hv ' okay....... and what caused your breakdown'

Third and final time

'My harry has got a rather large head, no doubt fluid from where you had him so prem'

I called my mum, she came round and told the HV a few home truths and said if you ever come and see my daughter and grandson again, i will call the police (my dad is a policeman)

Never seen or heard from her since!!!!