Health Visitors!

[Cazzyg]

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!

Ours was actually really good. Treated me like an adult capable of research and making decisions all by myself. Happy to come to the house and do her checks rather have me to to the surgery with Charlotte and happy to admit when she came across something she didn't know much about. She also looked at the baby as a whole rather than focusing on weight when her weight gain was slow.

But the surgery serves a rather mixed demographic and I think we were a walk in the park compared to some of the issues they have to deal with.

I've come across a few health visitors locally through breastfeeding groups and one set were fab but the other awful. The only answer they had to breastfeeding issues, was "oh, well have you tried giving some cooled boiled water".

 

[Foogirl]

Are you at Carron? We were up at thorn hill as Carron was full. I think our HV felt the same. I can imagine some of their visit! We're with Carron now and the woman is very good.

 

[katy1310]

Ours is awful! We've had all the "oh, she doesn't look prem" comments (in a surprised voice!), also had a massive hassle trying to get her to accept that we needed to start weaning at 6 months actual, and she said "but if you start now it's like weaning a 3 month old and you'll be putting her at risk of diabetes, being overweight and coronary heart disease".....a couple of weeks later she was back with her tail between her legs, having read up on weaning a preemie! At that point she started saying we should be dropping bottles and getting Sophie onto meat and fish!!!!! But we were still very much on purees at that point and taking it very slowly as we'd hardly been weaning any time at all!

She also asked if we just leave her in the travel cot all day (?!) - just because we have it in the living room with a few toys in it because I'm on my own 12 hours a day with Sophie and I need somewhere to put her if I need to do a couple of chores round the house or have a pee! She's by no means in there all day!

I think the one that's annoyed us most of all was just before Sophie's birthday, she said "I'll do her 12 month check up at 13 months so she's not at an unfair disadvantage with the other babies - we usually do it between 11 and 13 months so in Sophie's case we'll leave it till the 13 months" - that would be 13 months ACTUAL so 10 months corrected!!!!!!! If she really wants to be fair shouldn't she be leaving it till Sophie's due date at least?!

I'm pretty sure there's been other stuff too but I can't remember it just now - no doubt I'll be back! x

 

[Cazzyg]

Are you at Carron? We were up at thorn hill as Carron was full. I think our HV felt the same. I can imagine some of their visit! We're with Carron now and the woman is very good.

That's where we are and they were fab when C was tiny, never stopped screaming and was in her harness for her hips. They seemed to be quite good at reading me......

 

[Foogirl]

Are you at Carron? We were up at thorn hill as Carron was full. I think our HV felt the same. I can imagine some of their visit! We're with Carron now and the woman is very good.

That's where we are and they were fab when C was tiny, never stopped screaming and was in her harness for her hips. They seemed to be quite good at reading me......

Yes, Lorna never seems to too convinced when I claim I'm absolutely fine about Abby having cerebral palsy - my "happy face" obviously needs some work!

 

[gilz82]

Oh I haven't even met my HV yet and I seriously dislike her.

She phoned a week past on friday to arrange a visit on what would be day 11. Call went as follows

HV : hi I want to organise a time to see you and baby on Monday

Me : Well that would be difficult as Noah is in the NICU

HV : are you sure?

You can imagine how the conversation went after that little gem. Unsurprisingly she was told in no uncertain terms exactly how sure I was that my beautiful son was not with me at home!! I then had to go through all of the details of my emergency section which I found really upsetting. I'm so looking forward to meeting her in person when Noah gets to come home

 

[Maman]

my son werent prem but did have severe reflux and just before he was admitted to hospital at 3 months old as he hadnt fed and kept it down in 24 hours

my health visitor (in his very camp voice)

'ohhhh dahhhling, just give him a packet of quavers'

me: ...

right i will call a and e.