Health Visitors, Your Opinions.

Do you pay attention to health visitors? Do you assume their knowledge comes from experience or from a text book, or from both?

If you discover that the Health visitor doesnt have any kids do you disregard anything she says ?

What are your experiences of them? does their advice sometimes seem crappy?

I thought my health visitor was good until she told me to ignore my son whilst headbutting stuff at the age of 1 to find he was still doing it months later and even now! Not because he was seeking attention but because he is autistic. She never noticed this until he still wasn't talking properly at the age of 3. He may have done his head some real damage in this time. Fingers crossed he hasn't.

Hmm health visitors...yes:) Well I listen to what they say and decide what is useful and what appears to be absolute claptrap! My HV with son 1 frightened me to death saying he wasnt putting on enough weight and told me I should be topping up with formula:suspect: She hadnt really seen enough fully breastfed kids to see that his weight gain was entirely normal - all she saw was that his weight was straying from his line (90th percentile so not suprising really). I do find that the ones with kids give better advice than those giving you advice from text books.

Your HV is unlikely to know really what your homelife is like and whether what they suggest will work for you. The way I feel though is that they are not always right and maybe you should think about what is said before blindly going ahead with their advice.

I can't say that I had any major dealings with them with my first and not at all with my second child.

I think it depends on how much you trust your own judgement. For some they can be a lifeline if you get a good one. For others they can be a bit of a nuisance. I do think that there are probably a lot of people who are thankful for their services though.

my health visitor was pretty good - she was sort of a FAQ sort of person, and admitted that with the few things she didn't know the answers to that she wasn't the best person to ask, but would find out for me what i wanted to know. she was supportive and possibly the least judgemental person i'd come across, which was really good.

My opinion is not good as I have never had a good encounter with one. Here's just 2 examples.

On my sons 2 year review visit I had to insist on a referal to a speach therapist as he was still baby talking, I say insist as she was more than reluctant saying it would develop in time....it never has, he's autistic which the speach therapist spotted in his 1st session.

When he was 4 the HV phoned to make an appointment for a home visit (I'd not heard from a HV in over a year) I kept a manic child out of nursery and in the house for a 11am appointment to which she came 30 minutes late to plonk herself down on my sofa and say "Is there anything we can do to help?" Apologies for the rant, but HV's are not my favourite health care professional!

I couldn't stand my HV - she rambled on but said nothing at all, asked me a week before I was going back to work if I have childcare sorted out (errr yes, I had it reserved when I was pregnant as places are so rare!) and she spoke to me as though tI was totally stupid, she told me nothing I didn't know already. She'd be the last person I'd go to for advice!

Ive had contact with three Health visitors, one in `86, one in `96 and one in `03. Two were in Sheffield and one was in Leicestershire and NONE had kids of their own, ALL gave advice that simply wasnt logical- in all cases We asked grandparents for advice and it was a lot more helpful than the health visitors.

I used to trust my health visitors advice and believed them to be knowledgable, experienced professionals (most probably are). However, I saw my health visitor about my son's terrible nappy rash and she had to look up advice in a book. Her reply went like this "Hmmm, nappy rash, not sure about that one. I'll just have to look it up." !!!! I presumed a common ailment such as nappy rash would be a health visitors bread and butter!!

HVs are like midwives in my area - you're lucky if they don't change every two weeks. Not exactly great for continuous care...but I suppose you get a wide variety of opinion.

They missed my PND/PTSD, so not too impressed. Plus I felt a bit under seige by the constant visits at first. But at least I know where to go to get him weighed/ask stupid questions - oops, no, that session would be on a day when I'm at work. Oh, never mind. (

My first one was a lovely hippy type lady from Derbyshire doing temp work in Sheffield and she seemed to know everything.

The second was really friendly and admitted to not having kids of her own etc but was very helpful and would ring me after checking info I'd asked for.

She just had a baby in September though and I really hope it all went well, she was lovely.

The clinic nurse throughout my pregnancy was a nightmare though and seriously could not be bothered.

my first health visitor was horrible im a first time mum on my own and she kept saying things like "he's not going to amount to much" "his head's way too big fo his body" and things like that. The one im supposed to have now was lovely to start with, got him refered for speach therepy, hearing test and development checks, but now not heard from her for over a year and was told she was too busy to discuss the hospitals report on his development!!! now awaiting a ryegate appointment and hopefully will get some anwers about whats happenng with my son from them