I won't go into detail, as I'll have steam coming out of my ears all over again :mad:...

... but what happens if I refuse to see the health visitor...

... and what exactly is their job anyway? Is it anything more than telling you you should see a doctor? What do they actually do? :huh: :confused:

I'm not absolutely sure on this but I believe you have to let a health visitor see your baby otherwise they will contact social services. If your not happy with the health visitor at your doctors I would have thought you would be well withing your rites to ask to see someone else, I'm not 100% sure on that either tho sorry.

hope this helps strix..

http://www.healthvisitors.com/hv/25/508

Thanks Loobylou - that's useful

I haven't seen the same person twice yet - which I suspect may be contributing to the problem

I may insist on having a single person and see if we can straighten things out from there

This bit from your link is interesting:
We also offer help and advice to parents on the following:

• Their child’s growth & development
• Common infections in childhood
• Common skin problems
• Behaviour difficulties. Sleeping, eating, potty training, temper tantrums and teething.
• Breastfeeding, weaning, healthy eating, hygiene, safety and exercise
• Postnatal depression, bereavement and violence in the family
We are also involved in:
• Working in partnership with families to tailor health plans to their needs
• Coordinating child immunisation programmes
• Organising and running baby clinics
• Health promotion groups, Breast feeding support groups, Parent support groups, parenting courses
• Nurse prescribing

So far all I've had is extreme reactions and buck passing, but when pressed on specific topics, they have been able to provide more sensible info. Surely it's their role to give this info, not mine to interrogate them

They seem more focused on form filling than actual health :suspect:

I shut the door in my HV face after she said some rather shocking stuff... I haven't seen one since Seb was 4 months old and he's 2 next month

My health visitor was amazing, really helpful and when I was suffering from PND she was really helpful and made me feel like the best mum in the world. She never once criticised, she never once made me feel like I was doing anything wrong. She always praised my parenting skills. I could have cried when she left. I have not seen one since she left. I will probably have to see one for Ruby's 2 year review and I hope she is as nice as the previous health visitor.

you dont have to see a health visitor, my son has seen one 3 times in his life and he is now 20 months, I never felt the need to take him to be weighed. His MMR is due and I was offered an appointment to see the HV before hand which I turned down, he will see the gp before but I dont feel I need a HV service

I agree that you dint have to see a hv. My boy is 18 months and only ever saw the hv once

I only thought you had to let the health visitor see your baby if they requested to as a friend of mine totally refused to let her in after her son was born and they contacted the social services.
My friend had had a run in with this health visitor when she had one of her other children so did have her reasons.
I myself have only taken Scarlett to baby clinic a couple of times, I don't need to get her weighted every few weeks I know shes doing fine. I only see the health visitor for her reviews.

After I had one home visit I started going to the drop-in clinic -much easier from my POV and have never had anyone chase me up if DD didn't see anyone for months.
All they used to tell me was to 'keep an eye on her weight, but don't worry about it, she's fine,but just watch it' which obviously made me worry, until I decided to ignore it.
But all the different HV's I saw were supportive about BF-ing and baby led weaning - only prob is the constant weight fussing!

It is hard to comment without knowing your circumstances and no I am not being nosey.

I had a v bad experience first time round so with my son I told the mw that the hv team were not welcome in my home + I thought I would get him seen at the normal visits then occasionally when I went to the drop in clinic.

Weaning and development stuff can be obtained from the breast feeding support group (obviously bfing) as for health stuff if you have a problem with your child's health go see the doctor. A hv isn't a doctor and can't tell you what to use for a rash etc but only give you advice on what is available in the market.

Saying that I went to get Daniel weighed last week and had to see the HV I don't like. A friend was asking about weaning at the same time and she was really very helpful giving me tips on getting my 7 month old son to even consider eating + she was helpful with a question about my older child.

If it is your first child you pay loads of attention on what so called professionals have to say when you should use your common sense babies are not that fragile as long as your sensible you wont break them.

Just wanted to say i sacked my midwife because she was useless and i just didnt get on with her, and it resulted in social services comeing to my house, (which ended up them apoligising for wasting my time as there is nothing wrong with my children) so please be careful what you do.

But i do think they are useless i had my baby 2 weeks ago and the health visitor came monday and decided i needed to take my baby to the doctors about an indentation in her chest which the doctor said is perfectly normal. I always thought that health visitors were meant to know not just palm you off to the doctors

Well, we've been to the docs today, and she says Strixlet is fine, is very happy she managed to put on some weight when she was ill, and can't see why the health visitor was putting me under pressure. She was even more unimpressed with the health visitor trying to bully me into bottle feeding when I'm breast feeding

The top and bottom of it is - Strixlet is fine, I'm fine, and we can live without being bounced from pillar to post wasting the valuable time of other NHS staff :rant: :thumbsup:

I've asked that we're allocated a single health visitor so there's a chance they'll know the child instead of concentrating on forms and graphs, and I've requested that her weight be monitored every week for the next few - until we can see that it was her tummy bug that held up her progress between the last two weighing sessions. Any more stupidity with over-emphasis on paperwork and I think I'll have good grounds to refuse to see another health visitor

Josh my middle son is very much under the suggested height / weight for his age and has been since he was born early at 5lb 9oz, but I had the opposite problem, none of the HV were interested. I have persued it for 2 years and it turns out there is a problem.....

My midwife and health visitor were really good about my babys weight, she was not gaining as 'The Graphs' said she should she was only 6lb 11 and when we came out of hospital was doen to 6lb 4 and then it took her 2 weeks to go back to 6lb 10 so they said because she had 3 weight gains then she was fine shes just small.

its ridiculous how they go by what graphs say, they are there for the average no 2 babies are the same my eldest weighed 8lb 4 and gained weight from the off, where as my youngest was 6lb 11 and lost 7 oz so they should know the child and not pressure mums into thinking the worst like your doing something wrong.

Josh my middle son is very much under the suggested height / weight for his age and has been since he was born early at 5lb 9oz, but I had the opposite problem, none of the HV were interested. I have persued it for 2 years and it turns out there is a problem.....Wasn't there a whole hoo-ha in your area recently, from people in such roles just box ticking without really doing their jobs? :suspect:
Is Josh getting the treatment he needs now?

I have no idea, I don't read the papers or watch the news :hihi:

He's having various tests to try and isolate what exactly it is thats causing it

After the home visit by the midwife I took Lewis to the local drop in centre to have him weighed until his 8 week jabs where he got weighed at the docs and then just left it then until his 12 and 16 week jabs and then continued to take him once a month to the drop in until he was 8 months old - then I returned to work so I haven't seen a health visitor since then. He was 2 last month.

I didn't get the same one as it was a drop in so you got who was available but then again I had no problems so I didn't really care as it was just weighing.

Id take health visitors with a pinch of salt, some of their advice is useful, some is just bizarre. :)