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Care Opinion

Staff causing undue stress about child's weight

Posted By deploymentbf39

"Staff causing undue stress about child's weight"

About: Currambine Child Health Clinic (Currambine Community Centre)

(as a parent/guardian),

Since my child was born 2 years ago, the Child Health Nurses have raised issues about my child's weight. 

Initially it was about them being underweight - my child didn't put weight on as they expected or as per the numbers. They made me feel really inadequate and unsupported.

Most recently they told me my child was overweight as their BMI was too high and that I needed to look at what I was feeding them. In my experience, they don't remove clothes/nappy, they don't look at the child's body and don't do an in depth probe on food intake, activity or growth - they just seem to go on numbers.

Again they made me feel very inadequate and I do not believe that any parent should be made to feel like this.

If there is a potential issue, I believe they should do a deeper dive to confirm if there is an issue or send the person to their GP for a professionals opinion.

My child grew 0.5 cm the next week and their BMI is not overweight any more. So I think the anguish could have been avoided.

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Responses

Response from Anne-Marie McHugh, A/Nurse Co-Director, Community Health, Child and Adolescent Health Service 2 years ago
Anne-Marie McHugh
A/Nurse Co-Director, Community Health,
Child and Adolescent Health Service

Submitted on 25/11/2021 at 1:54 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 2:48 PM

Dear deploymentbf39,

Thank you for your feedback regarding your experience with the Child Health Nurses at the Currambine Child Health Clinic and the practice of monitoring growth using the Body Mass Index (BMI) tool. I apologise that your interactions with the nurses made you feel inadequate and unsupported.

The Child and Adolescent Health Service (CAHS) is committed to supporting families by monitoring growth throughout childhood and offering early interventions when required to address issues before they become problems.

The BMI tool is the recommended tool to measure growth in children according to the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and World Health Organisation. It is a useful screening tool; being a simple, quick, and non-invasive, and results should always be considered together with information about family lifestyle and health history – as part of an overall health assessment. The use of the BMI assessment allows nurses to raise awareness with parents who may not have identified any issue, so that small lifestyle changes can be considered. Any discussion and support for parents are intended to be positively framed and non-judgemental and again, I apologise that this was not your experience.

Should you wish to discuss further, please do not hesitate to contact our Consumer Engagement Team on (08) 6456 0032 or at CAHSFeedback@health.wa.gov.au so that we can address and learn from your specific concerns.

Kind regards,

Anne-Marie McHugh

A/Nurse Co-Director Community Health

Child and Adolescent Health Service

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