"Information and assertions"

I attended (1x home visit, 1x visit at the clinic) for my infant child at the Bassendean Infant Health Clinic (BIHC). It seemed our clinician on both occasions left a lot to be desired in terms of personal opinion and anecdotes colouring the medical advice offered. Not just our own experience but I believe others in the mother’s group shared this opinion.

For example, 'sleep training' was not encouraged. But there have been instances where baby sleep has been discussed and I recall the advice is that the baby must not be waking overnight. Without any medical advice to support this, I feel it misdirects first time parents and is incredibly unhelpful. I believe an infant health clinician should be providing advice to support parents, not driving them down the same path as them.

On our first meeting, we were also told that baby wearing is good but don't do it too much. I recall the advice was that the child will then expect it. I still don't really understand what this means.

Thankfully my partner has studied childhood development and has an understanding of the scientific method, otherwise I feel there is a risk that the advice offered provides more harm than good.

Once again I come back to the fact that we should feel supported with information from our child health clinician, not provided with anecdotal advice in my opinion.