I walked into my infant child's CHN appointment with confidence regarding my parenting and my child's developmental progress, but I walked out feeling angry, anxious and in disbelief of the education provided.
I recall the CHN kept repeating to me that at my child's age, they do not need to be breastfeeding at all and they should be sleeping through the night. My child should be able to self settle and I'm only rewarding their bad behaviour by breastfeeding overnight. I believe I am very well aware of the current research regarding both breastfeeding and normal infant/toddler sleep and in my opinion, what I was told is very outdated and was encouraging me to be unresponsive to my child's needs, which goes against every fibre of my instincts.
My child's head circumference also fell below the 5th percentile from the 50th and that it needed further monitoring (a repeat HC in 3-6 months time), but I believe the CHN didn't elaborate when I asked if there was something wrong with my child. I recall they also made a comment on how 'skinny' my child's head was and that it's not very round. It left me using Google to ease my anxious mind.
I am very unhappy and disappointed with this appointment. The CHN made me feel as though I wasn't a good parent to my child. I know better than to take on board the seemingly outdated advice, but I'm still unsure if there could be something medically wrong with my child and I'm supposed to wait a few months to find out.
"Infant child's appointment"
About: Child Health Services - WACHS South West Child Health Services - WACHS South West Bunbury 6230
Posted by inspireed58 (as ),
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