Why engage with your Child and Family Health Nurse Service?
Maybe it is because I too work in health, but I truly value this service and have benefited several times from being connected.
I received my first Blue Book with my daughter almost 12 years ago, then keenly accepted the offer for the local child and family health service to come and visit us. I benefited from the knowledge and support greatly as a new Mother, and even now having 4 children I still benefit from engaging with this service and I think almost everyone would.
So, I wanted to share a bit about how I used the service and how you might benefit from it also.
DEVELOPMENTAL CHECKS:
I chose to have my developmental checks done with the child and family health nurses. You know, all the little tabs in your baby’s blue book. I am sure it is my personality, but I really have been on a mission for the ‘completed blue book’. Even if I had no concerns to raise, I liked the idea that my children would all have this book to look back on as a record of their early development.
Yes…. I have baby books and baby albums for my kids also. I am that parent. And yes, at times I regret the commitment to complete such things. But now that my older 3 have completed blue books, I simply cannot drop the ball with my 4th.
As a first time Mother I used the CFHN service for ongoing advice around milestones and feeding.
I attended the drop-in clinic for baby weigh ins and to ask questions about random rashes and changed feeding patterns. I got to know the nurses, and I loved that they got to know me and my children. Some of them have met each one of my babies- I think that is special.
MOTHERS GROUP:
I also welcomed the opportunity they offered for me to join a local Mothers Group where I met other Mothers. Some of which I am still friends with to this day.
I know that some of you might cringe at the idea of Mothers Group. It has a certain vibe to it, I guess. But Mothers Group for me was very much about surrounding myself with people that were happy to talk about baby poop colour and how much sleep we lost the night before. Where to get the best baby items and feel unjudged for my Mum bun. Unless you are in it, you just won’t get it 😊 Sometime I didn’t want advise, I wanted solidarity. Did I become best friends with everyone… No. We were all different people and our common denominator of having a baby might have been the only thing I had in common with some. But in that season… It was enough for us to cling to each other. Sometimes you just need friends for the season you are in. I was fortunate enough though to have locked arms with some that have remained friends and I am so grateful for this.
IMMUNISATIONS:
I booked immunisations with the CFHN clinics.
You can get these done with GP or Immunisation clinics at medical practices. I have done a mixture over the years. I will say though, that the CFHN run immunisation clinics do feel a bit more family friendly. I feel more seen as a mother and more informed about the immunsation schedule. It remains my preference for attending to immunsations.
REFERRALS:
As I had more children, I did have less questions. I began to benefit more from the referral pathways available to me as a part of this service.
My children were all able to have vision assessments attended early on due to family history. My daughter did end up requiring glasses at 2 1/2yrs and that was because of the developmental checks that led to the right questions being asked which led to the early intervention that we needed.
I was able to have a lactation consultant come to my home for a 3hr assessment of a feeding issue.
I have been able to use physio for one of my children, as well see a dietician about another concern I had with my child.
I was also able to tap into the counselling service, which was such a gift as I navigated a difficult miscarriage experience.
All these opportunities for care were free for my family. I am so grateful that we live in a country that enables such things. Some of these referral pathways led on to further referrals, some referrals were able to sufficiently meet the needs of my family quickly.
If you have a good GP, you might find that a lot of this support can be given by them also. But, in my experience many families do not have a good family doctor. They can be hard to find, and then the good ones are always well booked out. My experience too, is that CFHN are often allocated a lot more time to spend with you than your GP will have available to them. And CFHN are just REALLY great! They are niched down to specialise in the specific area of Child and Family Health. Many have engaged with extra study because this is their passion… To support families… To support you. And it’s FREE!
If you are a Parent in the Blue Mountains, and thinking this sounds like a service that you could benefit from engaging with, below is some information to help you go about it. I hope this helps.
Child and Family Health Service Blue Mountains:
A NSW Health community service looking after our well population. We focus on early intervention and support children and their families until they’re off to big school. The cost for these services is covered by Medicare and includes:
Development check clinics for children 0-5 years of age (as per the blue book):
- Monday at Glenbrook
- Tuesday at Katoomba
- Wednesday at Lawson (Heatherbrae) and
- Thursday in Springwood
Immunisation clinics:
- Second and third Wednesday of the month in Springwood
- First and fourth Wednesday in Katoomba
Feeding support:
- Usually offered on Thursdays at Springwood clinic
- Also available for Katoomba
New Parent Groups run regularly out of Glenbrook and Katoomba.
Other services that we can refer to after seeing parents at the clinics:
- Hearing checks
- Vision checks
- Physio
- OT
- Dietician
- Speech pathology
- CFH counselling team for parents
Phone support and call for appointments:
- please call 4751 0100
- If you haven’t used our service in a while, chances are your encounter has been closed, just call the central intake service on 1800 222 608.
