Bad advice? I have plenty. We have had a cracker fill in MCHN who when we were talking about sleep and settling and I was saying that my DS's routine had changed. He had gone from sleeping a 6hour block at night up to 8weeks and then reverting back to 4 hourly overnight and through the day and would scream when we put him in the cot. It had only just changed and I was laughing about it and I guess didn't look too concerned. Advice given was "he has done it again, he will do it again" . Well I am still waiting, I might occassionally get 5hours but not often, often it is 2-3hours even overnight.
The other fantastic gem was " if you want him to sleep he will, you just need to be firm and positive". HMMMMMMMMMMMM I was really wanting it, another girl could see that and thinks it is hilarious. Needless to say that weekend I was trying those things and unsurprisingly they weren't working. By the sunday night extremely sleep deprived and stressed, I ended up beside myself and probably borderline PND. I was resenting my DS and hating myself for it. I decided to just go with whereever he slept and how much and not to stress.
At 14weeks I started DS medication for reflux and topping him up. Which one worked I am not sure, possibly both but the change was immediate, he was so much happier. Both were things I initiated. There was no suggestion that he may could be refluxy when lying him down despite the bed being elevated. I am ok, I still occassionally have bad days but that is usually due to sleep deprivation.
The regular child health nurse is not a great deal better, she does not ask enough questions and goes by the book. When my DS was 6 weeks old I had him weighed and I mentioned the fact that occassionally he only had 5 feeds in 24hours. She asked if I was waking and feeding him after 4 hours during the day. I said 'no' as he was very colicky and I figured he wasn't hungry/didn't need it at that time and I did not want to cause him more pain. She said his 'weight gain was adequate but not outstanding so I should keep on top of it'. From memory it was pretty good in my view and I then remembered that he had fed frequently the previous evening and I was still feeding for an hour at a time. What got me was she didn't ask how much he had fed the day before, how long he was feeding for. IT was a blanket response with no real though. Needless to say I just go along for a catch up with the others.
I am yet to find or hear of a "good" MCHN. Unfortunately I live in the country and we don't have a lot of options.