I thought I knew what I was doing!

The past ten days has been especially challenging to our role as parents and there is no doubt that I take these, more negative aspects more to heart than Hubby. Not that he isn't affected. But he has other things going on to balance out all this stuff. He has a successful career. It is at times like this that being a full time Mum can really make you feel inadequate.

I very recently reported that Hope was rushed to hospital as a result of not breathing. The doctors, at the time, seemed to believe that this was a breath-holding incident and likely to recurr. Well, they were right. And alarmingly frequently. She hasn't gone unconscious, probably because we blew in her face as recommended. But she has turned blue again, a couple of times, and it is very hard not to panic!

Something else that has happened - and I was going to keep this private, but it may be useful to anyone else reading this - is that on the very day that I arrived home from hospital, tired and oh, whatever.... there was a letter waiting for me from the NHS. Previously they had been into Henry's school and had weighed and measured all the children, then plotted their precious data on their precious charts! The letter was sent to inform me that Henry was nearly off the scale, indicating that he may be overweight/obese!!!! (Hmmmmm. I was just a little bit upset by this).

Then, today, the health visitor came to do Hope's one year check. She also plotted her charts and came up with... well, poor Hope is barely on the chart. She is starved, the poor thing. Maybe Henry has been nicking all her food???? So she has arranged to come back in a month to check her weight again. Meanwhile, I have to feed her as much Weetabix as possible. The confusing part of this is that the HV admitted she was in perfect proportion regarding her length and weight. So I'm not sure why she needs to be fatter. (And I'm certain that Henry's extra weight comes from his massive brain!)

Anyway. It's all food for thought (groan!). Ironically (or maybe not -it's all a conspiracy, innit?), I was watching 'Jo Frost - Extreme Parenting' last week. (She is the Supernanny.) Her programme focussed on obesity in children because, apparently the rates of childhood obesity have soared. She demonstrated how much a portion of ice-cream was acceptable for these young kids. She showed us that one small tablespoon was all they could have. Now. How should one interpret this information. Who on earth has a bowl of ice-cream with just one small tablespoon in it? Is this really common sense? If the kid was having it every day then, well, maybe. I'm being totally honest here. Ice-cream in our house is not a regular occurance and is often a bit like Jo Frost says but on the side of some fruit pudding. But if it was going to be just a bowl of ice-cream, there'd be more than just one small tablespoon. Or else I'd say 'what's the point?'

I have written a letter to the health team that classed Henry as overweight and invited them to come and take a proper look at him and give proper feedback. After all, I could be kidding myself. This new initiative to combat childhood obesity may have the right goal in mind but I'm not at all convinced that they are going about it the right way. They sent me a leaflet advising me to walk to school and watch less tv. (We already walk to school, play outdoors, only watch Little House...).

I suspect, that these charts/info that's on telly needs to be taken with a pinch of salt and a dose of common sense and that medical professionals could be confident enough to tell it like it is... to those who really need it.