The Dutch infant health centre is a unique phenomenon in Europe. The centres follow the development of infants through from newborn baby to toddler. In many other countries you only get to see a doctor if your child is ill.
Up to the age of four, healthy Dutch children are vaccinated at the infant health centres and examined for early signs of diseases and heart, hip and eye disorders. After all, prevention is better than cure and the system reduces medical costs.
The health centres look at the children’s motor skills. They are weighed and measured by paediatricians and nursing staff. The experts also consider whether the children seem happy and what their family environment is like.
Teenage mothers
The Dutch government has set guidelines for the infant health centres in order to detect child abuse at an early stage. Teenage mothers, parents with debts and parents who speak no Dutch receive additional attention.
When they visit the centres, all parents are given advice about sleep patterns, feeding and the growth of their child. Some parents find the tips useful, others are not looking for advice and become irritated by what they regard as interference.
Patronising
Donna Knopper originally comes from Canada. She has been living in the Netherlands for 11 years now and is married to a Dutch man. They have a two-year old son, Jeffrey. Ms Knopper works as a teacher at an international primary school. She views the Dutch system as somewhat “patronising”.
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I raised two children in the Netherlands and did utilize the child health clinics. I found the staff to be under-educated, robotic and judgmental. They are unable to educate parents about signs of Autism and are unable to detect it themselves. For me, the experience was like going back 40 years in time. If I had to do it all over again I would have never taken my children to them. I am not alone. Many Dutch mothers feel the same. I feel it would have been much better for my children to have had a private pediatrician for their care as is the practice in many other countries. In my opinion the consultatiebureaus deliver substandard care for what is considered to be a developed nation. I agree with Donna Knopper. If I had followed the consultatiebureau's advice my children would have grown up to be robotic, not knowing when they were hungry or tired, but simply trained to fit into the schedule dictated by the consultatiebureau.
It is a great way to monitor the health of children. All parents are not from medical background, so they do need guidance by the health personnels, which should not be seen as patronising. We have school health programme here for school going kids, and younger kids get examined only during vaccination visits. I find Donna Knopper as rather too-aunt-know-it-all..There must be something wrong with her care or with the child, if the child has a poor sleep pattern, so the health provider is not wrong. I can give a similar example from my own clinical experience. I had a woman patient, whose infant was continuously howling in the clinic. I asked her husband to pacify the child, but the parents said that it was a normal for that child, as he kept crying all day. I was shocked at their casual attitude. On closer inspection, I found that the child wasn't wearing enough clothes. The winter was yet to set in, but there was enough chill in the air to unsettle little babies. I pointed this out to the parents, but the mother just shrugged her shoulders and said,'But, I do not feel cold!' Her reply was enough to enrage me beyond words. How could you measure the infant's perception to cold by your own perception to cold. I immediately took the child, and wrapped him securely in the folded veil of that woman, and held it close to myself, instantly the child stopped crying. I made the woman feed the child and make him sleep, before I gave her the dental treatment. You had to see their faces....
I find this a rather radical comment to say about Donna Knopper's care of her child. As she clearly told the reporter, her child had problems sleeping because ofan ilness that was later dignosed by a specailist. The child's adenoids were removed, tubes in the ears were also placed. The child now sleeps much better but it took her constant urging to the consultatatie bureau and own doctor before anything was done. The child had been taken a total of 20 times to the doctor before action was taken. Sorry but that shows that the Dutch health system needs a lot of attention...
"The Dutch government has set guidelines for the infant health centres in order to detect child abuse at an early stage...".
And who is going to protect the child from the abuse carried out by The Dutch Government?
Report today in Huffington post: The leader of the Danish research group that produced several key studies that mercury-laden vaccines were safe for children has disappeared with $2m in research money after investigations into possible fraudulent research started closing in.
Just as the obvious statistical relationship between autism and mercury in vaccines becomes too undeniable to cover up anymore, the Dutch Government continues to facilitate the mass poisoning of all infants with this potent neurotoxin:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/central-figure-in-cdc-...
You are kidding, The HUffington Post, you are quoting them as experts?
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