"Given conflicting advice on blossom ward"

Our daughter recently was admitted to the blossom ward following a fever from her routine vaccines. My husband and I both took her to a&e and following Dr assessment they wished to admit her for over night observation to the blossom ward.

We were taken to the ward around  4 in the morning and a staff member came to do our intake paperwork about 20 minutes later and during the course of this conversation we were asked how many ounces of milk our daughter was taking per feed. I advised that she was currently taking 7 ounce bottles every 4 hours the same thing I had told the two doctors who had assessed her in A&E. The staff member proceeded to tell both my husband and I that, that was far to much feed for a baby her age and that 7 ounces was the amount they would expect to feed a much older baby. They proceeded to take their phone out and calculate something and advised our daughter should only be fed 4 ounces 4.5 at the absolute most at a time. I advised the staff  member that we were simply going off of advice given to us by our health visitor. I explained that having switched from breast feeding to formula I had already sought advise re feeding and we had been advised if we were feeding her 5 ounces for example and she was finishing her bottles and was showing hunger ques after finishing her feeds after a period of time increase her bottles by one ounce which is exactly what we had been doing. I advised she had only just been increased to 7 ounces in the day prior and the staff member then proceeded to say, I am sick of silly health visitors giving wrong advice.

At this point I was asking how do we reduce the feeds back or what was the best way to do this. The staff member advised at the next feed to cut right back to 4 ounces. They proceeded to say they were not getting at our parenting but that they will tell us this at the ward round in the morning.

As a nurse myself I was a bit taken back at the way in which this conversation went and spoke with my husband about this after they had left the room. He was also taken back by the general conversation and conflicting advice. We had a routine visit with our health visitor scheduled at the beginning of this month so we decided we would try 4 ounces feeds to follow the advice and clarify with our health visitor when she visited. We did just that and after the 4 ounce feed my daughter was showing hunger ques and quite distressed. so after trying and failing to console her for over an hour we made up an additional 4 ounce bottle, offered it to her and she drank another 3 ounces and was very content and relaxed unlike she had been.

We reverted back to her feeding routine and she continued to be content and her happy self. Our health visitor attended for her scheduled visit and whilst discussing her admission I sought clarity in relation to feeding advice. Both our health visitor and her health visitor student both gave the same advice and the evidence on which it is based upon. my husband and I discussed how we felt following the interaction and how confused we had been left feeling. I understand as a professional sometimes we seek our training and information from different sources however, neither I nor my husband could understand how the advice could be so different especially when her weight has always stayed on track for her centile she has never jumped a centile or shown any indication that she was being overfed like had been implied.

We also were not entirely sure how this was linked to the issue we were there for which was a fever following vaccines. As a health care professional myself I also was not comfortable about the comment about  silly health visitors as it is not respectful of their skills, education and the role they play in the developing child.

This situation left us feeling conflicted and quite confused. I as a first time mum felt that what I had thought I knew as my child's ques and needs were entirely wrong and in fact I felt guilty like I had been causing harm by feeding her too much.

I did briefly mention it to the Dr on ward round the following morning and she did not advise I was feeding her too much. I would like to say that the care in which our daughter received from the two Drs in A&E and the day Dr at ward round and the staff nurse was very caring and compassionate and the incident in the early hours does not take away from their care towards her.