Ah, the 2 Year Old Health Visitor Review questionnaire. In my opinion, designed to make the parents feel as shite as humanly possible after doing their very best every day.

The Doctor’s will a;; stop using a preemie’s corrected age when the child gets to their 2nd birthday. Their defence for this is that most kids have caught up by then. Ah, I said, most but not all. So tell me why I am filling in this questionnaire designed for a 27 month old when my baby is only the corrected age of 24 months?

Some of the things they think my little preemie should be doing according to this thing are ludicrous. He’s a nutter, why do you think I’m going to give him a knife and fork to eat with?! Some he can do, obviously because his motor skills and walking/running are on point, but he doesn’t talk well or much at all.

This questionnaire came through in February when he was an actually age of 27.5 months but a corrected age of only 24 months. And filling it in made me feel like I’d failed to teach hi as well as I could. Had a perm mm who was still right in the middle of her anxiety/PTSD been given this questionnaire, it could have had a terrible devastating effect on her mental health. Really, they know he was perm. It’s written all over his notes and his red book. Come Health Visitors, please be more kind and supportive to perm mums!

So we went to the appointment and explained all this and they apologised if it had made me feel like a failure and said that considering what else he has had to learn first, LIKE BREATHING, he is doing amazingly. He didn’t do any of the things they asked him to do though obvs because he’s stubborn like his Mummy and Daddy. So they decided to set up another appointment and send a fresh questionnaire in a couple of months. Which brings us to now.

It is amazing how much he has come on in those two months. I felt a lot more positive filling it in this time. He does say some more words (not useful ones, he says stuff like zebra and flower…) and he can do a lot more of the tasks. He has changed so much since Christmas and I feel that some of that is because he has been going to nursery/playschool once a week. They are so good with him and really make the effort to teach him as well as just let him play.

Now I’m thinking, if he makes this much progress in a couple of months, can we have a properly talking boy by his 3rd birthday? Jack proves to me every day that anything is possible and that miracles happen!!!