When Jack is three weeks old, the health visitor pops in for a routine visit. Jack’s mum is worried that he is not thriving as well as some of the other babies of the same age that she sees at her local breast-feeding support group and shares her concerns with the health visitor.
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Jack appears to be breathless and, as a consequence, is not feeding well. The health visitor weighs and measures Jack and finds that Jack is underweight and small for his age.
She is concerned about Jack and arranges for him to have an appointment with the GP later that day. Having examined Jack, the GP shares the health visitor’s concerns and suspects that Jack may have a cardiac condition. He refers him to a cardiologist for urgent assessment.
Dialogue between mother and health visitor.
Scene 1
Health visitor: “How have things been since you got home from hospital?”
Mum: “Not too bad. He sleeps really well but I”m a bit worried about him.”
Scene 2
Health visitor: “Are you worried about anything in particular?”
Mum: “Well, when I took him to the breast feeding group, he didn”t seem to be as big as the other babies who were born around the same time. And he isn”t feeding very well, he just seems to get tired and give up before he’s had very much milk.”
Scene 3
Health visitor: “Let’s have a look at him.”
