Hip Babies / Hip Dysplasia

[Alias]

Hi MissMinstreal, sorry to hear your DD is in a harness. My daughter was diagnosed late, so we didn't have the harness, she was straight into a cast. My experience has been though that they will always tell you the 'worst case' and then if you get better than that, you'll be happy. So while they might decide to keep your DD in the harness longer 'just in case', you've also got a good chance of getting it off early. It's hard not to get your hopes up, but really you just have to take it one appointment at a time. And presume 12 weeks until you're told otherwise.

Might as well give an update on E while I'm here. She's coming along really well! She's walking with support (although not that steady yet) and cruising and pulling up and climbing. It's so great to see the progress she's made in the 3ish months since her brace came off. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, when she'll be able to walk and run like her little classmates. Baby 2 is due in about 12 weeks, and things are going well there, although he'd turned himself breech last consultant visit a week ago. I'm hoping he doesn't stay that way long. I've to bring the two of them for a checkup in June, fingers crossed all good news then.

How is everyone else getting on?

 

[hel_5]

Hi missminstreal, my DD1 was in the palvik harness for 3 months, at the time I thought it was a waste of time, only one doc heard the click (and I didnt like him!) but they had to treat, I will be honest I thought it was a waste of time and even considered taking it off!! Now DD2 was fine at birth but her hip dislocated later, we had to go through operations, casts and braces - god how I wished she was in the harness from birth, infact with this next one that is due I will be asking if they can put them in a brace from the word go!

I will be honest and say that I don't think they will take it off before 12 weeks, I'm sorry but it is SO much easier to treat the younger they are, your LO will be out of it in no time and not have to catch up with anything, sorry if I'm really blunt but when DD1 was diagnosed I just cried and cried and wished she was 'normal', with DD2 when she was given the all clear at birth I was so happy, it never occurred to me that we would have problems later on and when I found out I cried even more because I thought oh it will just be another harness.

I should say that my DD1 got the all clear at 4 months old and has zero problems, also please remember that the first few months of motherhood are fecking hard normally without having to deal with a stupid brace - that just makes everything so much worse! And I know how it feels to look at your perfect LO and then curse that fecking brace, it's easy for me to say this because ive gone through it and out the other side, if you ever want to cry/b*tch/rant/moan I'm here


Alias I can't believe you only have 12 weeks to go, and thats great news about Ellie, she will prob be walking unaided by the time baby is here! as of today I'm half way through! We are seeing the consultant in two weeks time, I'm just praying that everything will be ok, Emma has really started crawling now, she is into absolutely everything, it is so lovely to see, but also slightly annoying her favourite thing to do is full out every single one of our shoes from the cupboard

 

[MissMaternal]

Hi MissMinstreal, sorry to hear your DD is in a harness. My daughter was diagnosed late, so we didn't have the harness, she was straight into a cast. My experience has been though that they will always tell you the 'worst case' and then if you get better than that, you'll be happy. So while they might decide to keep your DD in the harness longer 'just in case', you've also got a good chance of getting it off early. It's hard not to get your hopes up, but really you just have to take it one appointment at a time. And presume 12 weeks until you're told otherwise.

Might as well give an update on E while I'm here. She's coming along really well! She's walking with support (although not that steady yet) and cruising and pulling up and climbing. It's so great to see the progress she's made in the 3ish months since her brace came off. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, when she'll be able to walk and run like her little classmates. Baby 2 is due in about 12 weeks, and things are going well there, although he'd turned himself breech last consultant visit a week ago. I'm hoping he doesn't stay that way long. I've to bring the two of them for a checkup in June, fingers crossed all good news then.

How is everyone else getting on?

Thanks for your reply! Sorry to hear that your DD was diagnosed late...i do realise how "lucky" i am that they picked up on it at birth. It's great that she is doing so well now though! And congrats on baby number 2, i hope things go smoothly for you when he arrives!

Hi missminstreal, my DD1 was in the palvik harness for 3 months, at the time I thought it was a waste of time, only one doc heard the click (and I didnt like him!) but they had to treat, I will be honest I thought it was a waste of time and even considered taking it off!! Now DD2 was fine at birth but her hip dislocated later, we had to go through operations, casts and braces - god how I wished she was in the harness from birth, infact with this next one that is due I will be asking if they can put them in a brace from the word go!

I will be honest and say that I don't think they will take it off before 12 weeks, I'm sorry but it is SO much easier to treat the younger they are, your LO will be out of it in no time and not have to catch up with anything, sorry if I'm really blunt but when DD1 was diagnosed I just cried and cried and wished she was 'normal', with DD2 when she was given the all clear at birth I was so happy, it never occurred to me that we would have problems later on and when I found out I cried even more because I thought oh it will just be another harness.

I should say that my DD1 got the all clear at 4 months old and has zero problems, also please remember that the first few months of motherhood are fecking hard normally without having to deal with a stupid brace - that just makes everything so much worse! And I know how it feels to look at your perfect LO and then curse that fecking brace, it's easy for me to say this because ive gone through it and out the other side, if you ever want to cry/b*tch/rant/moan I'm here


Alias I can't believe you only have 12 weeks to go, and thats great news about Ellie, she will prob be walking unaided by the time baby is here! as of today I'm half way through! We are seeing the consultant in two weeks time, I'm just praying that everything will be ok, Emma has really started crawling now, she is into absolutely everything, it is so lovely to see, but also slightly annoying her favourite thing to do is full out every single one of our shoes from the cupboard

Thanks for your reply and for your support! Yes it is hard enough as it is, without the added worry of her wearing a harness. But i have adjusted to it quite well now. Glad to hear that your DD1 has no problems and the harness worked for her

 

[xxClaire_24xx]

hi all glad to hear them out the casts are doing great fab news

and sorry to hear that your LO is in a harness we thought that we would have got away with having a harness but ellie was in cast for 6 month and got it out in nov and unfortunately she looks like shes going to have to go back in another cast xx

 

[hel_5]

hi all glad to hear them out the casts are doing great fab news

and sorry to hear that your LO is in a harness we thought that we would have got away with having a harness but ellie was in cast for 6 month and got it out in nov and unfortunately she looks like shes going to have to go back in another cast xx

Oh no hun xx

 

[xxClaire_24xx]

hi all glad to hear them out the casts are doing great fab news

and sorry to hear that your LO is in a harness we thought that we would have got away with having a harness but ellie was in cast for 6 month and got it out in nov and unfortunately she looks like shes going to have to go back in another cast xx

Oh no hun xx

thanks for the hug, shes still not wanting to stand on it, she is bum shuffling and crawling and also theres still around 2cm of a difference in leg, so back for xray beg of march xx

 

[hel_5]

hi all glad to hear them out the casts are doing great fab news

and sorry to hear that your LO is in a harness we thought that we would have got away with having a harness but ellie was in cast for 6 month and got it out in nov and unfortunately she looks like shes going to have to go back in another cast xx

Oh no hun xx

thanks for the hug, shes still not wanting to stand on it, she is bum shuffling and crawling and also theres still around 2cm of a difference in leg, so back for xray beg of march xx

thats just poo it must be hard to know you have to go through it all again hope she is ok with everything else xx

 

[Alias]

hi all glad to hear them out the casts are doing great fab news

and sorry to hear that your LO is in a harness we thought that we would have got away with having a harness but ellie was in cast for 6 month and got it out in nov and unfortunately she looks like shes going to have to go back in another cast xx

Oh no hun xx

thanks for the hug, shes still not wanting to stand on it, she is bum shuffling and crawling and also theres still around 2cm of a difference in leg, so back for xray beg of march xx

Poor you and poor Ellie, that's terrible news. Do you know if her leg it out entirely? Have they said what they'll do next - try another reduction or just wait for an osteotomy? Ask a lot of questions before going back for another reduction, I'd want some confidence that it would work this time. If the hip is in but shallow, you might be able to get away with just a brace? Sorry if I'm throwing things at you, but I'd put a lot of thought into this when they kept telling me E would need more surgery! Let us know what they find out with the xray!

 

[xxClaire_24xx]

thanks they are good things to throw at me though lol cause im rubbish at asking things, cause shes only had cast on once if the hip is out then it will be another cast if the hip is in then they will decided which bone is the longer one and shorten it

am i wrong in doing this though, she gets an xray next fri and they said if she needs a cast or surgery they cant fit her in to mid may, so our wedding in is the 3rd of june then we were wanting to take the girls away to the sun for 10 days, am i wrong in asking them to book her in for end of june so we can enjoy our wedding and holiday more xx

 

[hel_5]

thanks they are good things to throw at me though lol cause im rubbish at asking things, cause shes only had cast on once if the hip is out then it will be another cast if the hip is in then they will decided which bone is the longer one and shorten it

am i wrong in doing this though, she gets an xray next fri and they said if she needs a cast or surgery they cant fit her in to mid may, so our wedding in is the 3rd of june then we were wanting to take the girls away to the sun for 10 days, am i wrong in asking them to book her in for end of june so we can enjoy our wedding and holiday more xx

God no, if they are leaving her til may away, so at least 2 months I don't see what difference a month or two more would matter, there is no harm in asking away.

And wooo your wedding is coming up really soon!!

 

[xxClaire_24xx]

thanks they are good things to throw at me though lol cause im rubbish at asking things, cause shes only had cast on once if the hip is out then it will be another cast if the hip is in then they will decided which bone is the longer one and shorten it

am i wrong in doing this though, she gets an xray next fri and they said if she needs a cast or surgery they cant fit her in to mid may, so our wedding in is the 3rd of june then we were wanting to take the girls away to the sun for 10 days, am i wrong in asking them to book her in for end of june so we can enjoy our wedding and holiday more xx

God no, if they are leaving her til may away, so at least 2 months I don't see what difference a month or two more would matter, there is no harm in asking away.

And wooo your wedding is coming up really soon!!

it would be around another 5 weeks and thats what i thought that we might aswell have a happy time and family holiday eh xx

 

[MrsWatson]

Hi everyone!

Good to hear from you all, seems like a long time ago that I last posted.

Sophie came out of cast mid-November, but didn't go into a brace. I asked about it, so our consultant gave us a really big pavlik harness and said to try it at night time, but she may not tolerate it, and said that there was no evidence that it would help anyway. So, after 2 nights of half hourly waking and screaming we gave up!

Her hip seems stable but still very shallow, we are told that as she starts to weight bare, that this shoudl depeen the hip, otherwise it's a pelvic osteotomy in a couple of years

She's got on really well, started crawling 3 weeks ago, and is now pulling herself up and will take a few steps if we hold her hands, last night she took her first steps with her walker!

 

[Alias]

thanks they are good things to throw at me though lol cause im rubbish at asking things, cause shes only had cast on once if the hip is out then it will be another cast if the hip is in then they will decided which bone is the longer one and shorten it

am i wrong in doing this though, she gets an xray next fri and they said if she needs a cast or surgery they cant fit her in to mid may, so our wedding in is the 3rd of june then we were wanting to take the girls away to the sun for 10 days, am i wrong in asking them to book her in for end of june so we can enjoy our wedding and holiday more xx

I think you're right to postpone til the end of June. It's for the benefit of the whole family, and if she's having a bone shortening, then it won't really matter to put it off for a month or two. If the hip was out of socket, then it would be different, you'd want it back in as soon as possible for the best chance of the socket growing properly. My hospital won't do any bone breaking type surgery until at least after 18 months, or until the socket has fully developed on it's own. It's something else worth adding to the list - are you better off waiting until the femoral head is fully grown (usually not until 18 months or later, my Ellie's wasn't finished growing at 18 months) before messing with the length of the femur?

Hi everyone!

Good to hear from you all, seems like a long time ago that I last posted.

Sophie came out of cast mid-November, but didn't go into a brace. I asked about it, so our consultant gave us a really big pavlik harness and said to try it at night time, but she may not tolerate it, and said that there was no evidence that it would help anyway. So, after 2 nights of half hourly waking and screaming we gave up!

Her hip seems stable but still very shallow, we are told that as she starts to weight bare, that this shoudl depeen the hip, otherwise it's a pelvic osteotomy in a couple of years

She's got on really well, started crawling 3 weeks ago, and is now pulling herself up and will take a few steps if we hold her hands, last night she took her first steps with her walker!

Sounds like Sofie is not far behind Ellie. It's great to see them making progress, isn't it? Fingers crossed she won't need more surgery but I guess it's wait and see, same as us!

 

[xxClaire_24xx]

cause ellie was born without a hip they say that it might not even have made a diff anyway and we have always been told she would maybe need plastic hips til her body stops growing then they would give her a metal one or hip replacement to be honest i havent really looked into it too much and then there is also the test for hemihypertrophy to be done xxx

 

[Alias]

Bumping this up to share exciting news - E took her first steps today! I was very surprised, she's been walking holding on for a while, but I really didn't think she was stable enough to do it on her own. She only gets a few steps at a go, but she spent most of the evening walking across the room, standing up immediately after each fall. I'm so very proud

How is everyone else doing? Claire, your wedding is getting very close!

 

[hel_5]

Wow alias that is brilliant news, well done Ellie, in time for no 2 to come along!

Emma is slowly getting there, crawling and pulling herself to stanton at every given opportunity xx

 

[MrsWatson]

Wow! Brilliant new! Go Ellie!

Unfortunatly our news is not so good, after a closed reduction in August, 3 months in spica and 4 months in broomstick, Sophie is going back in for another closed reduction, spica and broomstick on the 30th April. Really gutted.

She was due a check up on teh 11th May, but I bought it forward as Iwas worried about the way she was sometimes holding her leg, her hip isn't dislocated, but is on it's way out again (

 

[hel_5]

Oh no mrswatson at least you caught it early

 

[Alias]

So sorry Mrs Watson. How is Sophie doing now? She's back in the cast?

 

[mum2bdec10]

i'm joining this thread if thats ok.

My little baby girl has been diagnosed with DDH and i am awaiting her surgery date (which they tell me will be around September which is ridiculous as she is listed as urgent). Do not know how much they will have to do surgery wise they will decide when they go in, but i have seen the x ray its not great.

She will be in a spica for 12 weeks with it being changed at 6 weeks under general, then into a brace for a further 12 weeks.

got to go buy lots of equipment. I have been recommended the brittax evolva car seat but can anyone recommend some cheaper alternatives?