Conference moira::parenting

    Hi,
    
    Katie, now 2 1/2, was in a harness like you described when she was two
    weeks old until she was seven weeks old.  I think it bothered me more
    than it bothered her.  Changing diapers was a royal pain and she had
    to have sponge baths only.  She had to wear it constantly.  She was
    suppose to wear it for six weeks but had a messy pooh on it at five
    weeks so they did ultrasound that day and found that everything was
    the way it should be and took her out of it then and there.  
    
    Vickie

    I can talk to you at lenght on this one since Avanti (almost 4 years)
    was diagnosed with hip dysplasia at her 6 months checkup. I would not
    call it a birth defect (yikes!) but a genetic problem. She may have
    been born with it but it did not get detectable until her 6 months
    checkup. Her hip joint was 'loose' - clicking of the hip joint on
    manipulation by the Dr. Since it was detected at 6 months when a simple
    harness may not work she was in a spica cast (from her chest to her
    ankles) for 6 months. Only her left hip is affected. Her cast was
    removed 2 days before her 1st birthday. She goes for a checkup every 6
    months to check the progress. If it angle of the socket i.e. curvature
    is not "acceptable" by the time she is 5 then surgery would be
    necessary. Her progress is slow but steady. We are hoping it will not
    come to surgery.
    
    Her legs are not the same lenght..so what that means I am not sure. But
    I know her orthopedist checked for the length of both legs at every
    checkup.
    
    If your child needs a cast it can be traumatic to the parents - the
    child is too young to realize what is happening. Avanti was not
    affected through the 6 months of the cast since she was immobile for
    that period of time and could not sit or even lie down by herself. We
    were lucky to have the help of my in-laws who took care of her when we
    were at work. She does not remember a thing today except that she has
    to get her hip checked every 6 months.
    
    If you want to talk more please send me e-mail. 
    
    Shaila

    ...re:-1 I meant to say that "her legs ARE the same length..."
    
    Shaila

<Does anyone have experience with this?  

I was born in 1959 with a shallow hip socket.  For 6 months of the first year
of my life I was in a "cast" of sorts.  I think my mom said that it was a pain
at the time (for her), but that I didn't seem much bothered by it.  I was
also born with a rotated tibia, which means one of my lower leg bones is
kind of curved.  

None of my friends (even those who have seen me in a bathing suit) have
noticed this.  It's not a big deal, but would have been if they had not
worked to correct it when I was so little.

I have had a trick knee all my life, though, which I didn't pay much attention
to until about a year ago.  Turns out that as long as I was physically active
(I was on the drill team in high school, then did a lot of dancing for years
after that) then I was keeping some important knee muscles strong, and
everything worked pretty well.  When I ended up hurting myself last year, 
(by *casual* exercise after years of no dancing) I ended up in physical therapy
and found out that part of the problem was due to my birth defects.  How this
will affect kids today, I don't know.  I don't know if the techniques have
changed, or if my situation was so much a combination of things that it might
be unlikely to affect a child today.  However, since you asked for experiences
with this, I thought I should give you as complete a picture as I have.

Overall, this hip problem is *extremely* minor.

      Carol, whose 5 month old has had heart surgery  :-}

    My 14 1/2 year old daughter was also born with hip dysplasia in
    her left hip. Luckily, her pediatrician detectedd it at birth and 
    I'm happy to
    say that she is perfectly normal now.  She plays baseball and softball
    and has no sign of the dysplasia.  In fact, when we go in for
    check-ups,
    the doctor has to ask which hip it was!
    
    Hip dysplasia is considered a"congenital birth defect"...existing at 
    birth but not hereditary.  
    Her problem was that the hip socket was not completely formed to cap 
    over the leg bone "ball".  It was open.  It seems that this condition
    is more common in female babies (and "larger" babies).  It may have
    something to do with the female hormones causing less strength in
    the ligaments.       
    
    While we were in the hospital they triple-diapered her.  The day we 
    went home, we went right to the orthopedist and he put her in the 
    "pillow harness".
    
    However, because we (the babysitter, her father, and I) removed
    and replaced this "pillow harness" every time we changed her
    diaper (and conceivably displaced her hip again), it didn't help.
    So, at 3 months, she was put into a Freijka (sp?) harness.  This
    contraption consisted of a belt around her waist which had straps
    that went over her shoulders and straps that went down and around 
    her legs.  The straps on her legs were pulled up so that her knees
    were bent and the heels of her feet were almost waist level.
    I got a little teary-eyed when they put her in this thing and the
    doctor reassured me that babies adapt more easily than adults do.
    She really didn't know any differently.  
    
    She was in this harness almost to her first birthday.  At one point
    in this difficult first year, our orthopedist recommended surgery
    because "her hips had been in and out of the socket so many times,
    the ligaments were stretched and couldn't hold the leg in the socket."
    Needless to say, we freaked!  Coincidentally, we had made an
    appointment at Children's Hospital in Boston for a consultation and
    it fell the following week.  So we asked our ortho for all her records
    and took them into Boston with us.  Dr.Rosenthall at Children's and
    a crew of interns saw Erinn, viewed her X-rays, called our ortho
    and consulted over the phone with him, and between them all,
    recommended NO surgery and to try the Freijka harness a while longer.
    
    (Note: Dr. Rosenthall reinforced the "babies and children adapt more
    easily" theory when he told me that he has seen children WALK into
    the hospital wearing one of these harnesses!)
    
    Thankfully, that did the trick.  When they removed the harness when
    she was about 11 months old, her hip socket had formed enough of a
    "cap" to hold the leg in.  She walked within a month.
    
    My only worry now is that all those X-rays they took have damaged
    her reproductive organs, but we'll have to wait and see on that one.
    
    My heart goes out to you.  I know how difficult it is to think of
    your little baby in pain or suffering.  But take comfort in the fact
    that this is a correctable problem and not life threatening.
    
    Good Luck.
    
    Noranne
    

    
    My nephew was born with hip dysplasia.  The harness was harder for my
    sister than it was for Jonathan.  He was I believe 3 months old and had
    the harness till he was six monthes old.  She had to visit with an
    ortho surgeon every other week.  The doctor not only checked the baby
    but talked with my sister to see how she was holding up.
    
    My nephew will be three years old next month.  He is very active and 
    walks, runs around just like any other kid his age.  You wouldn't even
    think that this ever happened to him.
    
    				carol

Sarah's ultrasound showed that her hips are solidly in place.  Even *I* could
see they are ok, even when they stressed her hips to try and displace them. 
(Pretty interesting - the ball of the hip joint is starting to ossify, but the
rest of the joint is still cartilage.)

The radiologist said he doesn't think anything is wrong with her hips.  His
opinion on the leg length difference is that either we were mistaken, or one of
her hips has looser ligaments than the other.  If one is looser, it is likely
that they will even out as she starts sitting and crawling.

In any case, Sarah doesn't appear to have dislocated hips.  Don't know why her
legs are different lengths, but we'll be watching out.

Thanks much for the responses.

Pat