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Children's health

Painful hips in 7 year old

12 replies

Al1son · 28/02/2011 19:04

DD2 has had painful hips since she had flu a month ago. We have seen the GP 3 times and on the last occasion she referred her to the local children's hospital and 3 weeks later we're still waiting to be sent an appointment.

One hip is more painful than the other and I don't think they hurt all the time. She is often in a lot of pain first thing in the morning and it's always worse the day after she's ridden her bike.

It's hard to tell how painful it is as she has an Autistic Spectrum Disorder and doesn't always express pain appropriately.

Do the symptoms sound familiar to anyone. Should I worry if the appointment is a few weeks away?

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vintageteacups · 28/02/2011 20:46

Is the pain radiating to any other part of her leg?

My DD had this when she was 7:
here

However, this was usually with pain in her thigh and knee and the inability to walk on said leg.

Otherwise, could it be growing pains? I had growing pains in my hips when younger and it was quite painful. It was worse at night. Have her feet grown recently or has she had an obvious growth spurt?

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Al1son · 28/02/2011 21:24

Thank you. She does have pain in her left knee a fair bit of the time.

The Synovitis does sound like it but it says it clears up in a few days. She's had this for a month.

She can walk but often walks on her tiptoe with her left leg.

She hasn't grown recently (God knows she needs to!).

How long did it take your DD to recover?

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clg2000 · 28/02/2011 23:11

Phrew I'm not the only one then :) my daughters just 8 and has high functioning autism, she has ddh at birth corrected with harnesses. The few months she's complained on and off her hips ache she's also started walking strangely kinda flipping her ankle in as she walks?? My gp just said will re see in few months and maybe it's muscle strain ? I'm not convinced but as she's so unreliable with pain due to her asd I don't know ifvits growing pains or too push for more tests etc

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Al1son · 28/02/2011 23:45

Hi clg my dd will be 8 in a couple of weeks. They sound very similar.

Can I ask what ddh is?

I scared myself earlier on by Googling hip pain and finding Legg-Calve-Perthes disease. It sounds horribly like that's what my dd might have. I knew that was a bad idea!

I'm dreading the appointment in case they want to take blood because I know that would be a nightmare in itself. I have already started talking her through xrays so that should be ok.

It's so hard when you can't tell if they're in pain. It makes me feel like a very inadequate parent

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vintageteacups · 28/02/2011 23:47

The other thing it can be (which is serious and needs immediate diagnosis and treatment) is Perthes Syndrome). However it's more common in boys than girls.

OP, DD was diagnosed with infected hip after the GP saw her with her walking on tip toe, pain in hip/knee and luckily thought it could be Perthes Syndrome). I took her straight to A & E, as he advised, and they admitted her to run blood tests. She had a hip scan and they did bloods. They found out it was infected hip and gave her anti-b's through a drip and then to take for a week afterwards. She wasn't allowed to put any pressure on the leg and so had to be carried to school/sit on chair all day etc for about 3 weeks.

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vintageteacups · 28/02/2011 23:50

Okay - so if you think it's Perthes, take her to GP tomorrow (don't leave it) and tell them you want to rule it out. If GP isn't sure, then I would just take her to A & E yourself tomorrow. They will hopefulyl refer her straight away to children's unit for tests if they think it may be that.

Don't worry, if she does go in or if GP wants to take bloods, then ask them to put EMLA cream on beforehand. It completely numbs area. Dcs are both allegic to it so I only put it on 15 mins before jabs. I'm sure it won't be that but it's good to check. I'm lucky that my vigilent GP saw it could have been Perthes.

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Al1son · 01/03/2011 08:13

Thanks both of you.

It's too painful for her to sit up this morning so I'll be ringing GP as soon as they're open and expecting someone to see her this morning.

I am really not looking forward to today. She has had some horrible experiences with blood being taken and I feel sick at the thought of having to do it again. At least if we go to a children's hospital they shouldn't get it as wrong as they did last time

God I hope it's not Perthes!

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vintageteacups · 01/03/2011 08:50

I'm sure it won't be Perthes - infected hips can be really painful and I'm sure it will be that. The fact that your dd had flu a month ago, means that it's likely to be from that. It just happens after a virus sometimes. My DD had had a virus too.

Godd luck today and let us know how she gets on.

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vintageteacups · 01/03/2011 16:26

Al1son - how did you get on? Let us know if DD is okay?

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Al1son · 02/03/2011 00:40

Just got back from the Birmingham Children's Hospital which is where the GP sent us this morning. What a nightmare day!

DD2 was lovely and calm when we got there. It took an hour before we got into triage by which time she was getting stressed. The lovely triage nurse took us to the parent's room to wait which was much easier for her to cope with.

Sadly once we'd waited for another 2.5 hours she was hard to reason with. This meant running away in the xray dept, refusing to take her trousers off and total meltdown for the blood test so it took four people to hold her down. The registrar has now marked her file as severe needle phobic but she's actually more a severe blood and being held down phobic.

The upshot is that there's nothing to see on the x-ray but that doesn't mean it isn't Perthes, the blood tests they got back were clear but there are more to come and she probably has some form of juvenile arthritis. We have to go back to see a rheumatologist within a week and also some sort of eye specialist because of some obscure link to eye damage which I didn't understand.

She's now lying on the sofa ranting about the whole thing and showing no sign of going to sleep.

Thanks for the support.

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vintageteacups · 02/03/2011 09:14

Glad you got to the hospital in the end.
I'm surprised they didn't do an ultrasound of her hip - not sure an x-ray would show an infected hip .

At least they are sorting it out with tests for you.
I would query why they haven't done an ultra sound of her hip - they can only say they don't need to.

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Al1son · 02/03/2011 09:40

Hi vintage. I think they decided it wasn't worth trying to do anything else with her. She was pretty unmanageable.

When we go back to see the rheumatologist I will get DH to come so one of us can manage her and the other can ask questions. They did say that it will be a very thorough investigation.

We're having a duvet day today