Hypermobile

The fact that she has injured herself and will need to heel, combined with wanting to investigate the extent of her hypermobility will both be factors in wanting her to rest.

My knees have historically hyperextended but never that severely. I'm getting on a bit, now, and everything that moved too much is locking up, instead. Bits that shouldn't mover, OTOH... [clicks collarbone]

My dd is 12 and was diagnosed with hyper mobility issues when she was 7. She has weekly physio and does exercises at home. She recently joined the hospital gym programme and is enjoying it. She pops her knees back in on her own when they fall out with no drama. just needs to rest and stop for 5 mins in school. She has a very full life and she cycles everywhere. It is very common. We just manage it and live with it .

I'm hypermobile. I saw countless doctors and physios as a child but back then no one picked up on it. One GP almost touched upon it but was dismissed by my mother. So consider yourself lucky that she is diagnosed now. It's a lifetime condition, she'll probably find it worsens during hormone surges (puberty, various times in her cycle, pregnancy etc). Arm yourself with as much info to help through life, but keeping muscles strong is key. Pilates is excellent exercise, but physio led so she doesn't hyperextend.

You would expect one parent at least to also have hypermobility? Does her dad have hypermobility? Family members?

I'm hypermobile and never had physio. I do get joint pain and have done for some years now but it's not debilitating and ibuprofen helps.
Yes some people are affected badly but certainly not everyone.

I'd be warning against party tricks too.

Yes! I was easily persuaded at uni to put my legs around my neck (something I can still do, but it’s unseemly at 52 when everyone has a smart phone 😬).

I'd be warning against party tricks too. At uni I used to slip my hips out and walk forwards with my feet backwards......pretty much need new hips now but I'm too young yet.

I wish I'd known earlier to keep a very strong core, good posture and work to normal range not go showing off in yoga classes.

I'm currently doing a lot of swimming, very patient pilates and trying to keep my hips and right shoulder in place....so no mad things like rolling over in bed or waving too hard. But I fully did this to myself by not thinking that party tricks would have repercussions

My DS is hypermobile and I don't let him do any tricks .... though he does keep showing off his elastic skin and pulling out his jowls ..... I'm hoping the extra collagen will stop him looking like Churchill in his early 40s lol

My 2 hypermobile kids have needed physio many times throughout their lives as they are prone to injury and pain. People with hypermobility need to strengthen their muscles to help support their joints, seeing as their ligaments are not capable of being supportive on their own.

As an incredibly hypermobile person I wish wish wish I had started and kept up intensive physio when I was younger - having incredibly strong joints would almost certainly have prevented the four very painful and serious joint injuries I’ve had, which all required surgery to fix.

I’m hypermobile. 9/9 on Beighton scale.

Apart from dislocating my knees twice in my life (which was no big deal), I’ve never had any issues. I find it helps to have good leg strength, as that seems to help stabilise my knees. So I run and do several spin classes a week.

As a child, I did gymnastics, ballet and all school sports with no problems. I used to ski every year too.

I do yoga now. Not surprisingly, I’m very good at it 😂

I'm shamelessly commenting to placemark as DD1 (nearly 3.5yrs) is waiting on a physio referral for suspected hypermobility. She has been very flexible from the day she was born, clicky hips which had to have a scan to rule out any dysplasia, so clumsy, late to walk and her running is all over the shop. The HV came to see DD2 and DD1 was sat on the sofa with a big toe in each ear 🙈 So she did the referral there and then for me. Interesting to read some of the comments on this thread - she already does swimming and i was considering ballet as well, so sounds like that could be a good option for her.

I’m hyper mobile and also dyspraxic. There’s often this comorbidity.

All my connective tissues are affected and I have had issues with pretty much all my joints now! It does mean I look much younger than I am though (stretchy skin) so it’s not all bad.

At the moment my main issues are hips and gums. I was in a wheelchair for about a year in my late thirties.

Lots of info online. Good luck.

Hypermobility is usually to do with connective tissue disease like ehlers danlos. Worth joining some eds uk facebook pages

I suggest that when you speak to physios she is working with find out what you can do to strengthen the muscles around her knees at home. I'm hypermobile and when my body was strong I had far fewer issues. So I would find out what exercises they can suggest to build muscle knee strength to compensate for the hypermobility. And then work continuously at home with her to keep building that strength. Also, if you don't feel like the physio you get is good, switch because not all are well versed in hypermobility so make sure you request one who knows what they are talking about.

both my DD's have hypermobility.. double jointed for those who are not sure.. they are both at 8 on the scale. Thye have both had physio throughout their lives, it doesn't do much, it just strengthens the muscles.

they know what they can and can't do.. its not something that gets better or goes away. its annoying and we have regular dislocations.. in later life they will probably suffer with OA but cest la vie

My Daughter who is now university aged has hyper mobility in her joints. It first showed up aged 13 months and she was warned that any of her joints, including her spine could dislocate easily. It was a bit of a worry for me, as she was a very active tomboy. She had problems with her knees growing up, as the kneecap wouldn't track properly. It was a balancing act of resting enough when injured but also build up strength when she wasn't. She saw the physio who gave her exercises to do throughout the day. We had to liaise with school and college to allow her to do some of them whilst being seated in class.

She also regularly has issues with her shoulders subluxation or complete dislocation. She doesn't have the sensation of pain, that would usually stop from moving joints past their normal range of movement. By the time it's hurting, the joint is out of place. The physio is working on her ability to quickly engage her muscles to be protective. They are also trying to strengthen them as every time a joint is dislocated, it's damaging it and weakened the muscles. This makes it more likely to dislocate in the future.

It's definitely something you want to get good understanding about, so you know how to manage it. You need to know when it's appropriate to encourage her to do the correct exercises and know when she should be resting. It's likely to be something she's going to have to manage to live with, although there are cases where young children can develop/"grow out of it" but the tendency for lax joints will always be there. How much it's going to affect her while life is difficult to say, as it's variable from person to person. One thing we found was once she started periods, hormones affect how lax her joints are in her pelvis and legs.

When younger my dd did ballet and gymnastics, although I ended up removing her from gymnastics as i didn't feel they were understating of her hypermoblity and were letting her over stretch. Ballet can be good, but again, make sure the ballet teacher knows what they are doing. My dd has found horse riding for core strength useful and swimming for overall strength. She is prone to injury with the swimming mind, especially shoulders but overall the benefits outweigh the risks I think.

The fact you don't think she has flat feet and she had nice handwriting is a positive. Perhaps her hypermobility is just affecting her knees? My dd did get diagnosed via the nhs as having EDS. All I can say is do not google too much or join any fb 'support groups'. It did me no good at all! She's 14 now and doing great, self managed pain via paracetamol, wears insoles and as clumsy as anything, otherwise you wouldn't really know. Plus she can do some great 'party tricks'!

Btw I'm not hyper mobile everywhere so it is possible that it's not every joint. The physio can do an assessment and let you know. My dislocating joints are my knees and my fingers. Fingers crossed she gets seen soon!

I have hyper mobile knees - it's so good that it's been picked up now because with careful physio it will make a big difference. Mine was only picked up as an adult and I had already done a lot of damage. I have to wear orthotics in my shoes and be careful but the muscle strengthening exercises the physio gave me work really well.

And simple stuff like standing on one leg when brushing my teeth helps build up ankle strength.