to think hyper mobility doesn’t just start at 12 years old?

[OhSOconfused123]

My daughter is having a real struggle with feeling her ankles constantly need clicking back into place.
It doesn’t matter if she’s walking or not, even sitting down the teacher has noticed her bending her feet over to the side trying to “ click them into place “
This has been going on only for 2 weeks and the doctor wasn’t concerned but referred her to physio.
Surely this doesn’t just start at this age?
She doesnt do any taxing sports; just tennis once a week but is fit and active etc.
Very worried about her constantly bending her feet over to the side in case she actually breaks something soon

Has she had a growth spurt recently?

Nope nothing substantial!

It might not be hyper mobility. See what the physio says.

Has she had bloods done for Vit D levels.

My 17 year old has just been diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos 3. Has had no discernable symptoms apart from loud clicking and a thumb that bends...oddly. We have only found out about it incidentally, since she has developed POTS. The triad often occurs together so she was investigated for ED and MCAS and found to have all. Whereas my DS has struggled with awful musculoskeletal pain for years and GPs put it down to growing pains. I'm guessing we can safely attribute that to ED. Have a read about it.

Might it just not have been picked up before? I was an adult before I was diagnosed.

My daughter was 15 when diagnosed with EDS and hyper mobility. She dislocated her knee and was diagnosed first by the physiotherapist and then the team at UCH.

I am 46 and will be 47 when I finally see a rheumatologist for suspected EDS diagnosis. I struggled with pain etc all my teen years, DSM just said 'we just thought you were really bendy'

So yes, it can absolutely happen, and thank you for listening to her and pursuing

It depends on the child and how the hypermobility affects them and to what degree. My ds2 is hypermobile and didn't walk til he was 22 months., but not all hypermobile children will be late walkers. 12 isn't late or too old to be diagnosed with it at all

If it is hyper mobility then it won’t just have started but unless causing pain or impacting on function lots of people don’t notice they are. Growth spurts or an injury may have just brought it to the forefront. Physio should be able to say and advise you.

Around 12 was when I started being properly troubled by this - potentially due to gaining enough weight to hurt myself when turning ankles, which happened a lot (still does), and starting to wear shoes with higher heels than before, although not that high. Hormone changes also make joints, ankles and shoulder in my case, much more sore.

It absolutely can suddenly come on or worsen at about that age, strong links between connective tissue problems and female hormones so it's often worse at puberty and then perimeno.

I've hypermobility and puberty and pregnancy made it much worse so I'm assuming there's some hormonal link.

@Anomalocaris

It absolutely can suddenly come on or worsen at about that age, strong links between connective tissue problems and female hormones so it's often worse at puberty and then perimeno.

I am so glad you have said this, am peri and falling apart (literally, surgery next month)

Yep started at 12/13 with recurrent patella dislocation. Much worse in pregnancy
Definitely a hormonal effect

My gs's was evident at infant school. He can literally turn his limbs inside out if you understand what I mean. He clicks his knees back into place. His main issue is that his hands are painful and he tires doing large amounts of writing so the school have put measures in place (laptop) for his exams.

His original school treated him terribly. He went into some kind of remedial class and had to miss PE, assemblies etc. He was referred to the physio at the local hospital and she was appalled by the school's attitude. She attended to watch how staff treated him.

I took him out and he went into a much kinder and tolerant school who told him his writing was good, they could improve it rather than telling him how awful it was. He went into higher app groups at secondary school but they know he struggles writing wise.

I do think it tends to worsen at puberty op.

Thank you for the replies
I’ll take her to a private physio this week as the waiting list is 3 months on the NHS and I can’t watch her being so uncomfortable like this.
Literally no sign before this at all which is why it’s all odd to be - she’s not what I would describe as flexible at all etc!
She did have severe heel pain through lockdown which the doctors said was severs and that wore off when she returned to school and wasn’t scootering etc quite so much.
I wonder what a physio will do.
I’ve been out today buying much more supportive shoes - she hates heels but loves sliders which are probably really really unhelpful with this condition.
So supportive trainers it is!

@ElsieMc the physios can write a report so he can use a computer if it's tiring for him - they did this for one of my DC for exams

My husband was diagnosed with EDS at 50. There had been odd occasions hes had issues which were brushed off as usual injuries just taking along time to heal. You should definitely get this checked out.....

Hormones can have a massive impact on the symptoms of hypermobility

My symptoms always get worse at certain points of my cycle

I was diagnosed with eds when I was 23. (I'm 36 now) So it can suddenly become evident at any age. I'm now in a wheel chair and on over 60 meds a day including morphine and I'm still in agony. Glad you're getting help for your daughter.

It really makes me curse progesterone. I didn’t realise it got worse with peri menopause though I probably should have. I think it was wishful thinking.

I click my ankles back in while I’m sitting too.

I wasn’t diagnosed until I was about 27, they had asked me at 25 if I was hypermobile (well actually if I read the posters in the waiting room and could relate to them) and I said no 😂. If that makes you feel any better. Once I realised I was parts of my childhood made more sense.

Dd started with issues at about this age. Has since been diagnosed with EDS.

I have hEDS and it is affected by my menstrual cycle, so theoretically 12 could be a fairly typical time for problems to worsen.

Oh I should have also said, my nephew also has it (now knowing what to look for I spotted it a lot earlier) and was given special pens and offered other equipment for school. He went via rheumatology same as I did (albeit the one at the children’s hospital) but we do have a family history of RA so they tend to be fairly cautious.