Hip Dysplasia after care advice

[ambriel78]

Hi, DD has been out of her pavlik harness to treat hip dysplasia for about 3 months now, but as hospital are just not offering any help/support I thought I'd try here, as everybody was so helpful when she went in to it.
First, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to lift her by her legs for nappy changes now? I haven't and always lift her under the bottom, but she's starting nursery soon, and not sure if I have to frum it in to them, or if the odd change that way wouldn't hurt?
Second, anybody have any experience of crawling (or lack of), as she will roll over, but shows no sign of wanting to crawl. She also still won't use the affected leg in her walker; she just used the other one and goes round in circles.
Should i be concerned and insist on the hospital seeing her earlier than next year at her review?
Or am I just whittling?
Thanks in advance.

Aww well done your dd to ocme out of the harness. not experienced this but I had dd1 in a leg cast at 3yo and she refused to walk then limped for a while like she was still in a cast. It took about a month to get her to walk properly. So it may take your baby a little while to learn that both legs will work.

I can't tell you about nappy changes but can recommend you carry her on your front in a wrap sling which keeps baby in an ergonomic position while out and about.

Hi there,
my DS had a parvik harnes and crawled just fine. His friend at playgroup had no DDH and never crawled, he went straight from sitting to walking. It could be that your DD is just not a crawler.
Does she get pain on moving the affected leg?
I never did lift either twin by their legs, it's a good habit to get in to. A bit now and then by the unknowing won't hurt but I would still drum it into the carers not to.
When did you have her last ultrasound check? If it was good recently, I wouldn't immediately worry. I am assuming the harness was bilateral?
I would say if you are concerned, always get a check. Can you talk to the physios who did the harness?

Hi Ambriel, I remember your original post, congratulations on getting through your time in the harness! To answer your questions, we were advised to avoid anything that pushed DD's legs together for 3 months after she came out of the harness, so e.g. we carried her with one leg either side of us and I did also try and not lift her by her legs when nappy changing. We were also told to avoid long car journeys as the car seat forces her legs together, but I seem to have been the only person whose DD was in a harness ever to have been told that - different hospitals clearly have different procedures! I really wouldn't have thought the odd change with legs lifted would hurt though.

My experience is that DD has been very delayed in reaching physical milestones. She didn't crawl until about a year old and she is only now (at 19.5 months) starting to weight bear and show signs of walking. The trouble is, it's impossible to say for sure whether this has anything to do with her time in the harness, she may have been late anyway (and what scientific research I can find seems to suggests hip dysplasia doesn't cause walking/crawling delays). Also, my DD was in her harness until 6 months old which I think was later than your DD, so maybe that makes crawling/walking delay more likely? So like TeaSleepFood [great name!] says maybe your DD was never going to be a crawler, it's not that unusual for LOs to miss out the crawling stage entirely.

The thing is, as with all of these sorts of things, it can't do any harm to get it checked out, so if you are at all concerned, maybe it might be worth seeing if you can get your check up a bit sooner?