Benign joint hypermobility and skiing?

[sammyd1969]

My daughter (13) has recently been diagnosed with BJHS with a Beighton core of 7 out of 9 and she has problems with hip pain. She is meant to be going on a school skiing trip in february and I don't know whether skiing is a good idea? Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?

My 15 year old DD has this. I would worry about her knees more than her hips. Can you get her some physio exercises to strengthen the muscles before she goes? This should offer her some level of protection.

She is waiting to start physio, hopefully it will be soon. I can speak to her consultant tomorrow so he will hopefully be able to give me some advice as to whether she should be doing it or not. just nice to hear from others who have similar problems.

I know it's a relatively mild condition but both my girls are affected in quite negative ways. DD1's knees have reached the point where I am considering applying fro a blue badge because she can't walk around shops or from car parks to cinemas, etc when it's bad.

I dread to think what s we'd be treated to if we used one though because, like her ASD this is a hidden disability.

Oh dear. It is a worry isn't it. They say it's hereditary but no one on either sides of our family has it and my son seems ok (at the moment but he is younger). How old are your daughters and when was theirs diagnosed?

DD1 is 15. She was diagnosed last year but looking back I can't believe how many doctors have missed it because she's had knee problems since the age of about 7 and quite a few finger joint dislocations.

DD2 is 9 and was diagnosed because of a bad episode of hip pain aged 7.

I have now realised that the party trick where I bend my thumbs back is due to hypermobility which probably explains the intermittent joint pain I have always experienced. I don't feel very hypermobile because I have very short hamstrings which DD1 also has.

I must say my doctor only referred my daughter to a specialist after I said thats what I thought she had, and thats only because a friends daughter had it so I was aware of hypermobility. Other wise I would never have heard of it. The doctors just kept trying to tell me her hip pain was caused by her horseriding, which she had done nearly every day since she was three years old. The consultant actually said that the horse riding would be no problem to her whatsoever but she did used to do trampolining which would be doing her no good at all.

Same with my DD. Horse-riding doesn't seem to affect her knee pain but I'm sure trampolining has caused quite a lot of damage. I'm currently trying to persuade my family that the trampoline should go. Sadly I can't replace it with a horse so she'll have to be satisfied with weekly lessons.

Since my dd heard the consultant say trampolining was bad she hasn't even wanted to get on ours. She used to do it at competition level but gave up because she was getting a bit left behind with the other kids that started with her and not progressing, now we can see it's probably because her joints were too bendy and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't keep the lovely straight body lines that trampolinists are supposed to have!! It's really nice to speak with someone whos kids have the same condition.

Our problem now is how DD1 should exercise. Anything which puts weight on her knees is painful and, due to her AS, she refuses to go swimming. Trampolining was good as a low impact activity but she couldn't avoid twisting.

I can't afford for her to ride horses every day (mores the pity) the physio says she shouldn't walk too far and cycling hurts her knees.

Very difficult isn't it. It's a shame as swimming would be such a good thing. We are lucky to have always had horses and I run a yard of them as a living so we are surrounded by them.

I'm sure that wold be DD1's idea of heaven - and mine when I was a teenager too.

She's working very hard on me at the moment to find a loan or loan share. All I can say is we'll see.

I hope the physio comes up with some good ideas for you.

DD1 has BJH, DD2 has EDS hypermobilty - which are more or less the same thing bit of a rumpus amongst doctors. DD2 was bouncing competitively and has been told outright by her previous consultant that under no circumstances must she bounce again. DD1 bounces at a club but recreationally; she may need to give that up though, once she finally gets a physio appointment.

No help on skiing, but the exercise we've been advised to do is swimming, cycling and dance (particularly ballet - we didn't mention pointe work though, as that's probably also not allowed). Anything that's non contact and low impact is good.

Also come and chat to us over here as there are far more knowlegable people than me who will be able to help.

Thank you IShallWearMidnight. I shall follow your link and have a look