Developmental Dysplasia of the Hips follow up - confusion!

[Keggles36]

Hello

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of this and can reassure/explain.

My daughter was diagnosed with mild hip dysplasia (angle of 58 on left hip so nearly the required 60!) at 5 weeks and went into a Pavlik Harness. The hip progressed well and the harness came off after 6 weeks.

She's now 7 months old and we just had our first follow up x-ray. I wish my husband had come too as my brain just turns to soup as soon as everything is not ok. Anyway, the consultant said that the femoral head looks "small" on the left on xray, and the socket is still a little shallow. He then said he wouldn't lose sleep over it, and they'd just xray again in 3 months.

I must have looked stricken as he then showed me an actually dislocated xray and explained about surgery and spica, but said that's a worst case scenario that we're no where near!

He said at this point there's not much I can do to improve the hip, but not to swaddle (which we have never done, and also our house is currently a sauna so definitely won't be doing it now!).

I asked how much should I worry and he said not at all.

But obviously, I am worried 🤣

I'm just a bit confused about what this means... Will the hip improve even though the bone has started to calcify? Is it likely she'll need surgery at the next xray?

Has anyone ever had a result like this at over 6 months and then it resolve itself!

I'm currently waiting for gallbladder surgery on Saturday and just in constant dull pain with regular flare ups so can't tell if I'm overreacting because everything feels hard right now and I'm scared of my own surgery, or if I should be worrying and he was just being nice.

Any thoughts or experiences?

Hi

Our story is a bit different as my little girls hip dysplasia wasn’t picked up until she was 7 months and she needed surgery and spica for 13 weeks.

When she came out the spica we were told her socket was still not deep enough but they wanted to give it time to see if it would fix on its own. We were told the more she started moving, crawling, walking etc the more the joint would be moving and it should start to deepen over time.

shes now 5 and just had a check up and everything looks perfect and she never needed anymore surgery. She’s had 6 monthly checks that moved to yearly checks since she was 7 months. I think it’s a very long process she will likely get regular check ups but there is risk of dislocation until the age of 7 so I believe this is when they are finally discharged.

It can be totally daunting and obviously a worry but hopefully she will be absolutely fine and if worse case scenario she does need a spica I promise it’s not as bad as it looks and it just becomes second nature. My girl can’t remember it at all now and we’re so glad we done it when she was small enough to forget about it.

There is loads of good groups on Facebook as well if you’re not already in them if you just search DDH.

hope everything goes well for you :)

@CLK125 thank you so much for your reply, that's made me feel much better. I feel like it must have been ok or they would have acted today, and hopefully it'll keep improving when she starts crawling etc. But you've reassured me the spica will be ok if that happens - I think I'm mostly terrified of her having surgery she's just so little xxx

Have you tried carrying her in an ergonomic sling like a wrap? They often have an exaggerated “frog leg” position which would encourage hip development… rather than a pram or buggy which will have her legs straight? Understand your operation may mean this isn’t practical for you for a while but she could go on daddy? At her age she could even go in a back carry…

@fourelementary yes, she spends most of her life in a Manduca which has the M position and is approved by the Hip Dysplasia institute 😊 she's only recently started going in a pram. The consultant today said that will have helped when she was little but not so important now bones are harder.

I'm available devastated not to be able to wear her for a while 😓 but her dad will take over!