What do I need to know about Hip Dysplasia?

[eggontoast]

Today, my DD 6 wks has just been put into a harness to correct hip dysplasia.

Apart from keeping it on 23 hours a day ie. all the time apart from nappy changes, what do I need to know?

I am so down today, and I am trying to look on the bright side, I know she will be fine, but I just cannot stop wishing that she was fine now and did not have to go through the discomfort.

I am so soft and I know there are a million other worse conditions but she is so perfect and has never cried properly, just little wimpers to be picked up or fed, (OK hard to believe!), but she cried like I have never heard when they put the contraption on and it broke my heart.

Being found so early is good as much easier to treat. My 1st dd wasn't diagnosed until 12 months and so had to have traction, operation and then plaster before funally the harness. When in the harness she was able to have the hour a day out of it and thats when we bathed her.

Dd3 was diagnosed at 6 months and had the same treatment but it was a bit quicker.

At such a young age you can hopefully still use her normal carseat and buggy yes?

How long do the think she will need the harness?

I am not sure how long; at best 6 wks so not too bad.

I use a baby pouch rather than a buggy so thats out - being so snowy and icy I cant really risk going out anyway so not too bad either.

We are just extremely lucky that it has been found so early so we have the best chance of a good outcome.

I just hate seeing her in discomfort, she is such a lovely baby.

I am going to let myself wallow till bed time, then tomorrow, I am going to wake up with a fresh positive mind.

Hi Eggontoast, I know exactly how you are feeling at the moment, my DD was put into a harness at 3 months and the day it went on was such a shock. She was very unhappy for about 24 hours, then it gradually got easier and within about 3-4 days she was fine. A week later I had genuinely forgotten what it was like to have a baby who wasn't in a harness. She felt all floppy and strange when it came off! I can't promise it will be like that for you, but I've spoken to so many people now that this has happened to and their LOs all got used to the harness within a few days. My biggest problems were the heat as it was on over a hot summer and rubbed a bit (unlikely to be a problem for you ) and I also had to be more careful to wind her after feeds as I think it affected her digestion a bit.

You might want to have a look at this thread as someone else posted about this recently: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childrens_health/872683-Pavlik-harness. You should find a few tips for coping. You might also want to look at the post I made when my DD was diagnosed, which might reassure you a bit. As you can see I was in a bit of a state when I posted but it soon settled down: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childrens_health/778393-Pavlik-harness-for-hip-displacia-need-advice-and-suppor t

If there's any questions that aren't answered in these threads, just post again, there's a few of us on here who have been through this and we're really happy to help.

I know it feels rubbish at the moment, but you really are fortunate to have it diagnosed early. The harness has a 90% success rate of curing the problem if it goes on at 6 weeks. I was lucky too as it worked for my DD, who is now 9.5m. She's just starting to try and crawl, which is wonderful to see.

Good luck - let us know how you get on.

DrCoseyTiger - Thank you so much for your post; today has been much better. I feel much more relaxed and DD seems to be the same with it as she was without it.

It was the shock and diagnosis that I think I struggled with yesterday.

I am just crossing everything hoping that it will work!! I'll let you know.

visit www.steps-charity.org

they have a forum and helpline and loads of info on the site.

Good luck with the harness as the previous posters have said it's really positive that it's been picked up early

sorry thats meant to say
www.steps-charity.org.uk