Possible hypermobility

[uglynakedguy0808]

Hi

Looking for others experiences please. My son is 16m and doesn't crawl or walk. He does this weird bum shuffle thing from a sitting position, whilst leaning really far forward, almost like a crab the way he drags his legs along. His childcare provider has flagged a possible issue with his legs as he doesn't seem to want to weight bear. He doesn't sit on his knees, or try and pull up etc. I contacted HV who asked a few questions and asked if there is a family history of hyper mobility which there is, on my partners side. She said based on what I told her he needs to see a physio. He cries when you try and help him to stand up, and avoids putting any weight on his legs.
I'm really upset that there's potentially something wrong with him, I just thought he was being lazy and now feel guilty that I didn't pick up on it. The HV obviously couldn't diagnose but when I asked what the problem could be she said the family history of hyper mobility may be a factor.

So I'm wondering if anyone else had babies with hyper mobility and what your experiences were? I just feel sad for him that he could be walking so late as I don't want him to be missing out.

Also, for anyone who may have experienced similar, does this sound like anything else other than hypermobility?

Thanks x

Our first was diagnosed with hyper mobility at about the same time. We had been taking her swimming and the swimming teacher said she thought DD wasn’t putting much weight on her legs. She also took a long time to start to walk (but got there in the end!)

We had various hospital appointments but once she was diagnosed we were discharged and told to just see how she does. She is 6 now and does still find some things more difficult than her peers- slow to learn to ride a bike etc. She doesn’t notice it herself though. Also we have had to use handwriting grips to support her handwriting. She is still a great swimmer!

we are going back for a check up in a couple of weeks but from what I have read it’s not something to worry about too much.

i was the baby with hypermobility, i was also a bum shuffler funny enough, i didn't walk until 19 months and honestly it just got worse as i got older as horrible as that sounds, honestly though the worst thing that this will do is make it hard to walk on cold days and sometimes force him to sit out of pe, be prepared if he does have it to stand up to a lot of pe teachers though 😂, they weirdly have the same mindset as you had, that we're just lazy people

I have hyper mobile ehlers danlos syndrome, I bum shuffled all the way till I was 2 and learnt to walk.

The only thing I can really say is try not to encourage him doing anything that puts his joints under to much pressure because when you get older it effects your joints more and it's pretty painful.
I now suffer with a lot of dislocations and semi-dislocations.

But yeah bum shuffling is life! 😂

I have a hypermobile dd- now 13.

She didn't walk till she was 21months, didn't speak other than odd almost words until she was 2yrs. She puked ALOT as a baby.

She's now a strong 13yr old swimmer. She hates team sports but she is also dyspraxic (the two apparently go together) so coordination of where she is in space is a big factor in that. She's clumsy and her pencil grip is awkward so she now uses a laptop in school. But her memory is amazing resulting in fabulous gradings in history and languages!

Hypermobile kids face a variety of extra challenges... but they are all fabulously different!

I absolutely feel for where you are. I remember the day well when the paediatrician diagnosed my daughter. I'd never heard of hypermobility. I cried for 2 days. Then I started to read and get on groups on here and on the HMSA website. Adults who deal with this added challenge every day will be invaluable in explaining what is happening to you until you child is old enough to do so themselves. Talk to the relatives - depending on when they were diagnosed they might be invaluable. My husband is also hypermobile as was probably his mother... they are/were of the attitude of oh well she just needs to get on with it so not always useful but..

Keep talking OP. It's tough... but he will get there!