Transient Synovitis - any experience?

[LilyLaly]

DD age 2 suddenly couldn’t walk today, crying in pain when bearing any weight on one leg and falling over. Seen quickly at children’s A&E who examined her and did a hip xray (which looked normal) and said probable transient synovitis or irritable hip as they often call it.

I’d never heard of this in my life. She had a mild virus about ten days ago and they said may be linked. Seems fine otherwise, can crawl and sit comfortably and move legs but can’t walk at all. Obviously difficult with a toddler who is full of energy! How long did yours last? And how did it present etc? I’ve gave nurofen but doesn’t seem to do much in terms of the pain when she stands. Poor thing :(

Did they do bloods? Any inflammation visible? DD had a similar experience and it turned out it was septic arthritis in the end. If it doesn’t improve I’d go back to be sure.

No bloods taken, just general obs, exam and the xray - which all came back clear and normal. Did your DD have an xray?

Yes she did. Hopefully yours will just clear up in its own time.

Thank you that’s reassuring. Hard not to worry when it’s such random and scary symptoms! Hope your DD is well now.

We had this when my son was a similar age. just woke up one day unable to bear weight on one leg and crying. went to doctors who just booked him in for an x-ray in like two weeks time so then went to a and e to speed things up. they did tons of tests, blood test, more x-rays etc, asked us lots of intense questions and even rang his nursery etc to see if there was an incident we weren't mentioning. in the end they said transient synovitis. he had a cold maybe 2 weeks prior but it was mild. it took quite a while to get better I have to say, and the process was gradual. maybe a month in total for complete normality. he's now 7 and not had any problems since.

This happened to us when DD was 2 1/2. We spent a lot of time in A&E and as well as transient synovitis a whole load of other possibilities were offered.
After about 3 months we met the consultant who declared it water on the knee and she was completely fine after that. Weird but true.

My 3 year old DS had this very recently - no X rays or blood tests, the paediatric A&E doctors gave him a quick look over and took his temperature then said it was likely just irritable hip! It cleared up very quickly though, he was able to bear weight again within 24 hours and he was running around like nothing had happened just a few hours later. Hopefully it passes soon for your DD too.

Sounds very similar, even down to the mild virus before. She literally had a fever for a day or two and that was pretty much it. Keep reading varying things on recovery time, was he unable to walk for quite a bit of that period or did it develop into more of a limp? Glad to hear no problems since :)

Thank you, hope so too. She keeps forgetting and going to stand up and then crying. Haven’t seen much improvement since this morning will see how the next few days go and try and get her to rest.

Actually thinking on it DD’s was hot to the touch so that is a big clue for SA over TS but it took a few days before that became noticeable.

My son has had this twice, aged 2 and 3. Both times after a mild virus he woke up totally unable to bear weight through his leg and clearly in pain.

Seen at A&E both times to rule anything else out. Both times much better after 24h. I think he went on limping a bit for a couple of weeks after lots of running about, but it did clear up fully after that.

It was a very bizarre thing! Luckily a friend's child had a similar episode a few months before so it was on my radar, otherwise I would have been very worried the first time.

It really is bizarre isn’t it. She has woken today completely able to walk again and not even limping. Such a difference from when she went to bed! At least I know now that it’s (hopefully) nothing too much to worry about if it happens again to us too.

Oh that's great! Really glad she's so much better!