Hip Dysplasia in new born baby girl

You are so fortunate that the hospital had conscientious staff, and checked you granddaughter (as they will have checked all the others)

With early management, such as your family has received, the outlook for normal development (perhaps in the splint for many months) is excellent.

Hi, I don't have personal experience of this however my colleague's little girl was diagnosed with this at 2 weeks old. She wore the splint for several weeks (I think 2 months at least). They got into a routine and coped well with the splint. Her daughter has had no problems since, she was mobile and walking like any other child. The only tricky part was bathing her as the splint couldn't come off so sponge baths was all they could do. But she did lots of lovely massages too which was a great bonding time for them.

Hope this is some encouragement for you and your daughter.

My cousins baby had hip displacia and was in a splint for a couple of months, it was a bit awkward with nappys etc but she's 5 now and you would never know anything had been wrong, I'm 48 and was born with a dislocated hip that wasn't picked up until I was 6 months old, I had years in traction, numerous hip op's and a new hip replacement last year, that's the difference for you from the 1960's to now, they do wonderful things these days, please tell your daughter not to worry, her baby will be just fine in time xxx

Hi Pauline

My daughter was diagnosed with hip dysplasia at birth and was placed into a Von Rosen splint at 4 days old.  The splint is a kind of H shape made of bendable foam covered rubber.  She was in the brace for 8 weeks and after a follow up xray and visit to the orthopaedic surgeon at 5 years we were told that her hip joint had formed beautifully and no further intervention would be required.  She is now 9.  The inconveniences we found with the brace were that you could never really cuddle her - the brace was always in the way, faeces would get stuck on the underside of the cross beam of the brace,  her nappy was never snug against her body so leakages at the back were common, the brace would hold her clothes away from her body so it was difficult to keep her warm, it was also difficult to swaddle her and because the brace help her legs in a froglike position, many seats, basinets etc were too narrow.  Two things to watch out for: first make sure that the parts of the brace which go over her thighs do not prevent her from moving her knees up towards her body (this restriction was unnecessary and made our daughter really unhappy) and, second, make sure that the parts of the brace which go over her shoulders do not prevent her from turning her head freely and equally towards both sides.  My daughter's brace was fitted with one side slightly higher than the other.  I drew this to the attention of the orthopaedic surgeon, but like most specialists he had his blinders on and only considered whether or not it would affect the hip dysplasia and did not adjust the brace.  It ended up causing her to develop torticolus (a shortening of the nerves in one side of her neck) which led to plagiocephaly (flattening of her head on one side) because it was always more comfortable for her to have her head to one side rather than the other, particularly when sleeping.  She ended up having to have wear a helmet at 5 months for another 8 weeks to try to reshape her head.  The helmet helped a little, but did not make her head completely nice and round.  Hope this helps.  Feel free to message me if you have any questions. 

Regards

Kylee

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Thank you everyone for your help and advice, I really appreciate you taking the trouble to reply. I have read all your replies to my daughter too.

We are slowly getting used to the news now and have been offered lots of support. Baby Aria doesn't really know any different luckily enough!!

my daughter has accepted things now and hopeful that with the treatment provided will make an excellent recovery. Thank you once again

Pauline.

You illustrate the great benefit of this web-site

I can give my personal story and tell you that your daughter is very lucky. I was born with a dislocated hip but it was not noticed until i was 6 month. Nothing was done till i was a year but by then the problems were irriversable and my joint is now fused to the socket leaving me with no mobility. Im about to go in for a thr which will be my 11th operation, and hopefully the one to fix me. I am 19 and it has been incredibly diffucult. But bevauseit was found so quickly, she should recover well and grow up to live a normal life hopefully. But i am very sorry to hear this