Hip Dysplasia and Your Children

My daughter is 2 1/2 years old now and just went through, probably one of the most horrible things that will happen to her. With any luck she will not remember when she gets older.� In�April of 2006 I was told that she probably had hip dysplasia, the technical term for dislocated hips, and scoliosis. My heart skipped a beat and�I almost passed out. My normal healthy daughter�who runs, jumps, climbs and plays has a dislocated hip?�Well I had x-rays�taken immediately come to find out both of her hips were dislocated and she had a slight�case of scoliosis.��Her left hip was so far out of place I couldn't understand how she could do all the things she was doing.�I later found out from the�orthopedic specialist that since she was born with�the left hip�out of place, which after going unnoticed for so long made the right one come out also,her muscles and ligaments just compensated for the dislocation allowing her to go on normally undetected.��

So anyway while waiting for the appointment with the specialist I did some research on line. The only risk factor my daughter had for�having hip dysplasia�was being a girl.� Okay in case you are wondering i'll let you know the risk factors: first born child,�being a girl (is less common in boys) and�heredity.�� I think there�are some others but can not�find my documents right now. If�needing more information just search the�web for hip dysplasia there is a lot of good information to be found.��
So okay when we finally got an appointment to see the orthoperdic specialist� she said the only option in�my daughter's�case,�since she was 2 years old now, was hip surgery and wearing a spica cast for three months. Now if they would have caught this when she was an infant or before she was 18 months old she may not have had to have�major surgery.� They first try a brace then if that doesn't work they use just a spica cast no surgery. Then if those things�don't work� they will do surgery.�As if my 2 year old daughter having major surgery wasn't enough,let me explain to you what a spica cast is.�