The Butt Hair Incident

After bringing Baby J. to her 9-month checkup yesterday, I was thinking about one of our earliest checkups, and it got me thinking about "the butt hair incident".

Baby J. at 1 month old in her harness.

Baby J. was born with hip dysplasia (essentially her leg didn't fit quite correctly into her hip). This required that she wear a harness that wrapped around her hips and legs to keep the leg bones in place, while the hip grew around the leg correctly. Knowing she had hip dysplasia, the pediatrician was extra careful about every little thing that might be wrong with Baby J., especially around the hips and legs area. At around 2 weeks, the pediatrician noticed that Baby J. had a tuft of hair on her butt. Now, this is completely normal. If you've ever seen a newborn, they have hair in a lot of places: on their shoulders, their back, their face, and even their butt (you'll especially notice this extra hair on premature babies). I guess the hair helps keep them warm in the womb.

Anyway, the pediatrician (upon seeing this tuft of butt hair) was extremely worried it could be the result of a growth underneath the skin. So, what should have been a funny story about a baby born with butt hair turned into my wife and I taking our newborn baby to an ultrasound technician to scan her buttocks for growths. Not only did my baby girl need to have her butt examined up close and personal, she had an audience, as that was the day the ultrasound technician was teaching a group of students how to use the machine.

My wife and I have decided that this little story will be a great way of embarrassing our teenage daughter some day (especially when she brings boyfriends home for dinner).

D.

p.s. Baby J. has been out of the harness for quite a long time now. Her hips formed perfectly.