Hip Dysplasia

Baby J. in her Superhero Costume

Whenever I've told anyone about Baby J.'s hip dysplasia as a newborn, I'm usually met with one of two responses, either, "What the heck is hip dysplasia?" or "Oh, I had that as a kid." I was actually surprised to learn it was more common than I thought. For those who don't know, the easiest way to explain it is that the femur (the thigh bone) doesn't quite fit right into the hip joint, either because the hip joint is too large (and hasn't finished closing around the femur), or the hip joint and the femur just aren't really lining up.

Examples of Hip Dysplasia

Baby J. had the problem that her hip joint was too large and not finished growing correctly around the femur (pretty much what you see in example C on the left). As a result, she had to wear a Pavlik harness, which is this ugly thing that wraps around her shoulders, hips and feet in order to keep the legs positioned in such a way that the hip can form correctly around the femur. To make ourselves feel better about the awful contraption she was forced to wear, we often referred to it as her "superhero costume". She was lucky though, some cases of hip dysplasia are so severe that the child has to be in traction for a period of time (I could only imagine how well that would have went with a baby that constantly wants to move).

After only about a month of wearing the harness, Baby J. was able to have it off for short periods of time, and then after a few more visits to her hip doctor, she was able to lose the harness at all. I won't go into much detail, but we had a lot of issues with our hip doctor; he kept trying to bilk us out of more money, even after Baby J.'s hips were completely healed. Despite three separate ultrasounds that all showed her hips were perfectly fine, despite nurses and her own pediatrician saying the hips were fine, and despite the hip doctor himself admitting that her hips were now perfectly normal, he kept trying to us to return for more and more visits. We eventually put our foot down and said enough was enough. It was a waste of money, and clearly the hip doctor was trying to keep a steady $300 paycheck from our health care provider for the five minute sessions he had wherein he simply said, "Hips look fine. Come back in three months." I know I'm ranting and completely getting off target here, but some doctors really infuriate me.

So, anyway, back to topic, I'm curious if any readers have any kids with hip dysplasia, and if so, how severe is it? My wife had it as a baby, and her case was far worse than Baby J.'s; she was forced to wear a Pavlik harness for about a year. And if you can't already imagine, those harnesses are extremely uncomfortable, hard to put on, harder yet to clean up, and an all around pain in our collective rear.

D.