Brooke has DDH

Our little baby girl didn't tun out quite perfect. When the midwife examined her right after birth she noticed a clicking in her hip and told me to have the pediatrician check it out. Well last week the pediatrician confirmed that she has developmental dysplasia (dislocation) of the hip (DDH). This is an abnormal formation of the hip joint in which the ball on top of the thighbone (femur) is not held firmly in the socket. In some babies only one hip is dislocated but both of Brooke's hips are dislocated.

DDH is most common in babies when DDH runs in the family or when the baby is breached - neither of these apply to us. But also very interesting its most common in first born girls.

Yesterday we saw an orthopedic specialist at Children's Hospital who also confirmed this and sent us in for treatment. To fix this Brooke will be wearing a Pavlik Harness which maintains the proper position of the femoral head in the socket. Just by wearing this harness (2-4 months likely for her) her hips should form properly and she will grow up with no problems.

I asked the doc. at Children's how frequently they have babies coming in to be fitted with this harness and surprisingly he said 2-3/week! But Children's is the main specialty hospital for the greater northwest/surrounding states. I've read that 2-3 babies per 1,000 are born with DDH.

For more info on DDH and treatment I found this informative link: http://www2.massgeneral.org/ortho/hip_dysplasia.htm

The harness should not cause her discomfort but she is still getting used to it and gets frustrated that she can't extend her legs. She definitely cried the hardest yesterday, its really sad to she her unhappy. The night before last we were doing great with just one night time feeding but that all changed last night. I was up with her every 2 hours to feed and comfort her. During the day she doesn't do well laying down in her bassinet but as soon as you pick her up and hold her to your chest she calms right down. She is sleeping on my chest right now! Actually with her legs spread apart by the harness it makes it easy to sit her upright on a pillow on my lap with her chest leaning into mine. The baby bjorn should work well too!

I assume she'll get used to the harness in a few days. But there are challenges for me. Changing her diaper is really hard since her thighs are pulled up to her abdomen its hard to thread the diaper straps and secure it. She currently screams through this process. I hope this is one of those things that she gets used to too. For the first few weeks I can't take the harness off of her at all so I sure hope I can keep the onsie cleaned otherwise I'll have to thread a clean one through the harness too. But we see the specialist next week so I'll bring a clean onsie to change her into. She really likes baths so I'll miss giving them to her since she can only have a sponge bath right now. I think after a few weeks I'll be able to take the harness off of her periodically just for baths and onsie changes. I will be putting the rest of her clothes over the top of the harness. Fortunately most of her clothes were too big for her otherwise so we have a wide selection, but the pants are hard since the elastic waist is too narrow to pull up over her wide spread feet.

When you plan to have a baby and are pregnant you of course think "my baby will be perfect"! But since we found out she has this condition we've heard of many other babies not being "perfect" either. At least we found this early and it is fixable! But in the mean time its not the same holding my baby girl in this somewhat rigid harness and I'll really miss her little feet since I won't really see them for 2-4 months! If there is an upside to all this it may be increased flexibility when she is older. A few days ago Jason met someone who's daughter also had DDH and a harness fixed the problem. She is now 9 years old and great at gymnastics!