Developmental Displacement of the Hip - DDH

Our baby girl has been diagnosed with DDH, Developmental Displacement of the Hip.  Due to her breech position (mainly), her left hip bone did not fuse together with the pelvic bone(s).  Technically, her hip can dislocate at any time.  She is and has not been in any pain, due to the fact that area is not bone yet, it is cartilage.  Before leaving the hospital we were informed that there may be a potential hip problem, but at that time it was not showing itself, but to mention it at Elianna's first doctor's visit, which was the day after leaving the hospital.

Elianna's doctor did feel a "clunck" when moving her hip and referred us to the Specialist.  On January 8th, he confirmed the unattached hip bone.  The good news is that it is all very repairable and there are no surgeries or casts involved.  All of her parts and ligaments are there they just have to be kept in place for them to fuse together appropriately.  Elianna has to wear a harness that keeps the hip in place.  This will have to be worn for (give or take) 6 months.  As we are reading up on this, many other babies have about a 3-4 month period with the harness.  We are hoping that will be the case with her.  The doctor that is treating her, has given us an excellent outcome and is the type that wants to do everything in his power to correct this.  As he calls it, the "treatment," will include a the current harness, then something scaled down to her legs only and then rehab/usage of her legs.

Three days after having the harness on her, we were scheduled back to the Specialist's office for a follow up and he could already feel improvement in her hip.  The ligaments had already started contracting and her hip was still in place, which is what we want!  This past Monday we had another check and everything looks good and with improvements.    

She does not seem to mind the harness and again, she does not have any pain, so for her this is her norm.  Diaper changing and any type of bathing has been modified.  Also, at this point she can't wear pants because they move the position of her legs.

I'm very thankful that the displacement was caught very early.  Whether it takes 6 months or less, it will go in an blink of an eye.  If left untreated, mostly possibly Elianna would have a hard time learning how to walk, walk with a waddle or maybe a limp and in her early adulthood years deal with pain, which will then lead to surgeries.  If this would have been caught at about a year and a half of age, the only option there would be is surgery.  As her doctor said, "She'll be crawling and walking in no time."  .....yes she will!

As a mom, it really pulls at your heartstrings, even though this is going to be for just a small period of time, as a parent you don't want to her the word treatment in regards to your 9 day old baby.  So I did have to take some time and let that process, but the teacher side of me came out and set me straight.  After all these years of working with young children, teaching them academics, language, how to crawl, listening skills, etc. God has prepared me to support my baby's development and to be her #1 advocate.  As a family, we are doing fine and soon this will be a vague memory.

Mark and I ask that you keep us in prayer for everything to continue going well.  We'll keep you updated and once we are given the okay for the harness to come off completely, I think we will have a special going away party for it.