Our story about hip dysplasia
How important is it that hip dysplasia is detected in time.
The story actually starts with my mother, she was born in 1941, but in the past people did not check whether there was a hip defect in babies.
My mother fell out of a hospital bed as a baby and completely dislocated her hip joint. Afterwards it turned out that there was hip dysplasia at the time, but not at that time. Every effort was made to repair the dislocated hip, but apparently the knowledge at the time was not such that they could repair it properly. My mother continued to have problems with her hip. At the age of 10, her hip problems were so serious that she had another operation. She spent 6 months in a plaster cast in the hospital, when she was not allowed to go home, after which she had to learn to walk again in the hospital. In total, she had to stay in the hospital for 9 months of her young life. My mother has never been able to walk properly. She has always walked with a limp, she doesn't even know what it's like to be able to walk normally. Fortunately, she can drive a car, but with an adapted car. Walking or taking her to the zoo for a day is impossible, because she cannot walk for long. Because she has walked with a limp all her life, her entire body has grown crooked and this became worse as she got older.
What a difference it would have made if they had already done research into hip dysplasia.
It was very different when I became a mother and my daughter turned out to have a crooked buttocks. After a visit to the GP, we were referred to the Sint Maartenskliniek in Nijmegen. Pictures were taken there of her hips. A lead plate was placed on her uterus so that the X-rays would not end up there, which was very well thought out because not every hospital takes this into account and that is certainly so important. The X-rays showed that there was hip dysplasia. Initially panic, what now? My daughter received a pair of spreading pants that she wore for 9 months. Of course she doesn't know anything about this anymore, but it looks pretty sad. At the time, hip dysplasia clothing was not available and it is more fun to dress your child in such a way that you do not immediately see that something is wrong with your baby. Fortunately, I was very handy with the sewing machine and started making hip dysplasia clothing myself. Pants that could be worn over the spread pants, dresses with a higher waist so that they fall over the spread pants. Because it is so difficult to find clothes that can be worn over or under spread pants, I started making them myself. I noticed there was a demand for this. I now also make pants and jumpsuits that can be worn over a plaster cast and what about an extra wide sleeping bag that children can easily sleep in with spread pants or plaster pants. You can find this clothing on our special spread pants clothing page. During transport we had placed a cushion in the car seat so that the legs fell over the sides of the car seat.
After wearing spread pants for 9 months, my daughter's hips turned out fine, unfortunately she never crawled, but moved on her butt.
I now have a granddaughter for 3 months. Knowing that hip dysplasia is hereditary and that she was also in a breech position, she was tested for a hip abnormality by means of an ultrasound last week. What a joy when she was not diagnosed with a hip abnormality. Because hip dysplasia can really be hereditary.
When I was born, no research was done into a possible hip defect. Later it was checked whether I might have had hip dysplasia, but according to the doctor this was not the case. It seems as if hip dysplasia skips a generation every time. Whether this is actually the case, only time will tell.
