Josie’s hips

One problem of blogging is deciding how much personal detail is good to expose in a public medium.

In the case of our little princesses, I have generally not discussed medical issues, etc. Not that they haven’t each had their own unique challenges, it’s just I haven’t seen fit to describe them publicly.

This time, I think I will make an exception. Our little Josie apparently has some hip problems … mainly her hip sockets are a little to shallow and in one of the hips, the ball is protruding out of the joint a little too far.

The doctor detects this by moving the legs and listening for a clicking noise. In our case, she sent us to have an ultrasound which confirmed Josie had hip dysplasia.

Because she is only 1 month old, this is a very fixable problem. She will wear a fabric “Pavlik harness” to hold her hips in the correct position. She has to wear the brace 24 hours a day for the next 3 months. After that time, she should be completely fine.

She has had the brace for one night so far. She has been fussier since getting it, but she is still sleeping well, and she has some stretches of being calm. Hopefully she will adjust to it very soon.

The harness is all fabric and velcro, there is no metal. It fits under her clothes and works with diapers … but because her legs are up, some clothing (like onesies) might not work well.

I have mentioned this publicly simply because I’m sure people are going to notice Josie’s harness … or at least notice her legs are always up in a strange position. But it is only temporary, and right about the time that Josie will be ready to start rolling over, she’ll be free to move her legs again.