Finding out our baby had hip dysplasia

(If you look closely at her feet in this picture you can see the left leg is shorter. 

She has folds on her right ankle that aren't on her left ankle*.)

I've been meaning to write about L's journey with hip dysplasia for awhile now. We got her diagnosis almost exactly three years ago today. 






By time L came along I figured I had all this baby stuff figured out (ha!) The older three kids met all their milestones on or ahead of schedule. Our first child walked at 11 months, our second walked at 10 months and our third walked at 9 months.. so we joked that our 4th would be walking at 8 months lol.. not so much.



We were a little surprised when L was delayed in several areas.. from rolling over, sitting, scooting, crawling, trying to stand, eating purees or solids.. she was delayed in all that and more.



Our pediatrician was concerned that she had torticollis. I had hardly heard of it and just pushed our pediatrician's concerns to the back of my mind. My husband is the one who thought we should pursue an evaluation with a specialist. It turned out L did have torticollis as well as plagiocephaly and brachycephaly. She went into a Doc Band later than recommended.. around 9 months... and wore it for about 4 months. 



She started physical therapy for torticollis but made very little progress. Her fine motor skills were delayed. She didn't have any interest in doing much of anything the therapist tried to get her to do. She cried a lot. Looking back later we realized she was probably in a lot of pain from her hip. :(



By this time she was around 8-9 months old and still wasn't scooting around or crawling much less trying to stand or walk. One evening I stood her up in the living room and realized she was putting all her weight on her right leg with her right foot flat on the floor. She was on tiptoe on her left foot. There was over an inch difference in her leg length*! I knew something was off at that point and started searching for answers. 



We went to a family chiropractor twice a month from the time L was born so at our next appointment I pointed out the difference in leg length to our chiro. The chiro agreed that she needed to see a specialist. I was also asking the physical therapist about it as well as the techs at Cranial Technology. I made an appointment with our sweet pediatrician who set us up in a large exam room and spent close to an hour with me looking L over from top to bottom while agreeing something was wrong.

We were referred to Scottish Rite in Dallas where we got the official diagnosis that she had hip dysplasia in her left hip. Her surgery was scheduled for about a month out. Here she is in the waiting room at TSRH just a few days after she had gotten her Doc Band. 

In the exam room waiting for results of her x-rays. 

L was already in a spica cast by her first birthday so I had some "one year" photos made before she had her surgery. The color is off here (screen shots of an old Instagram pic ha!) but I love these pictures so much!! I was just out of reach in the pic where she is standing up. She kept toppling over but we wanted this photo really bad and it turned out great! 



I'll be posting about her surgery soon and also the time she spent in a spica cast. It's hard to believe it's already been three years... it some ways it feels like yesterday and in other ways it seems hard to believe this is the same child she is today!