Ashlee’s DDH Story

When my daughter Sophie was 6-weeks old her health nurse noticed the fat folds in her thighs were not even so she sent us for an ultrasound. At this point in time I didn’t think much of it, and thought they were being a bit overly cautious. The results of her scan were inconclusive and we had to go back when Sophie was 12-weeks old for another scan.

I had a gut feeling she was going to have hip dysplasia. The lady who did the scan was honest with me and said her right hip wasn’t alright and that Sophie would be put in a brace.

I cried all the way home, to say I was feeling sad was a understatement. I had been so cautious, from the moment she was born, to not wrap her legs when swaddling her. I kept questioning myself – what had I done to my girl to make her have to go through this?

After a few sleepless nights, and crying while looking at her beautiful clothes (that I thought she would now never get a chance to wear), we had our appointment at the Monash. As soon as they did the scan they took us to a room and put Sophie straight in a brace. It was very fast and my girl screamed her little heart out; I wanted to cry with her.

I tried to listen to them explain things but I didn’t hear a thing. I just wanted to rip the harness off her and forget the whole thing; then much to my surprise as soon as we walked out the room she stopped crying she was fine. Sophie feel asleep in the car within seconds.

When we got home she was a little unsure and cranky so I prepared for a long night. We gave her a bath and stuck to her same routine, I propped a toddler pillow under her knees and  didn’t hear from her until 7am the next day!

It took Sophie a week to get completely back to herself during the day, but it never worried her at night, and she still got to wear all those gorgeous clothes I had worried she wouldn’t get to. Once we both adapted to the harness we grew to love it in our own little way.

Sophie’s first check up went great, her hips were doing exactly what they hoped. The next one went even better. We went for a final ultrasound, but at 8 months old she was too old for the ultrasound. We had to go back 4-weeks later for a x-ray and those results couldn’t have been better; her hips were perfect!

I always worried through the entire experience that it would delay her development. At 9-months old Sophie can crawl, pull her self up on everything and is my crazy full on girl that won’t slow down!

I’m grateful every day for it being picked up so young. I want everyone to know that its okay to be sad at the start, but your baby will amaze you just like my Sophie did.

Written: June 2016

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