Tuesday 25 November 2014

Hip babe

Master S had his post brace x-ray the other day and now has perfect hips. Hooray! In hindsight the brace wasn't too bad - just another thing to worry about. He had it from 12 - 24 weeks, 23 hours a day for seven weeks and 20 hours a day for five weeks. It bothered me more than him.

I had never heard of hip dysplasia until I was told Miss J had clicky hips and we were sent off to have an ultrasound. She turned out not to need treatment but at the time I googled all about it and was terribly upset just by the possibility of my perfect little baby having to have a brace. Fortunately (or unfortunately) by the time Master S and L were born I had become reasonably familiar with the condition as it seems to be increasingly common. I actually met an orthotist the other day. This is someone whose job it is to fit the braces. Never heard of the profession previously and now I'm actually bumping into them at parties (well one at one party but I don't get out much).

Whether or not it has become more common, one thing I know for sure is that you can't be too cautious. My friend's son didn't get diagnosed until he had a limp when he started walking. He is now in the middle of years of brace treatment which may not even work so he could still need surgery when he is four and then be in an almost full body cast for months afterwards followed by further brace treatment. Unfortunately, this scenario is not unusual. I'm in a facebook group about hip dysplasia which has 1,873 members. Many stories are similar to mine - picked up early, treatment whilst a baby, not too big a deal. However, many stories are horrendous with years and years of treatment because it wasn't picked up early. 

So if you're pregnant or have a little baby, I highly recommend that you push to have an ultrasound on the hips. It doesn't hurt the baby and could save you years and years of torment.


Saturday 1 November 2014

Halloweening

I just looked up halloween on wikipedia and I still don't really understand what it's about. I know there are lots of people who say it's just a commercial exercise and it's not an Australian tradition. Maybe they are right but it's also fun and I actually think it's great for building a community spirit.

I have never seen so many children running around on the street as I did yesterday. It was fantastic to see neighbours talking to each other and people generally getting excited as a group. I hadn't actually realised it was halloween until yesterday when we walked down the street and discovered houses decorated with spider webs, black cats and skeletons. Not wanting to be the halloween grinch, I decided to get onboard and like it or not, it would seem that a lot of people are with me. By the time I got to the shops they had run out of pumpkins.

Miss 2 what was going on but she loved looking at the decorated houses and seeing the little witches, ghosts and various other costumed and face-painted children running around. When they all knocked on the door at about 6.30pm she was literally about to jump into the bath and was stark naked as she opened the door. It almost seemed like I had been organised enough to prepare her a costume.