Hope the 'Hip' Hippo

I have stumbled upon the most adorable book!  Meet Hope, a young hippopotamus who has hip dysplasia.  In this very relatable read, she visits the doctor to learn that she has special hips, which need to be fixed.  She has xrays, goes to a children's hospital, and awakes "stuck" in her spica cast.  She receives balloons, has a special wagon to ride in, and her daddy builds a special desk for her to play in.  At the end, she is able to jump and dance again.

Our copy arrived yesterday.  Hip Chick has enjoyed flipping through the pages and talking about all the things she and Hope share in common.  Even Daddy remarked on how darling the book is.

In my search for aids to help our little hippie, I was surprised that this seems to be the singular children's book to address hip dysplasia- and its copyright is only six months old.  It was penned and self-published by two resourceful "hip" mothers who sought an answer to the lack of resources for their own daughters.  What is even more notable is that these women are from two different countries.

This leads me to remark on the overall lack of awareness about and/or experience with hip dysplasia in the general community.  Prior to our daughter's diagnosis, I had heard of only one child with a potential hip dysplasia diagnosis during my lifetime.  Neither my husband nor I had ever seen a child in a spica cast.  Many of our well meaning friends and relatives reacted to our news with the remark, "I thought only dogs have hip dysplasia."  Our daycare had not previously cared for a child with hip dysplasia.  My daughter is the first baby with hip dysplasia that my obstetrician has delivered.  As discussed in prior posts, Scottish Rite advised us that some treatment options, such as Bryant's Traction, are still experimental and medical research is still developing on the subject as a whole.

The biggest aids to help us navigate traction or spica cast care have been from either assigned peer support or resources I stumbled upon while surfing the internet- aids which were mostly resourceful moms' solutions for their own children.  This seems to be a narrow pool of support for an orthopaedic disorder which supposedly affects 1 in 1,000 children, by varying degrees.  

The International Hip Dysplasia Institute has begun to gain traction in recent years.  Some passionate parents are starting to organize walks in their communities.  Once this spica cast is behind us, I aim to contribute in some manner, whether through volunteering or by other means.