Hi there

My daughter, who is now 6 has had a total 3 spicas on at different
times, don't panick this is not normal! The most important advice
is
it is never as bad as you think it is going to be and your daughter
will cope with it better than you. My daughter had her first spica
on at 9 months, she was a bit fed up for the first few days but
after that was fine. You really can't prepare for the kind of car
seat and pram you'll need because it depends how the consultant sets
the spica, everyone is different. We managed with a britax carseat,
we contacted Britax and bought an extender strap for her car seat it
only cost a couple of pounds but was a god send. We also managed to
use her maclaren buggy with a cushion propping her up. Beanbags are
really useful for altering your daughers postions so she can sit
more upright. We also contacted the charity steps, you can find
them on the internet, their website is www.steps-charity.org.uk, we
hired a spica chair from them which really was brilliant. Its hard
to describe but you can sit on it with a spica on, you then strap
your daughter in so she is safe, it has a tray fitted on it, good
for playing and feeding and it is on wheels so you can move her
around the house in it. My daugher loved it.

Another tip is to buy small nappies and cut the wings off them,
these will then push inside the spica in the gap that is left for
toiletting and then get some large nappies that you do up over the
cast, this is the best way to avoid accidents, because once you have
any wee or poo on the cast the smell never goes, so we tried to
change Emily as much as possible.

Sorry to have gone on but hope the information is helpful, it you
have any more questions then please email

best wishes

vicki

--- In clickyhipsclub@yahoogroups.com, "kate563444"
<kate_kevin@b...>
wrote:
> Hi - My daughter was found to have DDH at 6 1/2 mths, and is
having
> her operation on Monday (now 7 1/2mths). Consultant has said it is
> extremly likely she will come out of theatre in a hip spica, so we
are
> trying to prepare ourselves for a horrible few months! Hardest
part
> for me is that she is such a happy little thing, and I'm sure this
> will really dampen her spirits. She loves sitting up & rolling
over,
> which I know she wont be able to do from Monday.
> We are hoping she might be ok to go back to nursery in a few weeks
> time, but really have to see how we all cope.
> Would be great to hear of any tips anyone has. We are waiting to
see
> what position her left leg will be in before we go mad buying
things
> like car seat, high chair, pram etc. This will hopefully only be
for
> 3mths so dont want to buy too much that we cant use after this is
all
> over.