Hi Kerry.

It's a nerve-racking time for you, but believe me, your daughter will adapt
soooo quickly and will be just as happy as she would have been 'normally'. She
is so young, she won't remember - my daughter had various harnesses from 16
weeks, then had an arthogram and went into her spica at just under 9 months, and
had 2 spicas over 3 months (she had diarrhoea in each of them, which was
delightful!!!!).

It's difficult to give tips/advice until you know what you're struggling with.
Emotionally, I won't give any advice cos I personally found empty reassurances a
bit of a waste of time. All I can say is that within 3 days, my daughter had
adapted brilliantly and was sleeping through the night again, and she now
remembers nothing about it and is walking and running as happily and confidently
as she would have had she not had CDH - she's now just turned 3. (She has her
next check-up next Thurs, so I'm touching all the wooden things around while I'm
writing this!!).

Carrying them around can be a bit of a bind - mind your back, but you will find
your own ways of lifting, carrying and changing nappies, etc - if you find
you're really struggling in the first few days, get straight back on here and
ask, but I think you'll find you'll cope better than you can ever imagine. I
also bought a hippy chick belt thing, which has a 'seat' on the hip so you can
sit her on that while you're walking round - it relieves the strain on your
back, and also gives you a hand free if you need to take her into a shop.

We had a Britax Elite car seat which has low sides and we used a newborn insert
for a while to help her along, but to be honest we didn't travel very far in the
car over the 3 months. And we also got (and are still using for our newest
family member) a Cosatto Totonto pushchair - thoroughly recommended as we found
it hard to get anything wide/comfortable enough. We also fed her while she sat
on a bean chair (like a bean bag, but in chair format), which was great for
feeding and also for her to play as she was effectively sitting up.

......that's all I can think of immediately, but if you do find that you are
struggling with something in particular, get back to us!

Take care.

Barbara x

----- Original Message -----
From: kerry hartley
To: clickyhipsclub@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 5:28 PM
Subject: [Clicky Hips Club] new member scotland


Hi i'm a new member my 5 month old daughter has been diagnosed with ddh she is
going to ninewells scotland for an arthogram on 20/4/07 then she'll be in cast
for 3 months i am really finding it difficult to come to terms with the fact and
wonder how on earth we will cope thanks to this site i've been a little more
reasured as you don't get much support from hospital. I would be grateful for
any tips or advice. x

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