Hip Dislocation

During initial examinations, your pediatrician will aggressively twist your newborn’s hips to detect congenital hip dislocation. This is a rare malformation in which a child is born with the thighbone out of the hip socket. If the thighbone develops in such a way, the consequences can be so serious as to impede walking. With early detection, however, doctors can treat this efficiently and avoid serious crippling. If indeed there is a dislocation, further tests will be ordered to visualize the bone, and placing the hips in a harness for the first couple months of life will correct the abnormality.