Things People Say

One thing I have noticed is that people will come up to you in many different places and ask you about your kid when they are wearing a full hip spica cast.  I was somewhat prepared for this, thanks to advice from our chiropractor as well as reading some experiences on other hip baby blogs.  I am still flabbergasted that complete strangers feel the need to come up to you and ask you questions about your child.  We would never, ever, do that.  We might wonder to ourselves what happened, but would not go up to someone and ask them about it.  I supposed it is just different people's personalities.  And I don't really mind most of the time.  I feel like it is good opportunity to educate people on DDH.

Here is just a sampling of things we have heard:

In a cupcake shop - "Oh, is that for her hips?", then goes on to explain they had another regular customer who came in all the time with their child in a spica cast for her hips

In the airport sitting and waiting to board our plane - "If you dont mind my asking, what is the cast for?"

Several different waitresses in restaurants when they notice the cast -  "Oh....what happened to her legs?"

Two old ladies as we walked by them with Mackenzie in the stroller - "Oh my goodness!" -- they didn't say anything specifically to us, but the exclamation was definitely loud enough for us to hear.

A receptionist in the bank while Brice got money out of the ATM was making small talk and asked "How is she doing with the cast" this was without ever asking what it was for.  Near the end of the conversation she mentioned she knew someone else whose baby had DDH.

"What happened to her leg(s)?" is definitely the one we get the most often.

"Did she break her legs?" a lady asked me as I waited in line to pay at the grocery store.

When Mackenzie first came home with the cast Brice was feeling a bit down and a coworker noticed.  She said to him "well, you know it could be something way worse".  Which is true.  It could be.  We know that.  However, it still sucks.  And you need to be allowed to mourn.

When she was in the diaper splint I also got a few interesting ones.  I was carrying her on my hip in Costco one time and a lady asked "Is that thing so that it makes them easier to hang on to when you're carrying them?" - Nope.  But it actually did make her easier to hold onto :)

Also, at my drop in Breastfeeding group a mom asked me what it was for.  After I explained she said "oh, I thought it was for attaching toys to so they don't get away from her".  She got a serious side-eye from me for that one.  Yes, I put my daughter in this awful contraption to attach toys to the velcro.  Yeesh.


Thankfully we have yet to experience anyone being completely rude to us.  Brice and I joke that if someone said something like "what did you DO to your baby?" (which I read actually happened to someone), that we would spin a story like "she wouldn't stop crying, so we threw her down the stairs". In reality, there is no way I could pull that off with a straight face.

We do get some stares and I always watch people to see them turn and say something to the person they are with after they walk past us.  It honestly doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would.

So, if you are curious, ask away.  I will tell you our story.