Toddler problem, advice needed please

Hi all,
Hope the STW collective wisdom can give me some guidance.
Our 15 month old daughter had a scoliosis which after about 8 months fully resolved itself without treatment and all seemed well. The little one has been attending nursery and has came back on each occasion and then developed a sniffle or cold a couple of days later, but I believe all this is normal. However over the weekend she has started to walk as though she is trying to protect or keep weight off one leg, and she seems generally under the weather and quite teary. When you look at her walking, it looks as if her back is out of alignment but Im assuming this may be due to a possible pain or injury in one of her legs/hips, and she is leaning to counteract and balance. This morning she refuses to walk or stand at all, and we made an emergency appointment at the GPs, where he examined her and concluded there is nothing wrong, she is just feeling rough due to cold or flu etc. we are really worried, and Im planning on taking her to the Children’s hospital up the road’s A&E department to get her checked, either for a problem associated to her scoliosis, or to have her checked for a possible injury causing her distress or pain.
Just want to check opinions about whether this is a justified course of action, and whether I can insist she gets x-rays etc? Fussing parent I know but the thought of her suffering kills me!

Any advice much appreciated as always

I’d just take her to the kids hospital; might be a waste in terms of her having no problem, might not. Better safe than sorry.

That’s what i’d do also.

On a completely unrelated matter – I once took my son to the nearest hospital to here – they said there was nothing wrong with him. Didnt believe them, took him to the sick kids hospital – turned out that he had a broken leg.

turned out that he had a broken leg….that’ll teach him for wasting hospital time…. 😉

that’ll teach him for sledging into a bin… 😛

15 years ago today my son screamed so much when denied immediate access to breast milk about 12 hours after he was born he turned blue and had to go up to the special care baby unit and be given oxygen.

He now puts similar level of commitment and performance into his teenage strops.

Go to A+E and ask for a second opinion – breaks in kids are notoriously difficult to diagnose ‘cos of their bendy bones.

Shes telling you something by not walking ! straight to A & E and demand to be seen by a doctor and xray

Don’t demand anything – ask politely and reasonably and ask for reasons why. .

and in a polite manner of course !

Another vote for A&E / walk in centre with X-rays and good folk to interpret them. If you’ve got the place close by, why not? If you leave it till the end of the week the hospitals might be all out of joint after the strike with supplies and equipment up the spout.

of course you should take her; she has pre existing condition that affects gait (how she walks) and shes displaying symptoms relating to how she walks.

Its already been said but the fact a toddler doesn’t want to weight bear is telling you something.

Good luck.

Likely to be transient synovitis of hip secondary to viral illness, in which case you won’t see owt on an x-ray.

Discalimers: I haven’t examined her. I am not a paediatrician. I am an anaesthetist.

We were in A&E last Wed morning as Toddler Kip (19 months) was messing around on the bed and turned strangely on her wrist. I swore I heard a crack, she screamed and wouldn’t let us near her arm…1.5hrs later she’s Calpoled up by triage nurse and happy as larry. No break, just a sprain but Dr told us we absolutely did the right thing as you can’t really tell with the little ones.

Go with your gut, and trust you know her better than your GP.Good luck, let us know what happens.

As for nursery sniffles, expect them every 2 weeks for the first winter then they have a solid immune system and shift most colds in 3 days. Toddler Kip has the immune system of a goat!!!

yup A&E, always found them to be great with the kids…if anything they are over cautious if anything.

Gasman Jim…lol @ name now we know what you do 🙂

take her it’s the only way you can rest easy.

Gasman Jim…..
If you were a real anaesthetist you’d have said ‘ Airway problem? No? Bye.’

Come on, there’s a standard to be kept up….

Hi,

An A&E doc here. Gasman Jim is probably right, however as he says he has not examined her, and neither have I. There are a few other things it could be which are more serious and all decent hospitals will have a limping kid protocol to help rule ot the serious from the not serious. Pop up to your local A&E. They will probably do some x-rays, which will probably show nothing, and they may well do some bloods or bring you back in 24/48 hours depending on the local protocol.

Steve

(just out of interest, where is your local hospital (just so i know if you’re coming to see me or not!)

Just to set the record straight, anaesthesia is just a hobby which by a strange quirk of fate funds my real job, which is buying and fettling and riding bicycles.

As a gp i agree with the above. Non weight bearing hips in toddlers need referral! Could be transient synovits or more unlikely septic arthritis. Very unusual for toddlers not to weight bear, id be sending that one in!

Gp is my hobby which funds my bike obsession.

LOLz @ the doctors.

😕

🙂

None of them are real doctors you know – I bet there is not a single PHD amongst them 🙂

I bet there is not a single PHD amongst them

easily solved;

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/kona/phd-2011-hybrid-bike-ec026538

Thanks everyone for the advice. Took her in and got doesd with Brufen on admission. A two hour wait and she seemed a lot better (typical :-D) but the doc was quite thorough, stripped her off and checked her walking. Put a line in and took blood to check for infection, which came back in an hour all clear. He thought it was probably reactive arthritis due to the spell of illness she just had, and told us just to keep giving her Brufen and it should resolve itself. Wouldnt x-ray her but said that he couldnt find a specific area to x-ray as he couldnt find a specific point of tenderness, which made sense to me at the time, like I say he gave her a very thorough exam. He has however refered us to the paediatric orthopaedic department for a consult to double check that there is no underlying issue relating to the scoliosis, so will need to see what that brings up. She was in agony this morning, but after a dose of Brufen she is bright as a button 🙂

Thanks again for all the advice!

Steve we are in Glasgow, and went to the A&E in the Yorhill kids hospital.

Our son fell over a few weeks back, nothing to think it was serious, however he would weight bear in his leg. Down to A&E and X-Rays showed nothing. Took about 5 days for him to walk reasonably properly again. Paeds Ortho Doc said quite often toddlers do stuff that they just cant work out (apart from obvious breaks) and the general rule is leave 1 week and if no better come back.

nice one good luck with it all.
hope it clears up for you.

Just to throw in another tale without being of any use to the OP:

Our kid was 1, she got down off a sofa and started screaming and wouldn’t walk. Eventually she would, and then after a day or two she was just mildly limping and fine after a week. We saw a doctor a few days after the event (had been on holiday) and he said she probably had broken some small foot bone but at that age it doesn’t necessarily matter much.

I’ve started getting an advert for some injury helpline with what looks like paedo-bear with a broken leg 😕

Ibis bikes and sky movies for me:-)

So a bit of an update, took her back two days later as she was in so much pain, she wouldn’t even move. Went to A&E and they got an orthopaedic consultant to have a look at her. He ordered X-rays, and admitted her into a general / ortho ward for observation. The X-rays looked clean, so they ordered an MRI with general anaesthetic, which again showed nothing. She then started showing a really high temp, and was more or less out for the count, with a heart rate of 200. This went on for about an hour during which we were terrified! She settled after they gave her more brufen, and they then started IV antibiotics and fluids as a precaution in case it was an infection. The ortho ruled out any joint muscle or bone issues, and passed her to a surgical consultant querying possible appendicitis 🙁 They checked her over and ruled that out. More bloode tests, and then passed her to medical consultants, and they have been stumped. They gave her another batch of X-rays in the chest area this time, an echo cardiogram, and an ecg, all showing nothing. She then got passed to an infectious diseases specialist, and they were talking about TB which was very worrying. They did more tests and ruled that out, but found fluid in the abdomen after revisiting the MRI and X-rays. So she was moved to an source isolation ward for observation, and the antibiotics were stopped in case they were hiding anything. She has got a bit better, still off her food a bit but drinking and up and about like a little trooper. Still all smiles too 🙂 So they took throat swabs and nose swabs etc, and today had came back saying they have found a mycoplasma infection from one of her throat swabs. So hopefully they think that this is the cause of the high temperature and general unwellness. And they think that this has caused muscle and joint pain which may be causing the strange walk. I have read about it though, and apparently it can cause inner ear infections too, and a problem with her ears (which are red when examined) might lead to a balance issue and her strange walk? She is so fed up in there its terrible. Hopefully on the home straight now. Thanks again for all your advice guys.

hey there hope you get all sorted soon.

as a parent of a toddler nothing instils worry like a poorly one!

hope it be fine ! 🙁

Another story of no help; when ours was 10 months old she was generally unwell, lethargic etc. Went to docs who found nothing, a couple of days later we went back and they referred us direct to hospital. They kept her in, did all the tests, kept her in a bit longer and then pumped her full of anti-biotics. This didn’t help so they decided on a lumber puncture as they thought it might be a type of meningitis. The lumber puncture was horrible, and once the results were back they still weren’t much wiser as although they were still fairly confident it was meningitis the amount of antibiotics she had been given skewed the results of the puncture! Eventually after being treated for meningitis she was fine, but we never did know for sure what the problem was.