Pavlik Harness Tips

**jetsmummy** · 19-08-2011 07:15

Hi Ladies,

My beautiful 14 week old girl has just had a Pavlik Harness fitted for approx. 4 months. She has been disgnosed with severe hip dysplasia in the left hip only and the harness has to stay on 24 hours a day with 1 hour "harness free time" a week.

I was hoping to gain some tips and advice from you all.

She had the harness fitted 2 days ago and the last two nights have been horrible! She is a very lovely settled baby that rarely cries and since having the harness fitted is very unhappy and is waking multiple times at night crying.

Is it normal for them to be so upset? Have you come across any tips to make their sleeptime more comfortable?

What clothing have you used? So far I am using legless longsleeved onesies and I have cut the top off her tights so they are long socks to cover her legs at night. I have found the Bonds roomies in a big size fit well over the harness and leg warmers are good - any other ideas?

Any tips for bathing?

In your experience, do all the regular milestones get met? How do they learn to crawl/ roll over with the big bulky harness?

Any other tips?

It is just so heartbreaking...I just want to try and make it as easy for her as possible.

Thank you so much!

jetsmummy

**New Parents to be** · 14-09-2011 08:24

Hi Jets mummy, so sorry to see that you have had no replys. If you go back a few threads in this forum there is a nother pavlik harness chat group i have been on. They are pretty helpful. Our little one is 5 1/2 months old and has just started wearing her harness, we are having a few complications at the moment with suspected femoral nerve palsy from the harness and she is allowed out of the harness 1 hour a day (which is great). There is one lady in particular who is really helpful. Mrs Molly Coddle, hop on to that chat group, I think it is called Pavlik Harness? Sorry I can't be much help yet as we are only new to the experience as well and our situation is a little different.
Good Luck.

**Mrs Molly Coddle** · 14-09-2011 08:51

Originally Posted by jetsmummy

Hi Ladies,

My beautiful 14 week old girl has just had a Pavlik Harness fitted for approx. 4 months. She has been disgnosed with severe hip dysplasia in the left hip only and the harness has to stay on 24 hours a day with 1 hour "harness free time" a week.

I was hoping to gain some tips and advice from you all.

She had the harness fitted 2 days ago and the last two nights have been horrible! She is a very lovely settled baby that rarely cries and since having the harness fitted is very unhappy and is waking multiple times at night crying.

Is it normal for them to be so upset? Have you come across any tips to make their sleeptime more comfortable?

What clothing have you used? So far I am using legless longsleeved onesies and I have cut the top off her tights so they are long socks to cover her legs at night. I have found the Bonds roomies in a big size fit well over the harness and leg warmers are good - any other ideas?

Any tips for bathing?

In your experience, do all the regular milestones get met? How do they learn to crawl/ roll over with the big bulky harness?

Any other tips?

It is just so heartbreaking...I just want to try and make it as easy for her as possible.

Thank you so much!

jetsmummy

Big, big hugs to you and your family jetsmummy. I was devastated when my DD went into the harness and although I know it's not as bad as it could be, it is still very difficult to deal with, a huge hurdle to overcome, and something that requires lots of support! As NpTb said we've been chatting about it off and on in another thread. I have just replied in there so hopefully you will be able to see it. I can't link as I am on my phone.
I will try and answer your questions as well as I can. My DD was in the harness for 13 weeks starting when she was 11 weeks old.

She was very unsettled in the harness for about a week. She was used to sleeping on her side so had to get used to sleeping on her back which took some adjustment but after a week she did get used to it.

I hope your little one is back to her happy, settled self soon

Re clothing- we went up two sizes in most things, from 000 to 0. She sleeps in wondersuits so we used size 0 and rolled up the sleeves. Bonds roomies were the best pants. Pumpkin patch sold some recently I think called wriggle pants. They were on sale on their website a week or two ago. They are the same style as roomies but thinner material. I think dresses will be good for summer. We mostly just stuck to a long sleeve body suit with no legs then the roomies on top.

Bathing.. Are you allowed to take the harness totally off for a bath or only the legs? For the first 5 weeks, she was in it 24hrs a day, but the last 7 weeks they showed us how to release her legs to bathe her bottom half. I could never pop her IN the bath ad I was too scared to get her harness wet so we just had a towel on the floor and a bucket of water and gave her a sponge bath.
If you are allowed to take her totally out, then I suggest having a bath or shower with her and really enjoying those skin-to-skin cuddles!
After her sponge bath which took about 5 mins, wr let her have 55 now of free time. Tummy time, cuddles, whatever. Just enjoyed it. We did that maybe 2 or 3 times a week.

Our DD was never able to roll in the harness, but we were told they would still meet their milestones.. Just a little later than average. She ALMOST rolled over in it but then it was taken off. She rolled straight away with no harness so she had the ability, it just seemed to get in the way. Crawling.. No personal experience but saw lots of babies in the waiting room commando crawling with big casts on etc so it can be done!

Will write more soon. DS needs me.