Personal Experience with Hypermobility Disorders

I am a Sports Physiotherapist. I began to research hypermobility disorders after my own child experienced a series of elbow and shoulder subluxations/dislocations at a very young age after seemingly minor incidents . She tripped on the grass and dislocated her elbow on one occasion and reached her arm behind her back in the car seat to scratch her back and subluxed her shoulder another time.

After the 5th episode I realised that something wasnt quite right and started attending paediatric rheumatology lectures in the hope of understanding the possible cause. At the age of 2 and a half she was diagnosed with a hypermobility disorder by a paediatric rheumatologist.

In one respect this was quite a relief because I realised that I wasnt a “bad mother” and my child had loose joints that were susceptible to subluxing and dislocating.

At 2 ½ her symptoms were mild coordination deficit in comparison to her peers, night pains and growing pains, recurrent elbow subluxations and occasional patella subluxations, more tired at the end of the day than siblings and peers, slightly low muscle tone , easy bruising, restless sleeper., and her legs internally rotated giving her a knock-kneed position when she became fatigued, tripping over frequently, soft and stretchy skin and very flexible joints.

I began following the concepts of :

• short, frequent bursts of activity and “pacing” of activities to reduce fatigue;
• core stability and pelvic stability exercises;
• strengthening exercises for susceptible joints;
• balance and proprioceptive activities;
• relaxation exercises before bed to alleviate restless sleeping;
• non-contact sporting activities while still promoting socialisation with peers ( swimming, dance, toddler gym);
• taping/binding post subluxation to stabilise the affected joint;
• orthotics from a podiatrist to support weak feet muscles.

My daughter is now 5 and doing fantastically. Her motor development is age-appropriate and she is now one of the fastest runners in her class and very coordinated. She has not suffered a dislocation in 2 years.

She still suffers sprains and joint pains intermittently but loves sport and never lets this get in the way of enjoying herself.

Because of my success with my child, other health professionals began referring me other children with similar problems. I began to see that this was a common phenomena and that most classrooms would have 2 or 3 children with this condition.

There are varying presentations with this condition so management is based on the presenting symptoms at the time. Hypermobility Disorders can vary in severity and therefore the outcomes can vary. However with positive early intervention by a rheumatologist and physiotherapy, occupational therapy and podiatry , the outcome is often very positive.