When the hip has a cold...

Let's start at the beginning: What is a hip cold? An inflammation of the mucous membrane in the hip joint that leads to the formation of an effusion and relatively sudden pain in the hip joint. This is often accompanied by pain that radiates into the leg - and sometimes also knee pain. In any case, the whole thing leads to the children limping or not being able to walk at all. Hip snapping is a condition that mainly occurs between the ages of three and ten.

Don't worry, such a hip cold is harmless. You usually get it after having another banal viral infection. The good thing is that an ultrasound scan is a wonderful, quick and reliable way of making a diagnosis.

And once the diagnosis has been made, there is a simple remedy: simply take it easy for a few days. Most children do this automatically. If they are in pain, you can give them something pain-relieving like ibuprofen. And we do a follow-up ultrasound a week to ten days later to make sure that the effusion has completely regressed.

In short, children who limp, who have pain when walking, should be seen by a doctor after one or two days. And don't worry - in the vast majority of cases it's a harmless hip cold.