Connected Paediatrics Weekly: Knowing what’s normal is 99% of the game

Hi Reader

Dad Joke: What's the best way to save your dad jokes? In a dadda-base.

Song of the Week: As it was, Harry Styles

When my son James was little, he was bow legged. Now I don’t mean like a “smidge” of bow leggedness, I mean like I was worried. He would run with his tibias flung out sideways and I remember my dad saying one day that he couldn’t “catch a pig in a passageway”.

Now had I only known that varus knees are a normal variant at this age and that I could have done a quick Q angle check and measured between his medial tibial plateaus with his medial malleoli together to know that he would be just fine. But back then I didn’t know and neither did anyone I spoke to.

I’ll be the first to say that I would rather have other people treat my kids. I find it very difficult to be objective when it comes to them. I either catastrophize things or I gloss over them. But as a parent what I wanted to know was “is this normal or not?”

And the answer comes in two parts:

1. I needed someone to have the background knowledge to my problem. To be able to explain to me what was going on, why it was happening and how it would progress

2. And…I needed someone to take an objective measurement that could be put against normal for that age group to put my mind at ease.

These two facets are so important in explaining children’s conditions to parents. First explain what is happening and then show how their child fits the narrative with the most objective finding you can use.

James is now taller than me and has moved into the normal adult bilateral 8-12° valgus angle of his knees (maaaaaybe slightly more but hey who's counting).

Explain it. Prove it.

This Wednesday,our masterclass is about the paediatric knee. You can sign up to our membership here if you'd like to join the masterclass.

Chat soon

Mike

P.S. Excuse the picture, phone camera's were a little sketchy back in 2010.