It sounds like you are describing the Pavlik harness, first designed and used by Dr. Arnold Pavlik in the 1940s. It's not exactly new, but it's not from the dark ages, either. In fact, it's been around long enough to show how successful it really is. Success rates range from 61 per cent up to 99 per cent. The harness has become the number one treatment choice for babies birth to three months old.

Children with Blount disease often need surgery to restore normal knee alignment and reduce pain. The result is decreased disability and improved function. Blount disease is a condition of bowlegged knees, also known as tibia vara in medical lingo. Surgical correction aims to create a more normal angle between the lower end of the femur (thigh bone) and the upper portion of the tibia (lower leg bone).

Sixty years ago, Dr. Arnold Pavlik designed a special harness for the treatment of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). It is still in use today as the number one choice for this condition in babies.

For many years, X-rays have been used to diagnose and measure scoliosis (curvature of the spine). No matter how young or old the patient is or where the curve is located, this technique has continued to be simple and reliable. In this study, researchers from the Scoliosis Research Institute in Korea take another look at the Cobb angle measurement. They compare two different starting and ending points used in measuring the angle of the curve.

Most people are familiar with strep throat or a staph infection in children. But these bacteria can enter the bloodstream and travel throughout the body. For some as yet unknown reason, the bacteria take up residence in the joints and cause a septic (infectious) arthritic response. The child develops a fever and joint pain. Most often the hip or knee is affected. But sometimes the shoulder or elbow becomes septic. Movement of the affected extremity can hurt.

According to Dr. Lawson Copley, a professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern (Dallas, Texas), serious bone and soft tissue infections in children are on the rise and have become more serious and more complex than ever before. Pediatric musculoskeletal infections can be deep, wide spread, and deadly.

There are many factors that go into the decision when to release a child from the hospital after a serious infection like cellulitis and now osteomyelitis (bone infection). Age, type of organism causing the infection, and response to antibiotic therapy are the main considerations.

Young gymnasts and overhand athletes, particularly baseball pitchers and racket-sport players, are prone to a condition called osteochondritis dissecans (OCD). Although the exact cause remains unknown, it is suspected that the forceful and repeated actions of these sports can strain the immature surface of the outer part of the elbow joint. The bone under the joint surface weakens and becomes injured, which damages the blood vessels going to the bone.

Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) of the elbow is a condition in which the layer of joint cartilage just above the bone has separated and pulled away from the first layer of bone called the subchondral bone. The result is pain, swelling, and loss of motion -- all of which lead to loss of function as well.

Your concern is completely justified. In today's health care arena, every patient and family member must be an advocate for their own health. And that is especially true with infants and young children who have no way of judging what's going on. In the case of clubfoot deformity, early treatment is essential to obtain proper foot and ankle alignment needed for walking.