Arthritis is not just an "old person's" disease...and sometimes it takes years to diagnose with children...and some can end up in wheel chairs if not treated soon enough...BD
"People think of arthritis as an old person's disease," says Patience White, the chief public health officer for the Arthritis Foundation. "We now know that one in 250 U.S. children have arthritis."
Experts say children with arthritis face a number of problems, including a delay in getting a proper diagnosis and a shortage of pediatric rheumatologists. Children with this type of arthritis who don't get treatment can suffer irreversible damage to the joints. Bowyer has seen children who ended up in a wheelchair because they didn't get drugs that can slow or stop the disease.
Arthritis refers to 100 different conditions that all cause joint pain. Breanne has one of the most serious forms: juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Fifty thousand to 100,000 children have juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, a disease in which the body's immune system attacks the tissue that lines the joints, White says.
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