Why is my child limping?

You’re wor­ried about your child. They’ve been wak­ing up com­plain­ing their knee hurts, or you notice their fin­gers seem swollen, but they can’t remem­ber hurt­ing them­selves. Maybe they’ve been limp­ing a lit­tle in the morn­ing, or they seem to have a mild flu with a  pink­ish rash that comes and goes. What could be happening?

All of these are symp­toms of Juve­nile Arthri­tis, which effects more than 250,000 chil­dren under the age of 18 in the US alone. If your child has swollen, ten­der joints that last for more than six weeks, he/she could be among their num­ber. Com­monly, the knees, hands and feet will be the most effected, though some­times chil­dren with JA can also have inflamed eyes.

Diag­no­sis comes at the end of exten­sive test­ing per­formed by a juve­nile rheuma­tol­o­gist, who will exclude other con­di­tions through imag­ing, lab work and phys­i­cals before diag­nos­ing your child with arthri­tis. Most forms of arthri­tis are known as autoim­mune dis­or­ders, where the body’s own immune sys­tem attacks its own healthy tis­sues, caus­ing swelling, sore­ness and stiff­ness in joints and the sur­round­ing mus­cles and sup­port­ing tendons/ligaments. The result­ing inflam­ma­tion can dam­age the joints.

Some­times the dam­age done to joints can effect a child’s growth, caus­ing one leg or arm to grow longer than the other, or even slow­ing the child’s over­all growth.

Unfor­tu­nately, there is no cure for Juve­nile Arthri­tis. It’s con­sid­ered a chronic con­di­tion that will require care and treat­ment with exer­cise, phys­i­cal ther­apy and pos­si­bly med­ica­tion. Since every child is dif­fer­ent, there is no one right treat­ment plan for every­one. Your child’s doc­tors will work with you to come up with an indi­vid­ual plan that works for your child. Some chil­dren will have one or two flare-ups of arthri­tis and never suf­fer again, while oth­ers may have to deal with it on a day-to-day basis.

Some doc­tors may pre­scribe med­ica­tion right away, while oth­ers will advise treat­ment dur­ing flare-ups like swim­ming, which allows the child to exer­cise and move their joints with­out putting pres­sure on them. It’s impor­tant to sup­port your child not only with their phys­i­cal but also their men­tal needs to sup­port them through JA.

There are a lot of great resources avail­able to learn more about Juve­nile Arthri­tis online. We rec­om­mend the fol­low­ing sites for more detailed info:

http://www.arthritis.org/conditions-treatments/disease-center/juvenile–arthritis/

http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Juv_Arthritis/

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/juvenile-rheumatoid-arthritis/DS00018

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00075

http://www.rheumatology.org/practice/clinical/patients/diseases_and_conditions/juvenilearthritis.asp

http://www.findarthritistreatment.com/five-common-symptoms-of-juvenile-arthritis/

http://www.aaos.org

http://www.rheumatology.org

http://www.arthritis.org

http://www.kotb.com

https://www.carragroup.org

www.arthritis.org

www.arthritis.org/ja-article.php?id=15

www.niams.nih.gov

www.rheumatology.org/Foundation

Photo credit: danieljohn­sonjr / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

Photo credit: Lau­ren Grace Pic­ture Place / Foter / CC BY-NC

Is it IBS or just tummy troubles?

You have a chronic condition that causes pain, occasional embarrassment and lifestyle restriction. Nobody really knows why or how you got it, though there are theories. There’s no cure, though the symptoms are treatable. Sometimes you can eat whatever you want, others even looking at something as innocent as white rice causes spasms.

It sounds dreadful, doesn’t it? Well, if you are one of these people, you may have IBS, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

For those who don’t have IBS, have you ever had food poisoning? Imagine that happening to you every day or even several times a month. The problem is that it’s not well understood. IBS can effect you either with diarrhea or constipation, and it’s estimated to effect 3-20% of the population. It’s a wide estimation because not everyone will seek medical help or even think they have a medical condition.

IBS can be treated in a variety of ways, including dietary, hypnosis, lifestyle changes, yoga, medications, therapy, etc. Some doctors will perform gastrointestinal scans to rule out other medical problems, while others will just write a prescription for an anti-spasmodic and allow you to go on your way.

Do you have IBS? How do you deal with your symptoms?

There are lots of resources out there to learn more about IBS and how to treat your symptoms. The US Department of Health and Human Services has a good overview. Thehelpforibs.com site has a lot of information and message boards (fair warning--they also sell supplements and books about IBS). There’s even a site directed at women with IBS.

In the end, you’ll need to have a conversation with your primary care doctor if you’re not sure you’ve got IBS and to make sure it’s not something more serious.

And if you have any unexpected emergencies remember we're always here to help! 

Photo credit: Dranik / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA and http://help-health.com/stomach-pain-after-eating/