When Kids Get Arthritis

It’s called the ‘old people’s disease’ but joint inflammation in children is common. Here’s what causes it and how to treat it

- Jana Van Der Merwe

When the diagnosis came, she was speechless – the reason she’d been to doctor after doctor with a baby howling in pain was because her daughter had arthritis.

Isn’t arthritis something only old people got, Catherine McCormack wondered. How could it be that her two-year-old was suffering from it?

She was confused, but also relieved. Monthly visits to the doctor had become routine. Her daughter, Ella, hardly slept and was unhappy in her car seat as well as her stroller. She’d develop intermittent rashes and fevers and kept crying as if in pain.

Her little girl had been treated for a variety of conditions but nothing seemed to help and Catherine, from Craighall Park in Johannesburg, was at her wits’ end.

Just before Ella turned two, her knees swelled to the size of cricket balls. Only then did the paediatrician suspect the actual cause and refer her to a paediatric rheumatologist. Six weeks and several tests later, the specialist had a diagnosis: Ella suffers from arthritis.

Catherine’s first reaction was disbelief. Now, several years later, she knows many other parents who’ve had to deal with it.

“Few people understand that children can also be diagnosed with arthritis,” she says. “It was a terrifying time for us because they tell you the condition can get much, much worse – that it can leave your child crippled or even blind.”

Thankfully neither of those things happened to Ella (now 12) but it’s still been a challenging journey and Catherine wants to raise awareness about juvenile arthritis so other parents dealing with it won’t feel so alone.