Symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in children

Children's physical health is one of the things that parents are most concerned about. Once a child has one disease or another, parents will definitely be very anxious. However, many times, because parents do not understand the disease, it often leads to delays in treating the disease. In fact, parents can learn some knowledge about common diseases, especially the symptoms of the disease.

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is one of the common childhood diseases. We can learn about the symptoms of childhood rheumatoid arthritis. Once a child shows symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, he or she should be treated in time.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a common acute or chronic connective tissue inflammation. It may recur and affect the heart. The clinical symptoms are migratory soreness, heaviness and pain in joints and muscles. It is an allergic disease. It is one of the main manifestations of rheumatic fever, and often begins with acute fever and joint pain.

Typical manifestations are mild or moderate fever and migratory polyarthritis. The affected joints are mostly large joints such as the knees, ankles, shoulders, elbows, and wrists. It is common for the disease to spread from one joint to another. The lesions are locally red, swollen, burning, and extremely painful. Some patients also have several joints affected at the same time. Atypical patients only have joint pain without other inflammatory manifestations. Acute inflammation generally subsides in 2 to 4 weeks without leaving sequelae, but it often recurs. If rheumatic activity affects the heart, myocarditis may occur and even residual heart valve disease may occur.

Experts say that the onset of rheumatoid arthritis in children is generally progressive and multiple. The disease usually starts in small joints, moves in a migratory manner, gradually spreads to larger joints, and then stabilizes. And when the disease occurs, it is accompanied by fever symptoms, which can last for weeks or months. It can be relieved on its own but is prone to relapse. Therefore, parents must pay more attention to their children's condition.

In addition, some children will experience pain symptoms, and the pain is more likely to occur in the joints, muscles and tendons. Others may experience functional impairments and be unable to complete some daily tasks on their own, especially when they just wake up. These have caused harm to the children's growth and development. Therefore, it is recommended that parents take their children to a professional hospital for treatment in time without delay.

During the acute pain period of rheumatoid arthritis patients, long-term bed rest or taking hormones for too long may cause the patient's immune function to be weakened and cause some complications. The most common ones are as follows:

1. Pneumonia

Due to decreased immunity and bacterial infection, patients often suffer from pneumonia.

2. Urinary tract infection

If patients with rheumatoid arthritis do not pay attention to their daily lives or catch a cold, they are prone to urinary tract infections.

3. Cushing's syndrome

If patients use hormones for too long, they may develop Cushing's syndrome due to suppression of adrenal cortex function. Common symptoms include moon face, buffalo hump, and weight gain.

4. Oral ulcers

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis often develop oral ulcers after taking immunosuppressants. In addition, they may also experience adverse reactions such as nausea and vomiting, anorexia, rash, and loss of taste.

5. Infectious diseases

Because patients have suffered from the disease for too long and their immune function has declined, they are more susceptible to infection than normal people when certain infectious diseases are prevalent in society.

We mentioned above that parents are very concerned about the physical health of their children. However, due to their lack of understanding of the disease and professional knowledge, they are often not very clear when their children show symptoms. The above article introduces in detail the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in children. I hope it will be helpful to parents.