Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

Polyarticular arthritis, which involves pain or swelling in five or more joints. Many rheumatologists find that the greater the number of joints affected, the more severe the disease and the less likely that the symptoms will eventually go away. It is important for parents and teachers to understand that the symptoms of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis vary from child to child and even from day to day in the same child. These joints may appear reddened and feel warm. Sudden swelling of the joints, which stay enlarged. In other children the signs may be quite obviously those of arthritis. The first signs of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis can sometimes be mistaken for the ordinary illnesses and injuries of childhood.