Does your child experience rashes or joint pain? Consulting a rheumatology specialist is crucial for accurate diagnosis. Paediatric rheumatic diseases encompass conditions affecting children's connective tissues, joints, and musculoskeletal systems. These conditions can significantly impact a child's skin, joints, muscles, eyes, and gastrointestinal tract. The inflammatory and autoimmune nature of these disorders often results in a wide range of symptoms, making diagnosis more complex. Fortunately, effective treatments are available to manage these ailments.

At Narayana Health, we specialise in providing comprehensive care for children with rheumatic diseases. Our Paediatric Rheumatology department is dedicated to diagnosing, treating, and managing various rheumatic conditions in children, helping them live active and healthy lives. We have the latest equipment to make the correct diagnosis and prepare a comprehensive treatment plan for managing pain, relieving inflammation and providing a better quality of life.

Symptoms of Rheumatic Diseases

Rheumatic disorders generally present musculoskeletal symptoms. Other symptoms can accompany them at times. The symptoms of rheumatic disorders can vary among children. If your child develops the following symptoms, you need to visit our paediatric rheumatology department:

Pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints (especially in the morning)
Warmth and redness in the joint area
Difficulty moving in the affected joint or joints
Tenderness in a joint or joints
Weak muscles
Persistent fatigue
Trouble sleeping
Recurrent or prolonged fever

Signs can change abruptly in a day or a week. Periods through which rheumatic signs are active are known as flares.

If your child experiences pain, paediatric rheumatologists must be consulted to assess the characteristics of the pain to give the correct diagnosis. They will determine:

Whether the pain is inflammatory (happens at rest) or mechanical (occurs with exercise and goes away at rest)
Whether the onset of pain is associated with trauma
The pain’s location and where it is spreading from
How long the pain has persisted
Whether the disease limits your child’s day-to-day activities

Our child rheumatology care follows a multidisciplinary approach to ensure your little one gets relief from symptoms and undergoes the proper treatment for a happier childhood.

Types of Paediatric Rheumatic Diseases 

Several types of rheumatic diseases impact children and affect their daily activities. Here are the common ones:

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA)

This is the most common kind of arthritis in kids. It can present itself as any of the following sub-types:

Oligoarthritis: Characterised by swollen and stiff joints like the ankles, elbows, and knees. It is diagnosed in children and teenagers under 16 years old. Certain cases resolve slowly, while others spread to new body parts. This condition affects up to four joints.
Polyarthritis: Affects five or more joints. The affected joints show one or multiple symptoms of redness, warmth, swelling, restricted movement, pain and inflammation.
Systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis: Marked by painful, swollen and stiff joints, accompanied by fever, rashes, and fatigue.
Enthesitis-related: Affects the entheses or the points where the tendons are attached to the bones. It causes inflammation and pain. This condition often involves the joints of the spine and the legs.
Juvenile Psoriatic: Joints get swollen, and there is chronic joint inflammation and scaly skin rash. Also, there is a higher risk of developing asymptomatic eye inflammation. This condition accounts for roughly 6% of all juvenile arthritis cases

Juvenile dermatomyositis

This autoimmune inflammatory disease in children causes a skin rash on the knuckles and eyelids and muscle weakness.

Symptoms of this condition are:

Fever of 101-104º
Easily getting fatigued
Disinterested in doing things due to fatigue
Doing fewer physical activities
Loss of appetite
Choking tendencies while drinking or eating food
Weight loss
Muscles are tender to touch
Pain in the muscles after or during regular activity

Systemic lupus erythematosus

It is a paediatric autoimmune disease that usually affects the blood, kidneys, skin, joints, and other areas of the child’s body.

Symptoms of this disease are:

Joint swelling and pain
Chest pain while taking a deep breath
Unexplained fever
Fatigue
Ill feeling, uneasiness or general discomfort
Mouth sores
Weight loss
Hair loss
Sensitivity to sunlight
Swollen lymph nodes
Skin rash

Other symptoms are based on which body part is affected:

Brain and nervous system: Vision problems, tingling, numbness, headaches, seizures, personality and memory changes
Digestive tract: Vomiting, nausea and abdominal pain
Heart: Inflamed heart lining or heart muscle, valve problems
Lungs: Coughing up blood, trouble breathing, fluid buildup in the pleural space
Skin: Mouth sores
Kidney: Swollen legs
Circulation: Constricted arteries in response to cold (Raynaud phenomenon), inflamed blood vessels, clots in arteries or veins
Blood abnormalities like low count of platelets or white blood cells, anaemia

When children have skin symptoms solely, it is called discoid lupus.

Juvenile scleroderma

It refers to a group of conditions that cause the skin to become stiff and tight.

Signs of this condition include:

Raynaud's phenomenon (fingers tingle, feel numb or turn red, blue or white when exposed to stress or cold)
Loss of the skin's stretchability
Reduced functions of the hands and fingers (due to skin tightening in these areas)
Joint inflammation with pain, stiffness and swelling
Ulcers (sores) at the fingertips or toes
Other skin changes, including telangiectasias (skin patches of red blood vessels), tight facial skin, thin upper lip and pinched nose, discoloured skin and calcium deposits in the most affected skin areas
Digestive issues (weight loss, reduced appetite, difficulty swallowing and heartburn)
Muscle weakness
Fatigue
Breathing problems (including breathing trouble with activities and chronic cough)

Is Rheumatoid Arthritis an Autoimmune Disease?

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune disorder that mostly affects the joints. It takes place when the immune system, which helps protect the body from diseases and infections, attacks tissues of the body. This leads to stiffness, swelling, pain and loss of function in joints.