Mind Your Body (16th July 2009)

Kids get Arthritis too

This article highlights the followings:

1. Arthritis affects children too. (In Singapore there was a girl as young as 4 was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA))
2. 300k of children in the US has some form of JA. No Singapore figures are available as no studies have been carried out. (0.1% of kids worldwide have juvenile arthritis.)
3. The causes of JIA are unknown. Children below the age of 16, who complain of pain in the joints, should be checked for JIA.
4. 7 types of JIA. Most common being Oligoarticular JIA, where fewer than five joints is involved. And in all forums of JIA< inflammation of the joints is a significant symptom.
5. The good news is that, unlike adult forms of arthritis, childhood arthritis usually has good prognosis. However, early and aggressive treatment is necessary, especially for severe JIA, as arthritis in children can affect bone development and growth.
6. Childhood arthritis can affect children of any age but it is extremely uncommon in early childhood. Most are affected during their late childhood or early teen years.
7. Causes are still unknown but it is possibly related to the immune system attacking the body.
8. Mild forms of JIA can be treated with physiotherapy and pain relief. More severe forms will need stronger medication, sometimes in the forum of weekly injections. And this may last a few years.
9. Some may continue to have arthritis in the future and these patients are those whose blood tests are positive for Rheumatoid factor, have Juvenile Ankylosing Spondylitis (another type of juvenile arthritis) or systemic-onset JIA, which affects the whole body.
10. One popular misconception about JIA is that children with this condition should not exercise.
11. Children with JIA may benefit from taking supplements that contain calcium, iron and omega-3 fatty acids.

Term 3: Sixth Lesson with JGC

Yvette was still sleeping at 10.00 am. I have taken my breakfast, dolled up, finished cooking her lunch, ironed some clothes, and made her breakfast too. She was awakening this morning at 7 plus to have some “we-time” with hubby which was the reason why she was still sleeping now. I woke her at 10.10 am (as I plan to be late for class), bathed her, dress her in a normal entire instead of those nice outfit as they were playing with paint today. We left home about 10.45 am and reach there about 11.15am. Not too bad, free play time is still on. (Normally Free play will end at 11.25 am including clean up the toys.)

Today class was fun.

They made the Puppet Stand. Teacher Winnie and Teacher Sarah started to do a role play of a rabbit and monkey. It was so interesting. Everyone was quietly watching the show presented by both teachers. After the show, we have to wash our hand before the babies can have snack. And today snack was banana. It’s Yvette’s favorite but she wasn’t too keen in eating them. I wonder why?

Shortly after the snack we were out for free play again at the playground. We went straight to the paint. It was messy but plenty of fun. I cleaned up Yvette and changed her to another outfit when we were done. Time flies today.

After class we headed down to Scott Isetan for our lunch.