Yes, arthritis affects infants too

When Lucy first came to see me, she was only 18 months old, and even though I see quite a number of ill children, I don’t think I was quite prepared when her parents told me that she had arthritis.

I’d never seen a case in someone so young, even though the disease can strike children as young as six months.

Unlike what many of us believe, arthritis is not an old people only disease. Lucy’s condition is known as juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and prevents one from moving their joints properly, due to either swelling or pain, or both.

Lucy walked late, at 17 months. Her parents had initially assumed that the swelling on her right knee was due to crawling and her weight (she had been 4.7kg at birth, so was heavier than the average child as she got older). But then Lucy’s other joints also started to swell, including her fingers, wrists, elbows, ankles and toes. The condition looked very similar to adult rheumatoid arthritis.

In such a case, the body’s own immune system begins to attack the joints, causing inflammation. This is what is known as an autoimmune condition.

TRADITIONAL APPROACH

The traditional approach to managing the symptoms of such a condition is to either administer anti-inflammatories or inject steroids. For Lucy, it was the latter.

Despite the side-effects of the medication (considerably weaker bones being among the worst), her parents were happy for her to take it, assuming it meant that Lucy would be healed. Unfortunately, she did not.

Some evidence suggests that rheumatoid arthritis can be triggered by food, so that’s where we started. The worst offenders appear to be grains, milk, nuts, beef and eggs, so these were the ones we first struck off her diet. We also eliminated members of the nightshade family, (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and aubergines.

Tobacco falls here as well) as these can trigger flare-ups. Lucy was also to take plenty of water during the day.

As for supplements, we started with one of nature’s most powerful anti-inflammatories: fish oils. The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils not only improve symptoms, but can also reduce the amount of anti-inflammatory medication/injections that need to be taken. We chose a supplement containing 1400mg of the fish oils components called EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). The dosage of these oils is crucial. After all, you wouldn’t take a quarter of a paracetamol tablet and expect it to work.

Within two months, the pain and swelling had reduced significantly, and she was getting back to being a normal active toddler.

Perhaps the most telling result was her lab test for rheumatoid factor (a measure of how bad her condition was). It had come down to just five, from 80, a reduction that even her doctors were surprised to see.

I’m currently working with Lucy to stop her steroid injections completely. I think we should accomplish this in a couple of months.