Arthritis is a crippling disease that can affect people of any age. In American alone, more than 300,000 children have been suffering from arthritis and other such conditions. The most common type of arthritis of all the types is juvenile rheumatoid arthritis or JRA.

Juvenile arthritis is known to be one of the most common diseases that affects children in the USA. In this disease, girls are more frequently affected than the boys. There are various symptoms for juvenile arthritis, but the most common ones include swelling and joint pain, along with joint stiffness. Arthritis mainly affects joints like wrists, knees, hips, shoulders, neck and jaw. As time goes by, the condition develops in to joint contractures, which is a result of holding the painful joint in a firm, flexed position for a long period of time, damaging the bone and cartilage within the joints. This leads to decreased range of motion and joint deformity. The end result is the quality of life gets severely crippled. However, the above indications show up in those children who fall in the age group of 16 years and below. The treatment also tends to vary with every child and the symptoms also differ in their stiffness.

This inflammation in the child's joints causes excruciating pain, swelling and stiffness. In majority of the cases, the inflammation also negatively affects the other organs of the body as well. This inflammation needs to be treated as soon as possible, in case it's not, there are high chances of the affected joints being destroyed along with the other body tissues.

There are three major types of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, namely - Polyarticular arthritis, Pauciarticular JRA and Systemic JRA. Polyarticular arthritis is more common in girls than boys, where the child experiences pain or swelling on five or more joints such as knees, hips, neck and feet, along with fever. Pauciarticular arthritis on the other hand affects up to four joints and usually causes joints such as the knees and the wrists to swell and stiffen. The third type of arthritis, Systemic JRA, affects the complete body. In such a condition the child experiences high temperature that drops only to rise up again. The affected child may get pale and ill, as the spleen and lymphatic nodes can become enlarged.

Arthritis annually affects one child in ever 1,000. The good thing is that the majority of these cases are not serious in nature. However, there still are many children who are severely affected by the disease. Many of these children have what they call an inflammatory arthritis, which is followed by a viral or bacterial infection. This type of arthritis is usually very severe only for a short amount of time and goes away within a few weeks/months. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis or JRA is highly common types of arthritis, which persists for long periods, from a few months to a year in some cases.

In order to make sure that the effects of arthritis are minimized and managed correctly, it's extremely important that the condition needs to be diagnosed accurately. By knowing and understanding the various symptoms of arthritis as well as the characteristics of Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, one can help a child lead an active and productive lifestyle.