By Laura Lennie, News staff

Scared. Uncertain.

Thats how Stoney Creek couple Jill and Adam Dallaway felt when their three-year-old son Andrew was diagnosed with arthritis at age two and a half.

We didnt really know what to expect. How is this going to affect the rest of his life? Is it something hell grow out of? Jill said. We just wanted to help him, so that he was not in pain. Its really quite maddening as a parent to watch your child in pain and feel helpless to be able to do anything about it.

According to the Arthritis Society, juvenile arthritis (JA) is one of the more common disorders resulting in chronic disability in children and adolescents, affecting about 61,500 kids and youth in Canada.

JA can be defined as continuous inflammation pain, stiffness and swelling of one or more joints lasting at least six weeks for which no other cause can be found.

Andrew began to experience swelling in his knee last year.

At first, we noticed that he was limping a lot, especially in the morning and his knee was quite swollen. The doctors did X-rays, ultrasounds and an MRI to determine the cause, said Adam, adding the diagnosis took quite some time. Finally, it was more of an elimination process. The doctors ruled out everything else and came to the conclusion that it was arthritis.

Andrew was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis last August.

Jill said one of the hardest parts about finding out Andrew had the disorder was and continues to be not knowing how bad it will get as he gets older.

Original post:

Inflammation, stiffness and swelling are signs of juvenile arthritis