6 year old niece

Hello all,

My name is Jessica and my beatiful little neice has been diagnosed with lupus. This has all happened so fast. She was diagnosed after haveing a kindey biopsy do to poor kidney function. She is in an amazing hospital with great doctors, but her mother and I are still very lost to what this all means. We are both new to this disease and how it works. I am looking for anybody that can help us understand what we are up against. I have so many questions that I can not list them all. The most important one for me is with her already having kidney problems what are the chances of her continuing to have theses types of issues.

Hi Jessica, Welcome to the forum. I am so sorry to hear about your young niece. The good news is that she was diagnosed early. Many lupus patients wait for many years for doctors to finally diagnose them. Early treatment is key when there is organ involvement and your nieces doctors are on the ball. There are some links in my signature. The one called "lupus resources" contains a post about diagnosing children. If you click that link, there is a doctor's name at the bottom of the article. Maybe you could "Google" his name for more specific info on children. Your niece is so young to be dealing with this. I'm sorry I can't be more help about children specifically. But hopefully the other information available here will be helpful. Of course you can ask questions when you are ready. Blessings!

Hi Jessica and welcome. I'm so sorry to hear about your neice's diagnosis, especially at such a young age. I agree with the others that now that your neice is diagnosed, she has a good chance for treatment that should help. My 10 year old son got sick at around age 7 and the docs are still trying to determine if it's juvenile arthritis or more of a connective tissue disease like lupus. It's so hard to watch him go through the rough times and flares, but lately he's been doing pretty well. The biggest thing with kids is trying to teach them to listen to their bodies and rest if they are feeling rough. I also want to recommend finding a really good pediatric rheumatologist if you haven't already, since treating children with lupus is different than treating adults. Please ask any questions you have. You and your neice and her family are in my thoughts and prayers.