What caused the arthritis? Any guesses? (Nov. 22, 2006)

Do you have any guesses what may have brought on the arthritis?

In hindsight, we really believe that Anna had arthritis since her infancy. Some parents feel that their child's arthritis may have been triggered by an immunization, but since babies are receive immunizations within the first few days of their lives, it's very difficult to even say in our case. Anna is my third (and last) child, so my husband and I had experience with babies, and there were things about Anna that just weren't right, but we couldn't figure out what was wrong. As an infant, while most babies fall asleep on car trips, Anna would wake up in the middle and scream and scream. I would even stop at a rest stop and try to comfort and console, to no avail. She would settle down after about 20 minutes. Also, even at just a few months of age, when I would change her diaper in the mornings and try to get her leg in and out of a blanket sleeper, she would fuss and cry. She would fuss and cry when I would try to get her out of her high chair, and I struggled with her to get her to bend her knee to do so (now I feel horrible about doing that, knowing that her knee was probably painful with arthritis, but I had no idea at the time!). While most kids wake up from a nap or a good night's sleep being rested and in a great mood, Anna would always wake up fussy and crying. She was a fussy, fussy baby, and was usually only happy in her swing. (But you know, babies can be fussy for many reasons, so I wasn't thinking arthritis!) When she started to crawl, she didn't really crawl like other kids (but all kids are different, so again, I wasn't thinking arthritis!)---she would scoot around on her hands and one knee and drag her left knee behind her. When she began walking, that's when we noticed a sometimes limp (not all the time), and that's when we started questioning the family doctor.