kid with fibro

Have any of you ever heard of a child the age of 5 having fibro? My daughter is showing every single sign right now. The whole don't touch me it hurts, she does not want me to pick her up because she hurts so bad and that is sooo unlke her. She is tired all the time she complains she never feels good. She has good days and bad, her legs always hurt her along with her arms and back. OMG the whining!! I know that is bad to say but I do not know how much more of the whining I can take! Of course I will deal with it just fine but ya got to vent sometimes right.
The doc drew a bunch of labs and one of the test came back boarderline for pointing toward auto immune disorders. So they are sending her to a rhuematologist. I am so worried I gave this to her!! I am very scared for her.
what do I do??
Kimberly

I'd never heard of a child with fibromyalgia.  However, as is thought to be an auto-immune disorder it makes sense that it could both affect a child and be hereditary.  Her doctor did the right thing by referring her to a rheumatologist as the symptoms you describe could be caused by fibromyalgia, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. 

I just did some quick research and one site (http://www.fibromyalgia-symptoms.org/fibromyalgia_children.html) indicates that fibromyalgia is more common in girls age 11-15.  It suggests that one of the best ways to pinpoint fibromyalgia, as opposed to other auto-immune disorders, is to look at whether or not she's experiencing sleep problems.  As we know, along with the aches and pains, many of us have difficulty with insomnia as well as the inability to achieve restorative sleep.

You may want to check out The University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital website at http://www.uchicagokidshospital.org/.  Go to the pediatric specialty section for rheumatology.  Also, in their library is an article on pediatric arthritis and other Rheumatic Diseases.

I wish you the best in your quest to get a diagnosis and find proper care for your daughter.

Sincerely,

Amy 

thanks for the info......I am so worried she will suffer! 5 years old an already in pain, my dad said I started complaining about the pain when I was 7 so I guess it is not to far off. At least they know more now then they did when I was little. I will know more after monday, thats when she goes back to the doc
thanks again for the info
Kimberly

I had it by 10 or 11, but like Max's Mom says, it really took off between 11 and 15. But my mom remembered me getting a migraine when I was 2. How did she know? I'm SO sorry to hear she's going through this. I hope you can keep her experiences as positive as possible. We know so much more about it now. I had terrible insomnia during those years too, and ever since. 

I can remember being achy when I was in high school, unfortunately I ended up drinking to ease the pain. Later in life I quit drinking and the I really felt the pain, until I found my current doc who God bless him is willing to help me with that pain and the severe arthritis pain I have. So yep I can believe a young one would show signs, at least you may be able to treat it or at least share with her what to do. Let us know how things turn out.

Your so lucky to have found a doc that will listen to you. Mine is just now starting to figure it out. All this time it has been "lose the weight lose the weight, its just cause your fat" well now I am at 200 lbs and the pain is just as bad if not worse! They did another MRI of my spine and head and found facet disease and bulging disks in my spine. So she comes in the room to give me the results and goes "well Kimberly we kinda now see why you say your having so much more pain then regular fibro" I wanted to SLAP her!! I don't know how many times I have told them over an over IT IS NOT IN MY DAMN HEAD!!! It takes them seeing with their own eyes to get the picture! Makes me really wonder exactly how smart do you have to be to be a doc?
I have to find a way to MAKE them listen to my daughter. I cannot let her go through life in pain an noone believe her. She is so precious, if you could just see her little blue eyes looking up at you. She is one of them beautiful children that makes you wonder "did I really have her?" she had to have come from a beauty queen or something not me! She is the sweetest child, will do anything in her power to make you happy. She even cries when I yell at her sister. She has even gone as far as running an jumping on her sister and hugging her crying thinking Haven was in trouble. And to think I passed this horrid painful disease onto this sweet little blue eyed angel, its killing me! I wish my mom was alive so I could talk to her right now! Just so I can hear her say " it will all be ok honey"...................................................

Oh hon please don't take on the guilt of passing this on to her, you had no way of knowing it would happen, it will just make her feel worse because you feel guilty! It is what it is and all you can do is be her best advocate and be there for her. Guilt is always counter productive and accomplishes absolutely nothing but pain for you, so stop it right now do you hear me!?!
I remember when I had a bad hip and went to an orthopedist and he told me I had to lose "a significant" amount of weight before he would consider surgery even tho I barely had any cartilage left between my femur and hip. So I waited because I couldn't lose weight I was in too much pain to even move. A year later the rheumatologist that confirmed my fibro was horrified when he couldn't move my leg because of the pain and stiffness, immediately sent me for an Xray to find that I had no cartilage left to cushion my femur. Within a month I saw a sports orthopedist (they are used to working on big atheletes) and had a hip replacement. He said I had gone so long that the femur had actually ground into my hip making it hard to get the hip socket placed right. This was all because I was too fat!
For years I've complained of lower back pain, in my tailbone(I've fallen on it 4 times in my life, direct hits with full weight). Again it's just my weight, lose a few tons and it'll be fine, this doc was in the same general practice as the other jerk. Well years later I told my oncologist my back was killing me so she ordered a bone scan of my whole spine, she could get it thru the insurance because my cancer "could" have reoccured in the spine. It wasn't the cancer of course but I did have severe arthritis in my tailbone area. Again I guess it was just the fat huh? Ggggrrrr I agree I sometimes wonder how smart you have to be to get a medical degree! I wish you and your little sweetie the very best and remember NO GUILT!!!

Thanks for the kind words!! They are exactly what I needed to hear right now.
Oh well got to go take my handful of morning pills.....
Does your hip still bother you?

Nope hip is great now. I've never in my life experienced pain like that before, even the fibro pain is better than that was, it was so intense it just took my breath away to move. The only down side is I have trouble getting up from a sitting position, I need arms on chairs to push myself up with and I have trouble with stairs. However I'll take those problems over the pain any day!

I can so relate to the poster in this post. I was sickly as a child,overweight and hurt. I was told for years that if I lost the weight, my pain too would go away. At first after WLS I had a short period of a few months that I felt great. We all know that stress irritates things and I was on top of the world losing 100 lbs. the first 6 months. Then a few months later the pain returned with a vengeance. I had the body pains big time. I started falling face first and finally got some xrays. I have advanced osteoarthritis, fibro and had a ruptured disk. The dr had laughed and said the tailbone pain was then from losing all the weight. Always about the weight. I had fusion in January, went thru a divorce before that, so lots of stress. The fibro flares come and go but pain never truly leaves. I am on Fentanly patches and pain pills.
I now have fluid buildup for the 2nd time around my surgical site so back to the surgeon tomorrow. Prayers would be great. I also have my 3 yr wls checkup tomorrow too so one good thing going on.
I pray for this child and hope they will get her some help now. I think my pain, physical and emotional led to my eating issues and want it to happen to no one else.
The rhuemy will test for all other disorders that could be an issue. I remember thinking for years when I was younger that I must have some sort of muscular dystropy or something. A gentle poke just playing would be very painful for me.
Pray you get it worked out and so relate to you guys!
Shannon