3 year old daughter about to begin methotrexate for juvenile arthritis

[maggiemoon]

Hi,anyone with any experience /advice. My 3 year old is about to start methotrexate and i just wondered if anyone had any advice as to disguising the taste, what time of day to take it, what side effects she might experience.

TIA

Hi Dd started methotrexate about 4 months ago Dd went straight onto injections so don't really know how to disguise the taste.
Dd suffers with mouth ulcers so takes folic acid for this she also gets slightly nauseous the day after the injection.

It does take a few months to take effect so don't be too disapointed if you don't see an improvement straight away.

Hope your Dd gets on okay

Hi Ali, thanks for the reply. Does your dd have JA? Have you started to see any changes in her condition? Do you inject her yourself or do you go to the hospital? Do you worry about her lowered immune system?

Sorry for bombardment of questions!

Hope you are both well

Hi she's got a type of JIA in her eyes called uveitis there has been improvement in the level of inflamation but we have been told it is a long term treatment even when she does improve.
I really worry about her lowered immune system as she has picked up one virus after the other where as before she was quite healthy. Dd has had to have the flu jab and pneumonia one. She has monthly blood tests to check they injections aren't affecting her liver etc.

Dh does the injections at home, to begin with the hospital came to the house weekly to give them and train dh.

Don't worry about all the questions I was the same when dd first started.

Is your Dc having the tablet?

Ah,uvetis. Yes dd is checked for that every 2 months as there is a chance she'll develop that too. How did your dd get the diagnosis? I thought it was pretty symptomless?

Thats interesting about the flu jabs. My consultant hasnt mentioned that - although im losing faith in him by the minute anyway!
Ive just had the special needs health visitor over who has referred us to community paediatric consultant, physio, OT and is filling out our DLA forms, all of which i had no idea we were entitled to.

DD has methotrexate in liquid form,im not sure why she's not having the injections as ive read injections are less likely to cause nauesa / vomiting as it's bypassing the stomach. We've also got the folic acid.

How old is your dd ali? Thats worrying to hear about the constant virus' she's picking up. Do they recommend you hold off on treatment whilst she's ill?
Thanks again

Dd has just turned 9 she has found the whole experience really hard
She has wore glasses since she was 3 and it was picked up at an eye test she had lost alot of vision and that may never return.
The reumatologist seems to think that dd must have had some mild symptoms of JA that went un-noticed.

I mentioned at her last appointment re the constant illnesses but they wouldn't say whether it was the metotrexate or not they just said winter brings along lots of virus'.

When she was really poorly with tonsilitis we has to go to hospital to be checked out and left the injection until a couple of days later they didn't want her to miss it.