Kids With Autoimmune Diseases Get Rare Taste of Normalcy at New York Sleepaway Camp

A group of children living with serious autoimmune diseases traded hospital visits for hiking trails this summer, as an upstate 🗽New York camp partnered with pediatric specialists to give young patients a chance at a traditional sleepaway experience.

For 12-year-old Dylan Aristy Mota, diagnosed with lupus earlier this year, the opportunity meant soaring through the trees on a high-ropes course — something his family once thought would be impossible, according to The Associated Press.

“It’s really fun,” Dylan said, adding that he felt reassured knowing doctors were stationed at the camp. If “anything else pops up, they can catch it faster than if we had to wait til we got home.”

Children’s Hospital at Montefiore joined with the Frost Valley YMCA last summer to create a medically supported camp session for kids with conditions such as lupus, myositis, and forms of juvenile arthritis. While rare in childhood, these autoimmune diseases can be more severe when they begin early, particularly before puberty.

“People always ask, ‘Can kids have arthritis? Can kids have lupus?’” said Dr. Natalia Vasquez-Canizares, a pediatric rheumatologist at Montefiore. “Imagine for an adult, it’s difficult. If you have that disease since you’re young, it’s very difficult to, you know, cope with.”

Symptoms can also be difficult to detect in young children. Instead of explaining joint pain, some may limp or revert to crawling. Dylan’s symptoms first appeared as a sudden change in the color of his face.

“Before, I looked like everybody else, like normal,” he said. Then, “my face turned like the bright pink, and it started to like get more and more red.”