What bowel disease is most likely to present with arthritis and systemic symptoms?
Up to 20% of children with Crohn disease have arthritis, which is usually monoarticular or oligoarticular. Children will not volunteer information about their bowel habits, so they must be asked. Furthermore, some children with arthritis due to Crohn disease will not have bowel symptoms or a positive stool guaiac. Consequently, inflammatory bowel disease needs to be considered in any child with arthritis, weight loss, halt in linear growth, iron-deficiency anemia, and elevated ESR
