CLARYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Autoimmune diseases like lupus, myositis and forms of arthritis can strike children, too. At a sleepaway camp in upstate New York, some young patients got a chance to just be kids.

That’s how a 12-year-old recently diagnosed with lupus found himself laughing on a high-ropes course as fellow campers hoisted him into the air.

“It’s really fun,” said Dylan Aristy Mota, thrilled he was offered this rite of childhood along with the reassurance that doctors were on site. If “anything else pops up, they can catch it faster than if we had to wait til we got home.”

Autoimmune diseases occur when your immune system attacks your body instead of protecting it. With the exception of Type 1 diabetes, they’re more rare in kids than adults.

“It’s very important that people know

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