A doctor advising ... sleepaway camp? That’s how a 12-year-old 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 that he got a chance at the rite of childhood — thanks to doctors reassuring his mom that they’d be at this Upstate New York camp , too. Dylan felt good knowing if “anything else pops up, they can catch it faster than if we had to wait til we got home.”

It may sound surprising but diseases like lupus, myositis and some forms of arthritis — when your immune system attacks your body instead of protecting it — don’t just strike adults . With the exception of Type 1 diabetes, these autoimmune diseases are more rare in kids but they do happen.

People often ask,

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