Dylan Aristy Mota, 12, with the help of fellow campers, was pulled into the air on a high ropes activity known at the the Frost Valley YMCA camp as "the flying squirrel." He laughed as he was hoisted skywards.

The Frost Valley YMCA camp welcomes children through the summer to do ropes courses, swim in the lake, garden and more time-honored camp traditions. For Dylan, and several other campers it was a special chance to be a kid. Dylan has lupus, and it was his first time at sleepaway camp.

It may sound surprising but children can get lupus, arthritis and other autoimmune diseases, too. These diseases, caused when the immune system attacks your body instead of protecting it, aren’t as common in kids as in adults. But symptoms sometimes can be more severe and treating growing bodies is challenging.

""It was like a bit like nervous racking because like I don't know what was wrong with me," Dylan said.

Through a partnership with Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, several children with autoimmune diseases came to the upstate New York camp, where a rheumatologist was on hand to give out medicines, do check ups and be present for any issues that may arise for the children.

Ethan Blanchfield-Killeen, 11, has a form of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. One day a doctor examined his hands at camp. Another day, he was running across the lawn splattered in a fierce game of paint tag.

"I get to kind of do stuff that I don't really do a lot, and I don't really have to worry about my arthritis while doing it,' Ethan said.

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