There's no one best treatment. Methotrexate is a popular control med-icine. Cortisone drugs are brought into play when all else fails. Enbrel, by injection, is a new treatment both for adult and juvenile arthritis. Treatment ought not to focus entirely on medicine.
Physical therapy keeps joints limber and prevents muscle shrinkage.
Occupational therapy teaches a youngster how to circumvent the limitations this illness imposes on its victims. My husband had a gallbladder attack but didn't have surgery. After a second attack, he did have surgery. Later he had another attack from gallstones in the pancreatic duct. Those stones caused pancreatitis, and he had to have surgery that lasted nine hours.