Article: JESSICA CAN'T BE SLIM - IT'S TOO PAINFUL; Five-year-old Jessica Mitten weighs a whopping five stone - but it's not her fault. It's a side-effect of the drug she takes to treat her crippling arthritis. HELEN GARSTON reports....(Features)

Strangers often stare at five-year-old Jessica Mitten and then glare disapprovingly at her mum.

For Jessica isn't like other children - she weighs five stone and wears clothes for kiddies twice her age.

The youngster, who suffers from crippling arthritis, has a terrible choice.

She can take powerful steroid drugs which cause her weight to balloon - or she can suffer unbearable agony.

Mum Mary, 32, from Stockport, Cheshire, said: "People just don't understand. Once we were at a supermarket check-out and a woman looked at Jessica and said, ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!