The smiling pictures of little Sadie Veselka don't tell her entire story. But now, help for parents of kids with chronic illnesses is coming from a mom who has been there.

Dawn Veselka knew something was wrong with her baby, but it took 10 months to get a diagnosis.

"It was hard ... and long," Veselka said. "I think that's the biggest thing when you don't have answers and it takes a while. It's just hard to watch your baby suffer."

At 4 years old, Sadie was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, which is the most common type of arthritis in children under the age of 16. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis causes persistent joint pain, swelling and stiffness. Some children may experience symptoms for only a few months, but others have symptoms for the rest of their lives.

During treatment and therapy, Veselka was asked to document everything she could about how Sadie felt: what hurt and how much.

"And every day, we would go through her joints," Veselka said. "We called it body check. That was just our name for it, and so I'd start at the top and work our way down. And I'd say, 'OK, let's check your neck.' And she'd move her neck and then she'd either go thumbs up if it felt good and she'd go thumbs sideways if it hurt a little and thumbs down if it hurt a lot."

And soon, Sadie was able to help fill in the blanks.

"Usually, I fill it out right before I'm going to bed so that I know ... everything that hurt throughout the day," Sadie Veselka said. "Because if I do it in the morning, I just know it hurts then — and I don't know what's hurting in the future."

Their teamwork produced the Body Check Journal. Published with the backing of the Assistance Fund, a group that helps people with chronic illness, the journal offers a way to track everything from temperature to mood and pain.

"It just hit me and it was, like, you've just got to put this together because you'll be able to help so many more parents and kids on whatever journey that they're on," Dawn Veselka said.

Sadie, now 10 years old, is fighting her disease with a flair for fashion as a fan of dragons and raising money to help other kids with arthritis. The Assistance Fund recently nominated her for its Youth in Philanthropy award for helping to create the High-5 Club, which provides food and gas cards to families in treatment.

The Body Check Journal is coming out in several versions for children and adults.

"All my life, I've had, like, attached to other kids," Sadie Veselka said. "I always wanted to help them. And now I can."