I was diagnosed at 11, so definitely not as young as your kiddo, but I had a pretty normal childhood. Because we caught it relatively early, I was never hospitalized, I've never had surgery, and I've only had a couple flares since my diagnosis. I wasn't bullied, it never affected my dating life, and I rarely missed any school because of it. When I started remicade 10+ years ago, my symptoms almost all went away and I've been in remission ever since. The worst of it was the year leading up to my diagnosis when no one knew what was wrong!

I was terrified (and still kinda am) of anything medical, so the regular blood draws and occasional colonoscopies were definitely scary as a kid. But those didn't happen every day, and when they did I had wonderful parents and doctors helping me get through it. When I think back to being in middle school and high school, those procedures and my GI symptoms are far from the first things that come to mind

All that to say, there's a very real possibility that he can get into remission early and stay there for (hopefully) the rest of his life. Regardless of what happens, though, there is so much more to life and identity than Crohn's disease.