Hi there... I have a 14 year old son, dx'd at age 8. We tried all the meds, starting with the weakest and working our way up. Unfortunately, we had to keep going back to prednisone because the maintenance meds never worked until he started Remicade. He's been on Remi for seven months now and in remission for six of those seven months. It's been wonderful! He says he only thinks about his Crohn's once every eight weeks for the four hours he's getting his infusion... otherwise he forgets he even has it.
There are some recent studies suggesting the top down approach for kids (starting with the biologics like Remi and Humira) if started within three months of dx can work really well at knocking out the disease. With kids, tricky part is getting the disease under control quickly so they can grow, particularly at the 12-15 age time frame when they should be hitting puberty. Many GI's will start freaking out when boys hit age 14 and they're not doing well... so that might be part of your GI's reasoning for jumping to Remicade. They only get one chance at puberty.
I understand your fears about Remicade, but now that I see my son growing and the benefits he's getting from it, it far outweighs my fears. I still worry about long term effects, but he also needs to be healthy enough to enjoy life right now. Remicade is helping him do that.
If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask. We're all here for you!