Ridding the Body of Rickets

Your child’s wrist bones are too wide. He also has bowed legs. His doctor thinks he is deficient in vitamin D and has recommended fortified foods with vitamin D. He may have rickets.

Rickets is a childhood disease where your child’s bones are too soft, causing the bones to warp, bend and break more easily. It is typically caused by a lack of vitamin D, but in rare cases, it is caused by an underlying genetic disorder.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, signs and symptoms of rickets include:

§  Bowing of leg bones.

§  A widening of knees (in children who can walk) or wrists (in infants who can crawl).

§  Swelling of the ends of ribs, known as rachitic rosary because the ends of the ribs look like rosary beads under the skin.

§  Pigeon chest (where the breastbone presses outward or upward).

§  Growth delays

§  Unusual curving of the spine or shape of the skull.

§  Teeth problems, such as cavities.

§  Seizures (in severe cases where calcium levels are critically low).

Rickets are usually caused by nutritional problems or genetics. Nutritional rickets are caused by not taking in enough vitamin D, which your body uses to absorb calcium. This can result from insufficient exposure to sunlight (which helps the body make its own vitamin D) and lack of vitamin D in their diet (this can happen with a vegan/vegetarian diet, lactose intolerance, or conditions that limit how much vitamin D can be absorbed such as Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, cystic fibrosis or ulcerative colitis). Not to mention a diet low in calcium.

Then there’s inherited rickets where several genetic diseases interfere with your child’s body ability to absorb vitamin D. Other genetic conditions affect how your body handles phosphorus and also cause rickets. Keep in mind that these types of disorders are rare.

Newborns and infants are at the highest risk of developing rickets, especially those being breastfed (it is possible the breastfeeding parent is not getting enough vitamin D) or who were born prematurely.

Children who don’t get enough sunlight from outdoors (windows block the sun’s rays that the body uses to create vitamin D). This is definitely true in the wintertime.

Children who are darker-skinned (it takes longer to absorb enough of the sun’s rays to create the needed amount of vitamin D when your skin is darker).

There are several ways to diagnose rickets. Your healthcare provider will conduct a physical examination and one or more of other tests like X-rays, blood testing, urine testing, bone biopsies (very rarely done), genetic testing (for inherited rickets).

Rickets is curable when caught early. Changes to diet, added vitamin supplements and more sunlight exposure are enough to cure the disease. The disease is preventable as well through vitamin D supplements and eating vitamin D rich foods. Unfortunately, inherited rickets isn’t preventable. But your healthcare provider can suggest support groups where you and your child can connect with people who are going through a similar experience.

Usually with nutritional rickets, the bones straighten out on their own. And it can be treated in weeks or months depending on the severity of the condition. The vitamin D deficiency can improve in six to eight weeks. Most children treated for nutritional rickets recover completely and grow into healthy adults.