Rickets

Rickets was a common disease back in the days but is rare these days. Children are the major victim of it. Due to rickets, poor development of the bones happens in the skeleton. The strength of the bone is dependent on the amount of mineral present and the lesser the amount, the weaker the bones are. Rickets are caused due to the deficiency of Vitamin D in the bones and it affect children’s kidney as well as liver leading to indigestion too. One form of rickets is X-linked hypophosphatemia which mainly affects girls.

Symptoms

A prominent square-shaped forehead, thickening of the knees, ankles and wrists, poor growth as well as development, weak tooth enamel, soft skull bones are common symptoms of rickets. In some cases person’s ribs gets pushed out from the chest and looks like a set of beads. Symptoms of the affected child become worse when they grow older and start to feel pain in bones, bending and cracking of bones, muscle weakness. In some cases, they may also get anaemic. Due to the lack of calcium as well as phosphate, it can lead to softness of the bones.

Causes

Lack of mineralization in the bones is the main cause for rickets. Deficiency of Vitamin D can also causes rickets in the children and adults as well. Children, who lack good eating habits, are soft targets for such diseases. Sunlight is the major source for Vitamin D. As per the survey conducted, it has been seen that Rickets is more prominent in the countries deprived of sunlight. Rickets is also common in developed countries due to the poor eating habits. It is also a genetic disease which has been reportedly flowing through families. The soft bones can occur in patients suffering from Kidney disease as well if they are consuming some anti-epileptic drugs.

Diagnosis

Based on the causes identified, doctor should be able to recommend some more tests like blood test or X-rays. Based on complete set of reports and symptoms observed, doctor may be able to suggest the treatment to the patient. If during the time of diagnosis, it is identified that the person is suffering from soft bones, known as Ostomalacia (which is a genetic disease) in medical term, then doctor would need to find out the full family history of the patient. He will also suggest prescription to the patient for the treatment of soft bones. Blood test will help in identify the level of calcium as well as Vitamin D.

Treatment

Based on the test result, the treatment shall follow. In case of deficiency, it’s advisable to take calcium as well as Vitamin D supplements. Food as well as intakes of liquid should be such that the level of vitamin D increases. There are cases where rickets comes due to some other medication, where the treatment would be completely different.

Complications

Rickets is not a severe disease, but with its prolonged symptoms in the child; the immunity gets hurt a lot towards other diseases. In case of girls, severe rickets during child hood can even render then unable to give birth further.