Causes of rickets in children

Children have weak constitutions and are easily sick. Colds are a common disease among children. Rickets in children is not unfamiliar to everyone. Rickets patients are generally children. Rickets is caused by vitamin D deficiency. We often watch TV, and TV advertisements often popularize that vitamin D can promote calcium absorption. The calcium in Chinese children's food is insufficient, and the absorption is poor, so the children's bones do not develop well.

Rickets in children is a disease that seriously harms children. Parents should ensure early detection and early treatment. Ordinary people have a certain understanding of the symptoms of rickets. The hair on the back of a child's head is obviously worn out, and the legs become bow-legged. Here are some specific symptoms:

(1) Symptoms: mainly psychoneurological symptoms seen in the early and extreme stages of rickets. Children are irritable, restless, have restless sleep, night terrors, cry at night, and sweat a lot. Due to the stimulation of sweat, they often shake their heads and rub their pillows while sleeping, resulting in hair loss behind the pillow (pillow baldness). As the disease progresses, there is hypotonia, loosening of joint ligaments, and a swollen abdomen like a frog's belly. The children have delayed motor development and are late in walking independently.

(2) Bone changes: As the disease progresses, bone changes occur, which are more common in the most active stage of rickets. Bone changes are related to factors such as age, growth rate, and degree of vitamin D deficiency:

① Softening of the skull is more common in infants aged 3 to 6 months, with the occipital bone or parietal bone being the most obvious. The skull becomes concave when pressed by fingers, and returns to its original shape when the pressure is removed (like the feeling of a ping-pong ball). After 6 months, the growth rate of the skull slows down, manifested as hyperplasia of subperiosteal bone-like tissue, and the frontal and parietal bones bulge into a square skull. In severe cases, it may become a cross skull or a saddle skull. In addition, there are delayed closure of the anterior fontanelle, late tooth eruption, weak teeth, and irregular tooth arrangement.

② The junction of the ribs and costal cartilage on both sides of the chest is a blunt round protrusion called "rib beads", which is most prominent on the 7th to 10th ribs;

③The spine and limbs can bend forward, backward or sideways.

If early mild rickets is treated promptly, it can be completely recovered without leaving any bone deformities. It is usually treated before the age of three. Treatment after the age of three may leave behind skeletal deformities of varying severity, such as head deformity, pigeon chest, O-shaped legs or X-shaped legs. Children with rickets should get more sun exposure, drink more infant formula, and parents should take good care of their children.