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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRickets. About 20% of my neighborhood has rickets.
It's really depressing. The US doesn't understand the whole "preventable childhood disease" thing, except among granola anti-vax moms....
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)I'm trying to do some anti-ricketts work; we'll see how it goes...
dawg
(10,624 posts)It's easy to forget.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)You don't need that much calcium and direct sunlight to not get that.
Note here from the UK :
Rickets soar as children stay indoors: Number diagnosed with disease quadruples in last ten years.
Some experts fear that parents obsessing about protecting their children from sunlight, which boosts the bodys level of the key vitamin, has led to the rise.
It is also thought that children spending more time indoors on computer games, more parents driving their kids to school and fewer children taking cod liver oil capsules have all contributed to the rise.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2543724/Rickets-soar-children-stay-indoors-Number-diagnosed-disease-quadruples-ten-years.html#ixzz33DJIEBD2
Young children here, up until age 5 from , memory , DID get orange juice, powdered milk and malt on the NHS - not sure when that stopped
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Actually, I'm obviously not a phsyician; there may be another cause. Do you know of a different disease/difficiency that produces those characteristic bowed legs?
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)not by way of vitamin deficiency anyway and other causes such as Blount's Disease are quite rare :
It's quite common for toddlers to appear mildly bow legged. In fact, toddlers can often have bowed legs that may even interfere with walking. The majority of cases of bowed legs in toddlers result from so-called physiologic genu varum, the term used by doctors to refer to a variation in normal appearance that makes some toddlers appear bow-legged. Toddlers with this normal variation in appearance of the legs usually begin to improve around the age of 15 to 18 months. By age three the problem has generally resolved without any type of bracing or treatment.
However, certain medical conditions can be responsible for bowed legs that do not improve, or even worsen as a child ages. Blount's Disease is a medical condition that affects bone growth, resulting in abnormal growth of the upper portion of the tibia, or shin bone, leading to bowed legs. Both toddlers and adolescents can develop this condition. According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, in children under two years of age it is impossible to distinguish "normal" bowed legs from Blount's Disease. However, children with physiologic genu varum will improve with time while those with Blount's Disease will progressively worsen. By age three, x-ray studies of a child's legs will show the abnormalities of Blount's Disease.
Blount's Disease is a treatable condition. When discovered early in toddlers (called infantile Blount's Disease), leg braces can be used to correct the condition. If bowing of the legs persists or increases despite the use of a brace, surgery may be needed. Braces are not effective in adolescent Blount's Disease, and teens with the condition are usually treated with surgery.
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=57409
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)There is a very good recent Smithsonian documentary called "Skin Deep" . There is a lot in the documentary about vitamin needs along with the evolution of skin color.
Rickets over the history of the disorder was mentioned several times. Cod liver oil use in the early days.
A very good documentary, it mentions how solar radiation has increased in some parts of the world. Sunshine actually penetrates below the skin and can cause some vitamin deficiencies in the persons blood.
edited here's the documentary link. http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/show/141379/skin-deep