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Rickets, also often called deficiency rickets, is a disease that mainly affects children. It consists in reducing bone mineralization, which leads to bone deformations that can be felt or visible through the body shell. This disease, however, causes a number of very serious symptoms and significantly deteriorates the patient’s well-being. Vitamin D plays a key role in the treatment of this abnormality.
Rickets – symptoms and causes
symptomsit gives rickets, are very characteristic, and the diagnosis of this disease usually does not cause major problems, because almost 100 percent. cases of this ailment is conditioned by one factor – vitamin D deficiency. The body has two sources from which it can take vitamin D. – the first is food. Eggs, vegetable oils and giblets are a good source of it. The second source of this vitamin is the body itself – the human body is able to produce it itself vitamin D., however, it needs contact with the sun for this. According to research, even 20 minutes of exposure to the sun allows you to cover the daily need for this vitamin. Vitamin D has many important functions in the body, e.g. the regulation of phosphorus and calcium in the blood, and thus affects the proper functioning of the muscular and nervous systems , blood clotting and, most importantly, bone mineralization.
symptomsit gives rickets this, in the initial stage, irritability, strong smell of urine, increased sweating of the baby during feeding. In the later stages of the disease, bone effects become visible – it can lead to flattening of the poll, deformation of the ribs and chest, the formation of valgus knees, flat feet, deformities of the bones of the pelvis and others. In addition, rickets is associated with symptoms such as slowing of growth and late tooth eruption, low muscle tone and anemia tendency.
Rickets – treatment
To avoid the problem, it is best to take care of the baby’s health from the very beginning and apply prevention of rickets, that is, give to a child supplements containing vitamin D.. It is important that the child spends a lot of time outdoors and has controlled contact with the sun – then the body will have a chance to produce the necessary amount vitamin.
Rickets today it is a very rare disease – a few years ago the number of recorded cases dropped significantly. This was due to changes in the medical care system and good access to various types of food, which allows for the introduction of a varied diet. However, if rickets makes itself felt, the therapy should be started under the supervision of a specialist. Such treatment may take up to several months before it takes effect. It mainly consists of giving the child a prescribed course by a doctor vitamin D doses. However, this is not enough – you should also take care of a proper diet and provide an absorbable form with it vitamin D. and fats that allow it to be dissolved and absorbed.