Rickets in children - rickets in children

About such a disease as rickets, known for a long time. His full description was made in 1650 by an English orthopedist F. Glisson. However, despite the obvious success of medicine, this disease is still quite common. So, let's see what kind of disease it is and what are the symptoms of rickets in children.

What is rickets

Rickets in a child is a disease that occurs because of a temporary discrepancy between the needs of an intensively developing organism in phosphorus and calcium and the insufficiency of the system that ensures their delivery to the children's body.

This diagnosis is placed around the world, but is especially typical for areas where there is a deficit of sunlight.

Rickets are most often affected by children of the first two years of life, although this pathology can occur at any age.

Many parents believe that rickets is a bone disease. But this is a profound error. Absolutely all systems of the child's body are affected.

Causes of rickets

Thanks to vitamin D, calcium assimilation and its correct distribution in the body occur. This is an important condition for the full development of bone tissue, the functioning of the nervous system and other organs. The main factors in the development of the disease are:

1. a violation of the distribution of calcium and phosphorus in the body;
2. a violation of the synthesis of vitamin D under the influence of ultraviolet;
3. violation of the intake of this vitamin with food

There are factors that predispose to the emergence of rickets.

From the mother's side, this can be overwork, lack of fresh air, unbalanced nutrition during pregnancy and during breastfeeding, toxicosis, difficult birth and taking medications.

Rickets in children can appear due to such factors:

• intensive growth( especially up to 1 year);
• a rare stay on the street;
• mild impellent activity;
• irrational nutrition and various diseases;
• prematurity and immaturity. Preterm and immature children have a high risk of this disease.

Signs of rickets for children

Attentive parents notice the first signs of rickets in children already in the first-second month of life. They are manifested by vegetative disorders: the child becomes restless, often shudders and weakly eats.

These babies have increased sweating. The kid goes to sleep, actively turns his head, because of which at the nape of the baldness is formed. The edges of the large fontanelle soften, the muscle tone decreases, constipation appears and persistent sweat on the skin. If no measures are taken at this time, "blossoming rickets"( its next stage) will begin to develop.

At this stage, there are bone deformities: a change in the shape of the skull, the appearance of frontal tubercles, a thickening in the wrist, on the ribs - the turn of the lower ribs to the sides, the curvature of the lower limbs. Such children often have muscular hypotension, belated teething, loose joints and ligaments, constipation, anemia and developmental delay.

The disease is, it seems, not a threatening one, but it affects all the important organs and systems, causing them various permanent changes.

So, summarizing all of the above, we note the categories of children most prone to rickets:

• premature and small babies;
• twins and children born from repeated childbirth at short intervals;
• children with reduced motor activity and suffering from chronic diseases, food allergy;
• often ill and receiving anticonvulsants;
• with a hereditary burden;

How to treat rickets in a child

Therapy of this disease should be comprehensive, and its main condition should be the implementation of specific and nonspecific treatment methods.

The latter include: the correct mode of the day in accordance with age, massage and gymnastics, long stay in the air and regular airing, rational nutrition and control over the mother's nutrition( if baby babies).

Under specific methods of treatment of rickets, medicamentous therapy is meant. To this end, the purpose of vitamin D is widely used. But the therapeutic dose of this drug and its form of release can be competently calculated and determined only by a specialist.

As a rule, vitamin D is prescribed in a therapeutic dose of 2000-5000 international units, which is taken within a month. Regular monitoring of the urine test is necessary in order to prevent such a "terrible" disease as hypervitaminosis D, and to assess the adequacy of the dose. Further, the dosage is reduced to preventive, and treatment is continued until two years of life, and at 3 years - only in autumn and winter.

As mentioned earlier, the treatment of the disease must be complex, other drugs are prescribed, such as calcium glycerophosphate, citrate mixture, ATP, multivitamin complex. It is strictly forbidden to engage in self-medication. Correctly to establish a dosage of a preparation, and also to appoint or nominate corresponding or meeting preparations only the expert is capable!

Everyone knows that any disease is easier to prevent than to treat later, so it's worth talking about prevention.

Prevention of rickets

It is worthwhile to think about the prevention of an ailment long before the birth of a child. Preventive maintenance during pregnancy includes the following: following the regime of the day of the future mother( full sleep, good nutrition, long walks in the air, taking multivitamins);prescribing vitamin D to pregnant women in the second half of pregnancy.

Following these recommendations, the mother must know that soon, as soon as the baby is born, she will have to go to the next stage of prophylaxis - postnatal - after a couple of weeks, which means:

• the correct feeding of the child( according to age, timely lure);
• active day regimen( massage, gymnastics with a gradual increase in the load);
• regular walks on the street;
• water procedures( bathing in a bath with sea salt or an extract of needles);
• timely prescription for children from risk groups of vitamin D( already from 2 weeks)
• appointment of the same vitamin to healthy children with 3-4 weeks of life and newborns with a small size of a large fontanel( control of fontanel and head sizes).

We draw your attention to the huge variety in the pharmacy network of medicines for vitamin D. How not to get confused? Vitamin is available in several forms( alcohol, oil, water).To date, the alcohol form is not used, because of its toxicity due to the evaporation of alcohol.

Often an aqueous solution is used that has a number of advantages over oil: rapid absorption from the gastrointestinal tract, high concentration in the liver( many times higher);has a lasting effect( 3 months).

Vitamin D3 is more active than D2 - the clinical effect begins sooner( after a week) and it is more effective.

Remember! !!In case of refusal of preventive treatment with vitamin D, and also untimely initiated prevention of rickets, you expose your baby to the risk of developing persistent changes in the bone system and various violations( down to severe diseases) from other organs and systems.