Overview of Rickets in Children

Rickets is a childhood disease where your child’s bones are too soft, causing their bones to warp, bend and break more easily. It’s typically caused by a lack of vitamin D, but in rare cases, is caused by an underlying genetic disorder.Rickets is different from osteomalacia, which is a similar...

• Vitamin D, a sunshine vitamin and steroid prohormone, is critical for calcium homeostasis and bone health, especially in children. Rickets, a disorder of growing children, results from inadequate mineralization of the growth plate, leading to deformities and impaired bone growth. Rickets is broadly classified into vitamin D deficiency rickets (nutritional) and vitamin D resistant/refractory rickets, with nutritional rickets being the more prevalent form.