Lack of calcium and rickets in children

There are few sunny days in the cold season, and parents need to be more careful not to let lack of calcium and rickets in children.

Rickets is a word known to many parents. Light forms of rickets today are found in almost every second babies.

Like any other disease, rickets can not be started. This is especially important in early spring, autumn and winter, when the sun is low. It is his deficit in many ways and leads to the development of ailment.


From antiquity to the present day

The first mention of a lack of calcium and rickets in children is found even in the writings of ancient doctors. A detailed clinical description of rickets refers to the XVII century. And it was composed by the English anatomist and orthopedist F. Glisson, who appropriated the disease the name rhachitis, which in Greek means "spine", since it is in rachitis that is primarily affected. Rickets was also called a "foggy disease". He often hit the children of workers who lived near factories, factories and practically devoid of sunlight. But if previously could only hang over the workers' quarters, then in modern gassed metropolises a dense smoke screen that does not allow the necessary amount of ultraviolet radiation is formed almost everywhere. Among the metropolitan doctors, for example, there is even a new concept - the "Kiev norm of rickets." Thus, doctors say about the mild degree of the disease with a lack of calcium and rickets in children inherent in very many babies from big cities, whose skin, due to insufficient ultraviolet radiation, is poorly produced vitamin D, so necessary for the formation of bone in bone tissue.


Fortunately , if the rickets fight correctly and timely, its symptoms quickly disappear.

The assertion that if a lack of calcium and rickets in children is not treated, sooner or later it will pass itself, absolutely wrong, because a child can have serious bone deformities of the skeleton for life. Among the consequences of the disease - crooked legs, violation of posture, flat feet, deformity of the pelvic bones (later this greatly complicates the course of labor in women), multiple caries, anemia, deformity of the chest. The latter several times increases the incidence of respiratory diseases.


How to recognize?

Lack of calcium and rickets in children is a disease of a growing body. Most often, rickets affect children of the first 2-3 years of life.

The first and most characteristic sign of rickets - the baby begins to sweat profusely. This is especially noticeable when a baby eats (he sweats a forehead, a body) or sleeps (the pillow becomes wet).

The child became restless, fearful, more often crying, worse sleeping, her neck is balding.

With the development of the disease, a so-called hernia of the white abdominal line, resembling a "scallop", may appear.

The sub-ribs protrude, there is a delay in the growth of teeth, the large fontanel does not close in time, thickenings appear on the wrists, the muscles of the abdomen are weakened, which causes the "frog stomach" to form.

The head is enlarged, the forehead becomes convex, the nape becomes flat, the bones of the base of the skull soften.


Later, the baby roughly deforms the thorax. Infringements can have one of two possible variants: "a chicken breast" (ribs are stuck out forward at an acute angle) or "the bootleg's chest" (hollowed).

The lack of calcium and rickets in children is justified by the fact that when the child starts walking, an X-shaped or O-shaped curvature of the legs appears.


Prevention

Begin the prevention of rickets before the birth of the baby. As much time as possible spend in the fresh air, better away from the gassed streets, do physical exercises. You can and even need to lead an active lifestyle in your own pleasure, without overloading and not boring yourself. Refuse the sweet, spicy and salty in large quantities, from alcohol, eat dairy products, cottage cheese, cheese, fish, boiled meat, vegetables, fruits. Failure to comply with these rules contributes to the development of rickets in infants of the first months of life.

Lack of calcium and rickets in children also occurs in toddlers with a sharp increase in body weight, in artificial animals, which inexperienced mothers begin to feed very early in the wrong scheme. The baby should not be deficient in sour-milk products, cheese, as well as in egg yolk and oil (the main sources of vitamin D). To grow up healthy, pay more attention to its physical development, observe all the rules of caring for the baby and do not forget about hardening. Of great importance are therapeutic exercises and massage. They need to be carried out systematically, with a gradual increase in the load. In the second half of the life of the baby during the active development of the osseous system, it is necessary to give calcium in the form of cottage cheese or in tablets. This will help to avoid problems with deformation of bone tissue. And yet the main measure of prevention of rickets in children is exposure to the sun. Walk more often with the child in the open air, not forgetting to expose his face and hands to the sun. Be careful not to get sunburn.


Miracle-vitamin

What to do when it's raining or snow and sun almost none? In the 30 years of the XX century, vitamin D was discovered, which helps the body absorb phosphorus and calcium. Since the end of September, when the sun is no longer enough, children, starting from 2-3 years of age, are given certain doses of this artificially obtained miracle vitamin in the form of drops for oral administration. To take vitamin, as a rule, if there is no special indication, stop in the spring, in May. And so - before reaching the crumb of 2-3 years of age. Although sometimes and earlier, at the discretion of the doctor.


Hypervitaminosis is dangerous

The aqueous solution of vitamin D is best absorbed and the effect of its administration is more prolonged. Alcohol solution of vitamin D is practically not released because of a possible overdose. It happens that not very skilled specialists write out vitamin C in huge doses. But without calcium, it is not digested, and the load on the baby's liver is enormous. Pediatricians believe that it is better to have a small cricket rickets than hypervitaminosis, leading to various chronic diseases.