It is generally recognized that the nutritional state of the mother has an important influence upon that of the infant. This influence is exerted during the antenatal period as well as during infancy when breast feeding constitutes the only or main source of nutrients. Among the numerous nutritive factors, those concerned in bone metabolism, namely, calcium, phosphorus and vitamin D, have recen...

The seminal discovery that sunlight was important in the prevention of nutritional rickets was made in 1890 by Theobald A. Palm, a medical missionary who contrasted the prevalence of rickets in northern European urban areas with similar areas in Japan and other tropical countries. He surmised that exposure to sunlight prevented rickets. Over the next 40 years his observation led to an understan...

Two very low birthweight infants with rickets are described; one had a low serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D3 concentration. Similarities in their clinical courses included low birthweights, low calcium intakes, uncertain vitamin D intakes, and chronic administration of frusemide and sodium bicarbonate--all potential aetiological factors in the development of bone undermineralisation. Both infants had...

1. Carlsen NL, Krasilnikoff PA, Eiken M. Premature cranial synostosis in X-linked hypophosphatemic rickets: possible precipitation by 1-alpha-OH-cholecalciferol intoxication. Acta Paediatr Scand 73(1):149–54, 1984 2. Currarino G. Sagittal synostosis in X-linked hypophosphatemic rickets and related diseases. Pediatr Radiol 37(8):805–12, 2007 3. Freudlsperger C, Hoffmann J, Castrillon-Oberndorfer...

Radiologically diagnosed rickets was found to be common in children of the poorer classes in Tehran. It was frequently associated with gastroenteritis or bronchopneumonia and a large proportion of the children were severely underweight for their age. In children below the age of 1 year malnutrition tended to mask the signs of rickets. Convulsions were much less frequent in the malnourished chil...

There is wide difference of opinion as to the prevalence of rickets amolng the urban child population of Great Britain. This is, in part, attributable to the divergent standards of diagnosis accepted by various clinicians; on the one hand rickets is frequently diagnosedl because the child has sweating of the head or flabby muscles or is backward without any evidence of pathological change in th...