Rickets may have returned to the UK.
Researchers in the UK and USA are discovering that children are playing on computers as opposed to being outdoors. Therefore, they are limiting their ability to receive sufficient vitamin D, combined with dissatisfactory dietary habits.
Rickets is a disease which was considered to have practically totally disappeard in developed countries since the early-1900s. The US agency Centers for Disease Control describes nutritional rickets as “a condition that causes weak or deformed bones in young people.”
Vitamin D is crucial due to the fact that its lack has been related to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, multiple cancers and autoimmune conditions in children as well as adults. The majority of the milk sold in the USA is fortified with vitamin D. However, the medical profession there insists that children need double that quantity of vitamin D per day.
Sunlight is of course a key source of vitamin D, but, with many children playing indoors, so, they are not getting sufficient vitamin d from sunlight.
Certain foods which can boost your child’s vitamin D levels include tuna, salmon, mackerel and fish liver oils. Minimal amounts are also to be found in cheese, beef liver, egg yolks and specific mushrooms. As many of these foods which contain vitamin D are not particularly child-friendly you may wish to opt for a cod liver oil supplement.
It is of course essential to encourage your children to spend some time outdoors, off their computers; fresh air and sunlight do wonders.