Bharat Stories
Light of Knowledge

Top Signs & Symptoms of Vitamin D Deficiency in Children

1476 924

Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.

About Vitamin D Deficiency

Vitamin D is one of the most essential nutrients for growing kids. It aids the strengthening of bones and also boosts the body’s immune system, which is essential to fight infections and prevent early arthritis.

A study on adults suggests that proper content of vitamin D in the body helps in preventing heart diseases and cancer. A deficiency of vitamin D in kids can hamper with their bone health, resulting in rickets and other forms of bone-related ailments and skeletal deformities.

Causes of Vitamin D deficiency in children:

  • Some of the most common causes of the deficiency of vitamin D in children include:
  • Wearing dark colored clothes most of the time
  • The lack of sunlight, since covered skin most of the time cannot synthesize vitamin D
  • Dark skin
  • Some health conditions

Signs and symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency in children:

  1. If your child has a deficiency, chances are that he’ll be getting muscle cramps, breathing difficulties, and seizures a lot of times. However, these situations are also connected to calcium deficiency. So, you need to check with your doctor to get an accurate diagnosis.
  2. Kids with a deficiency often complain of pain in the legs and muscles due to weakness. They also tend to have a very soft skull and leg bones compared to others and their legs might also look curved. This condition is known as rickets.
  3. Their overall growth is comparatively slower than kids without any vitamin D deficiency. Their weight is also affected as a result of weaker bones and muscles.
  4. Vitamin D deficiency in kids makes them very prone to infections, especially infections in the respiratory system.
  5. Teething in children with vitamin D deficiency generally happens late.
  6. These kids are also easily irritable.
  7. Since their ribcages become soft, these kids may often face breathing difficulties.
  8. In case of severe rickets, there’s a calcium deficiency in the blood and this needs immediate attention of the doctors.
  9. And last but not least, in some rare cases, vitamin D deficiency can also cause a weakness in the heart muscles.

The natural way of maintaining the right Vitamin D content in children:

The most natural way of giving adequate vitamin D supply to your child is by giving him foods that are rich in nutrients including vitamin D. These are:

  • Cheese
  • Egg yolk
  • Oily fish
  • Cereals
  • Soya milk
  • All dairy products
  • Fruit juice (especially orange)
  • Cod liver oil
  • Infant formula milk

Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.