Summary

Rickets causes soft, weak bones in children. It usually occurs when they do not get enough vitamin D, which helps growing bones absorb the minerals calcium and phosphorous. It can also happen when calcium or phosphorus levels are too low.

Your child might not get enough vitamin D if he or she:

• Has dark skin
• Spends too little time outside
• Has on sunscreen all the time when out of doors
• Doesn't eat foods containing vitamin D because of lactose intolerance or a strict vegetarian diet
• Is breastfed without receiving vitamin D supplements
• Can't make or use vitamin D because of a medical disorder such as celiac disease

In addition to dietary rickets, children can get an inherited form of the disease. Symptoms include bone pain or tenderness, impaired growth, and deformities of the bones and teeth. Your child's doctor uses lab and imaging tests to make the diagnosis. Treatment is replacing the calcium, phosphorus, or vitamin D that are lacking in the diet. Rickets is rare in the United States.

Learn More

• Bowlegs and Knock-Knees (American Academy of Pediatrics) Also in Spanish
• Mineral and Bone Disorder in Chronic Kidney Disease (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases) Also in Spanish
• Rickets (American Academy of Family Physicians)
• Rickets (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
• Rickets (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
• Vitamin D (National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements) Also in Spanish
• Vitamin D Test (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish

Genetics

• Hereditary hypophosphatemic rickets: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Vitamin D-dependent rickets: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Rickets (National Institutes of Health)
• ClinicalTrials.gov: Rickets, Hypophosphatemic (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: Laboratory-based case finding using phosphate and alkaline phosphatase to identify genetic...
• Article: Hypophosphatemic rickets in children: current knowledge and a proposal for a...
• Article: When X Does Not Mark the Spot: Autosomal Dominant and Recessive...
• Rickets -- see more articles

Patient Handouts

• Rickets (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish