Rickets History

The definition of rickets: a disease mainly of children, characterized by softening of developing bone, malnutrition, and enlargement of the liver and spleen, caused by a lack of vitamin D, causing led bones to bend and other symptoms

What was believed about the disease in the past:

Greek physician Soranus of Ephusus, found deformation in infants bones as early as the first and second century AD. In the 1850s most medical men agreed the disease had something to go with dirty skin inpure air and late weaning. In the 1880s they did a survey showing that almost no children in the country side or in a town with 5000 people or less had rickets also during this time they looked and the relasoinship between rickets and syphilis was very much debated. The term rickets comes from the Old English word "wrickken", meaning to twist or bend. Rickets was common in the UK and USA during the 19th century. Yet rickets was not defied as a certain disease till 1645 by Daniel Whistler who gave the 1st description of the disease. In the 1600s a wealthy family in Tuscany had a child who had rickets from thee wealthy lifestyle which included usually staying indoors this is strange because Rickets is usually associated with poverty and living in heavily polluted, close-built cities where there is little exposure to sunlight. One royal child known as fillipo had a deformed skull from rickets shown in the image on my slide show. Sixteenth-century thinking also dictated that infants be heavily swaddled. Historical texts suggest that at that time, breast milk was supplemented with 'paps' made of soft bread and apples.The Medici children, wrapped in many heavy layers and cocooned in large houses, and they probably didn’t get the same amount of sunlight as th...

... middle of paper ...

...risk breast milk only has a very small amount of vitamin D. this was found as a problem also in the 16th centaury because it was normal for you child to drink mostly your milk two years into their life. An ABC NEWS reports looked at 380 kids below the age of 2 and 12% were deficaint in vitamin D and 40% dint have the desirable amount in their body, report by Dustin Lushing,. So although not many kid suffer from rickets it is still a problem in some areas that have a lack of education about the disease and how important the right amount of vitamin D is and sun in moderation.

Rickets stories: In south-east England 2 parents were jailed for 2-3 years because their son died from rickets, the boys medical care needs were neglected because of the parents religious believes. Often rickets can be mistaken for child abuse because the disease cause bones to break easily.