What are the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency rickets

If rickets occurs in the body, it is usually caused by a lack of vitamin D. When rickets occurs, there are many changes in the body, which can be distinguished based on the symptoms of each period, so that you can better understand your body.

Rickets can be clinically staged as follows:

Symptoms of early rickets

It is more common in infants under 6 months old, especially in infants under 3 months old. Most of them are manifestations of increased nervous excitability, such as irritability, restlessness, excessive sweating that irritates the scalp and causes shaking of the head. However, these are not specific symptoms of rickets and are only used as a reference for early clinical diagnosis. There are usually no bone lesions during this stage. Bone X-rays may be normal or the calcification bands may be slightly blurred. Serum 25-(OH)D3 decreases, PTH increases, blood calcium decreases, blood phosphorus decreases, and alkaline phosphatase is normal or slightly elevated.

Symptoms of active rickets

If infants with early vitamin D deficiency are not treated, their condition will continue to worsen and they will develop typical skeletal changes with hyperparathyroidism and abnormal calcium and phosphate metabolism. Rickets in infants under 6 months old is mainly characterized by skull changes, with a soft anterior fontanelle and a thin skull. The examiner uses both hands to fix the infant's head and presses the back of the occipital bone or parietal bone with a little force with the fingertips, which may feel like pressing a ping-pong ball.

Symptoms of convalescent rickets

After treatment or sunlight exposure in any of the above stages, clinical symptoms and signs gradually alleviate or disappear. Blood calcium and phosphorus gradually return to normal, and alkaline phosphatase takes about 1 to 2 months to return to normal levels. After 2 to 3 weeks of treatment, the skeletal X-ray changes improved, with irregular calcification lines appearing. Later, the calcification bands became denser and thicker, and the epiphyseal cartilage disc was <2mm, gradually returning to normal.

Symptoms of post-rickets

It is more common in children over 2 years old. Due to severe rickets in infancy, there are residual skeletal deformities of varying degrees. There were no clinical symptoms, blood biochemistry was normal, and X-ray examination showed that the skeletal metaphyseal lesions had disappeared.