Rickets is back...

[StigVillan]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10400273/Every-child-should-get-free-vitamins-to-stave-off-rickets-chief-doctor-says.html

This is amazing.

Experts said the changes should be introduced because too many children were being denied vital nutrients by poor diets, while getting too little sunshine because they spend too much time indoors on computers and gaming consoles.

Staggering...

[chrisp65]

doctors should attend the sick, and leave the well alone, to quote some old goon

 

don't prescribe more pills at more cost, teach dumb parents how to raise children, you know all the complicated stuff you can't presume comes naturally like feed them vegetables and push them out into the daylight

[AVFCforever1991]

So they want the government to pay because of bad parenting?

[Jon]

Never good enough to play for England IMO.

[Jon]

So they want the government to pay because of bad parenting?

Hmmm. Interesting issue though. Should we let the children of bad parents suffer Ill health or try to intervene for the sake of the children?

[Jon]

So they want the government to pay because of bad parenting?

Also, parents following medical advice and using lots of suncreen on their kids are not 'bad parents'. They are just not medical professionals. There is much more to this increase than 'bad parenting'

[AVFCforever1991]

 

So they want the government to pay because of bad parenting?

Also, parents following medical advice and using lots of suncreen on their kids are not 'bad parents'. They are just not medical professionals. There is much more to this increase than 'bad parenting'

 

 

I was more talking about the bad diet. 

[Jon]

 

 

So they want the government to pay because of bad parenting?

Also, parents following medical advice and using lots of suncreen on their kids are not 'bad parents'. They are just not medical professionals. There is much more to this increase than 'bad parenting'

 

 

I was more talking about the bad diet. 

 

Bad diets have been around for a loooong time though, and cannot alone explain the kind of increase being seen.

 

Back to the wider point though:

 

Should the state intervene where they can (via vitamin supplements) to help the children of aforementioned 'bad parents' who are at risk of developing terrible illnesses, or should we just let them suffer?

 

Personally I think a bit of an educative campaing is needed here, to make all parents aware of the risks/problems mentiuoned in the article.

[AVFCforever1991]

 

 

 

So they want the government to pay because of bad parenting?

Also, parents following medical advice and using lots of suncreen on their kids are not 'bad parents'. They are just not medical professionals. There is much more to this increase than 'bad parenting'

 

 

I was more talking about the bad diet. 

 

Bad diets have been around for a loooong time though, and cannot alone explain the kind of increase being seen.

 

Back to the wider point though:

 

Should the state intervene where they can (via vitamin supplements) to help the children of aforementioned 'bad parents' who are at risk of developing terrible illnesses, or should we just let them suffer?

 

Personally I think a bit of an educative campaing is needed here, to make all parents aware of the risks/problems mentiuoned in the article.

 

 

Agreed. Children who are at risk should be helped. 

 

Educate people about exercise, diet and sensible use of sunscreen.

Edited October 24, 2013 by AVFCforever1991

[NurembergVillan]

[Jon]

I refer the honourable gentleman to post number 4.

Edited October 24, 2013 by Jon

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Some parents are good, some are shite. It isn't fair, but unless you are willing to implement some outrageously Orwellian nanny state, there really is very little you can do but educate and hope for the best.

[AVFCforever1991]

The grauniad also seem to have a similar story, but from 2010

 

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/jan/22/sharp-rise-vitamin-a-deficiency

 

 

 

Rickets warning from doctors as vitamin D deficiency widens

Sharp rise in problem blamed on kids indoors playing computers and parents using too much sunscreen

.

Computer-obsessed children who spend too long indoors and over-anxious parents who slap on excessive sunscreen are contributing to a sharp rise in cases of the bone disease rickets, doctors are warning.

 

Vitamin D deficiency, which causes the condition, could be rectified by adding supplements to milk and other food, a research team at Newcastle University suggests.

There are several hundred cases of the preventable condition among children in the UK every year, according to a clinical review paper in the British Medical Journal by Professor Simon Pearce and Dr Tim Cheetham.

 

"More than 50% of the adult population [in the UK] have insufficient levels of vitamin D and 16% have severe deficiency during winter and spring," they say. "The highest rates are in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England. People with pigmented skin are at high risk as are the elderly, obese individuals and those with malabsorption."

 

Most vitamin D is synthesised in the body by absorption of sunlight. Some comes from foods such as fish oil. People with darker skins need more sunlight to top up their vitamin D levels.

 

One of the main reasons for the reappearance of rickets – once considered a disease of the industrial poor in 19th-century cities – is the changing ethnic makeup of the population, Pearce explained.

 

The most commonly affected are people of Asian or African descent who live in northern cities. He has examined cases among young Somali speakers who live in east Newcastle. But changing lifestyles are also contributing to lowering vitamin D levels in the general population.

 

"Some people are taking the safe sun message too far," Pearce said. "It's good to have 20 to 30 minutes of exposure to the sun two to three times a week, after which you can put on a hat or sunscreen.

 

"Vitamin D levels in parts of the population are precarious. The average worker nowadays is in a call centre, not out in the field. People tend to stay at home rather than going outside to kick a ball around. They stay at home on computer games."

 

Pearce has written to the Department of Health proposing that vitamin D is added to milk. It is already added as a supplement to artificial baby milk. He has also asked the Royal College of Paediatrics to record cases of rickets but said figures were not being collected.

 

"A more robust approach to statutory food supplementation with vitamin D (for example in milk) is needed in the UK," the paper concludes.

 

Meanwhile, figures obtained by the Tories show the number of patients leaving hospital with malnutrition has hit record levels in the last year. Those affected are primarily elderly people. The NHS figures show that last year 175,000 people were malnourished on entry to hospital but nearly 185,500 were in a similar condition on discharge, meaning more than 10,000 patients were more malnourished after medical treatment.

Edited October 24, 2013 by AVFCforever1991

[coda]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9aqrAngmvE

[AValon]

Hold my hands up on this one. Although, tbf, I think its a symptom of circumstance these days rather than just  a case of labelling parents as 'bad'. We never had anywhere near as bad a diet as a frighteningly proportion of kids do today, but is'nt that as much a casualty of our convenience lifestyle, as out and out neglect? Its always the easy option to throw a readymeal in the old microwave, but its out there.

 

Saying that, my girls have never sat glued to the box or played video games for hours on end. Admittedly, we live in a beautiful part of the country, but they get more fresh air and sun than a little, swim and bodyboard all summer long and never sit still enough to get sunburnt.

 

I just need to stop every now and then, think about what I'm doing and then take the time out of whatever 'schedule' I have to cut the crap out of my kids diet. It can't be that hard?

[Meath_Villan]

I went to school with a rickets ....he wasnt very good at football

[MakemineVanilla]

I think that the Guardian article is more informative and is free from the vexatious accusation of "bad parent". 

 

It is brave enough to actually identify the groups which are at the greatest risk - dark-skinned people living in the lightless north.

 

But it seems Geordies in general are aware of the problem and it explains why they wear so few clothes in winter.

[tonyh29]

NICE will examine whether all children between six months and the age of five should receive the vitamins A, C and D via drops or tablets.

 

Is there actually any evidence to suggest Vitamin tablets work  ?

[StigVillan]

Surely we should just force drip feed kids Sunny D at school lunch times?