There are children who fall from bicycles and swings, go in for professional sports and are not injured, bruises and abrasions do not count. And there are children for whom it is enough to hit very slightly or lose their balance, and they need to apply another plaster cast. Often the cause of increased fragility of children's bones is an ailment such as osteoporosis. In this material, we will tell you in more detail how to recognize it and how to treat it, as well as how to prevent the development of this pathology.
What it is?
Osteoporosis is a decrease in bone density. If an insufficient amount of calcium is deposited in the bones of the child, metabolism is disturbed, the bone becomes more porous, more fragile. Even a minor injury can cause a fracture. The more pronounced violations of mineralization, the more severe can be traumatic fractures of bones and vertebrae.
The disease belongs to the category of bone tissue diseases. It is widespread in adults and the elderly. But in children, it is mainly primary, it can develop without apparent external reasons.
A child of any age can get sick - both in a year and at 2 years old, but most often, according to medical statistics, children from 8-10 to 14-16 years old suffer from osteoporosis. Doctors tend to see this as an effect on bone metabolism of hormones that are activated during puberty and shortly before it. Girls get sick more often than boys.
For a long time, osteoporosis was detected already when the fracture occurred. Today, medicine has a variety of diagnostic methods to determine the state of decreasing bone mineralization even before serious injury occurs.
Causes of occurrence
Rarely enough, osteoporosis is congenital. It is caused by genetic reasons, hereditary features of bone structure. A child in whose family older relatives often have fractures is more likely to have a predisposition to osteoporosis or pre-existing problems with bone metabolism.
Intrauterine factors can affect the appearance of osteoporosis at an early age - the bad habits of a pregnant woman during gestation, the state of fetal hypoxia, diseases of the pregnant woman and various pathologies of the pregnancy itself. Children born from multiple pregnancies, as well as premature and low birth weight babies are prone to osteoporosis. The cause of osteoporosis in a child under 3-5 years old can be a congenital disorder of mineral metabolism and metabolism.
Deficiency of vitamin D in the first year of life, the presence of diagnosed and confirmed rickets are frequent and natural reasons for the development of osteoporosis in a child. Some pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract, in which calcium absorption is impaired, can also serve as a starting mechanism for a violation of bone mineral density.
Juvenile (adolescent) osteoporosis can occur as a result of malnutrition, bad habits, systemic diseases, low physical activity, kidney and liver diseases.
Symptoms
The difficulty of osteoporosis is the almost complete absence of symptoms. Pain usually appears even when the structure of the bone tissue is seriously destroyed.
Parents and doctors may suspect this ailment in a child for a number of characteristic and general signs:
- fractures and cracks in bone tissue occur often, for injury, a small effect on the bone is enough;
- curvature of the spine, change in posture, curvature of the limbs;
- insufficient growth rates (a child with osteoporosis always grows much slower than his peers);
- excessive growth rates (children who grow up too quickly are also at risk of developing osteoporosis);
- the presence of asymmetric skin folds on the body;
- tendency to caries;
- systematic headache, complaints of fatigue;
- dry skin, brittle nails and weak hair;
- tendency to seizures.
If such symptoms are observed, parents should definitely visit a pediatrician and consult with him. Only a full range of laboratory and instrumental studies will help to establish whether there is ground for unrest and anxiety.
Diagnostics
Radiography helps to identify changes in bone tissue. It shows foci of bone thinning and suggests osteoporosis. But to establish the appropriate diagnosis, one X-ray is not enough. We need densitometry data - only this study allows us to establish with great accuracy the fact of a decrease in bone mineral density.
Densitometry is performed using a special apparatus installed in a separate room. The study is considered safe and painless. Either an ultrasound or an X-ray method, the doctor makes a "picture" of the bones, and a special program in the machine calculates the bone density. As a result, the doctor can say for sure whether there is a violation of mineralization, and how much it is expressed.
A biochemical blood test complements the diagnostic picture, which shows the quantitative content of calcium and other minerals in the blood plasma.
Treatment
Most cases of acquired childhood osteoporosis are successfully treated. With congenital forms, everything is somewhat more complicated, but they are not considered a sentence. It is accepted to treat the disease in a complex way with the use of physiotherapy, gymnastics, nutritional correction and medications.
From medicines, pain relievers are prescribed if bone thinning in children is already manifested by pain. Most often, preference is given to anti-inflammatory drugs with anesthetic effect, for example, "Ibuprofen".
It is considered mandatory to take calcium and vitamin D3 preparations, the doctor calculates the exact dosage based on the patient's age and the degree of mineralization disorder.
In severe cases, hormone therapy is recommended, aimed at the formation of new bone tissue, but due to the fact that hormones are used potent, modern doctors resort to such a prescription extremely rarely, when there is no other way to correct the disorders or osteoporosis continues to progress, despite therapeutic measures.
The child is assigned a diet with a predominance of protein foods and foods fortified with calcium and phosphorus. Dairy and fermented milk products, fish, meat, fresh herbs, eggs, peas and sprouted cereals are definitely recommended.
Gymnastics and physical therapy are recommended after the bone tissue has already slightly recovered with medication. Experts recommend practicing exclusively in the exercise therapy office under the supervision of a doctor, because exercises performed incorrectly at home can cause injury. After 2-3 courses of exercise therapy in the polyclinic, parents will be able to work with the child on their own.
Adolescents with osteoporosis are advised to wear a special orthopedic corset, since their disease is more intense, even successful treatment does not guarantee that posture will not continue to deviate from the norm.
Consequences and forecasts
The exact mechanisms of the development of osteoporosis in childhood are currently poorly understood, and there are insufficient data to assert that the prognosis is favorable. Sometimes doctors are confronted with unexplained osteoporosis in children, which gets worse despite the best efforts of doctors and parents. In such cases, the prognosis is classified as doubtful, the risk of disability as a result of severe spinal or bone injury is high.
Minor deviations in mineral density, diagnosed in time, can be corrected until complete recovery. True, it will take a lot of recovery time: treatment cannot be considered quick, sometimes it lasts for years.
Prevention
Osteoporosis prevention should be done even during pregnancy - follow the doctor's recommendations, do not smoke or take alcoholic beverages, and monitor nutritional balance. After giving birth, it is important to provide the baby with enough vitamin D to avoid rickets. The child needs to be given mandatory vaccinations, which are designed to protect against diseases, the complications of which can be osteoporosis.
The child's nutrition must be complete and sufficient, it must meet the needs of the growing body in calcium and phosphorus. It is forbidden to unauthorized prescription of diuretics to a child and their prolonged use, this often leads to a critical decrease in the level of calcium, which is washed out in the urine.
To prevent problems with bone tissue from childhood, you need to harden and strengthen the musculoskeletal skeleton, teach the child to play in the open air, to play sports.
Long-term sitting at the computer or in front of the TV does not contribute to the formation of healthy bones and normal metabolism, including minerals.
For more information on why children and adolescents develop osteoporosis, see the next video.
