Il rachitismo in Piemonte: una sorveglianza negli Ospedali

In recent years, the number of children with nutritional rickets has increased in industrialized countries. The vast majority of these cases were born from immigrants and/or non-Caucasians. We conducted a retrospective study on all children discharged from the paediatric wards with diagnosis of rickets in 2000-2002 in Piedmont. Ninety-nine children were traced: 95% were either sons of immigrated parents or of non-Caucasians, 97% were breastfed and none received vitamin D supplementation during the first year of life. We suggest that all newborns of immigrant/non-Caucasian couples should receive vitamin D prophylaxis (as stated from the Italian National Health System) and that its compliance during the first year of life should be closely monitored. In addition we recommend that oral vitamin D supplementation is extended to pregnant immigrant women to increase their vitamin D intake and to expand fetus and newborn reserves.