PESHAWAR, Aug 26: Rickets is on the rise in the province mainly because of a lack of proper food and sunlight for children, paediatricians told Dawn.

“It is a disease of children caused by the lack of good food that makes the bones softer. Once a child falls prey to this disease it affects the body so much so that all the bones, especially in the legs, are deformed and the child is left handicapped for the rest of his life,” Dr Amin Jan Aurakzai, assistant professor at the paediatrics unit of Khyber Teaching Hospital, said.

Another paediatrician said that the poor health of a mother can also cause the disease among their infants. Some of the mothers, suffering from osteomalacia due to inadequate intake of calcium and vitamin D, transmit the ailment to their newborns, he added.

Some of the houses, the paediatrician pointed out, were so small and congested that children did not have sufficient exposure to sunlight thus becoming vulnerable to rickets.

The problem gets deteriorated because the victim suffering from rickets also develops chest infection, the paediatrician said, adding that rickets paved way for other infections.

The doctor said that through breastfeeding a baby can get a substantial supply of vitamin D and added that most of the children developed the disease because they were given artificial milk.

The paediatrician suggested that mothers should breastfeed their babies if they want to save them from being hit by rickets and diarrhoeal diseases.

He said there were stances that many a time the disease hit a child due to genetically problems. The affected children, he pointed out, also suffered from toothache as the lack of calcium also affected teeth. Another factor responsible for causing rickets was thallassemia in which the children developed rickets, he said and added that use of green vegetables by mothers can help prevent the disease.

According to the doctors, 50 per cent of the children being brought to the city hospitals were suffering from rickets.