Vitamin D deficiency leads to which skeletal disease in children?

• A. Osteomalacia
• B. Osteopetrosis
• C. Rickets
• D. Scurvy

Answer: (C)

Lack of vitamin D disrupts calcium and phosphate absorption, so bones in growing children don’t mineralize properly at the growth plates. This defective mineralization produces widening and irregularity at the physes, along with deformities like bowed legs and other growth-related skeletal changes—classic signs of rickets. Osteomalacia is the adult version of the same mineralization problem, so it doesn’t cause the growth-plate–driven deformities seen in children. Osteopetrosis involves unusually dense bones from faulty bone resorption, not vitamin D deficiency. Scurvy results from vitamin C deficiency and affects collagen in bone, leading to different bone pain and radiographic findings. So the pediatric skeletal disease caused by vitamin D deficiency is rickets.