Vitamin D needed to fight comeback of childhood rickets

For most people, our standard diet provides all the necessary vitamins we need. However, childhood vitamin D deficiency in the UK – something that should be a headline from the distant past – has made a comeback.

And with that has come a rise in cases of rickets, a disease in which the bones become soft, weak and can become deformed without essential calcium. Sally Davies, England’s chief medical officer, has called for all children under five (not just those from low-income families) to be offered free supplements.