Metabolic Bone Disorders: Diagnosis & Treatment in Children

For children who suffer from complications involving a bone disorder, the impact can lead to abnormal growth and development. When the complications of bone development are genetically based, your child may find the treatment for the abnormal growth and development is quite limited.

Metabolic bone disorders are a leading impairment of child growth and development. While most complications are, indeed, genetic in origin, some children experience metabolic bone disorders in response to vitamin deficiencies. If your child is diagnosed with a bone disease complication, you can expect there will be many years of medical management aimed at resolving the underlying bone disease complication and managing the side effects.

To diagnose a metabolic bone disease, your child's pediatrician will want to order a variety of diagnostic studies. Testing creatinine levels, calcium, phosphate, albumin, and magnesium are all important and should be done through blood work as well as urine testing. In addition to laboratory work, your child should undergo a series of radiographic examinations, including x-rays and bone density screening. Genetic screening may also be necessary.

When your child is confirmed as suffering from a metabolic bone disease, the condition will generally be classified as either that involving bone matrix, known as osteoporoses, or that involving bone mineral levels, known as osteomalacias. The underlying diagnosis can be acquired or genetic and will determine the course of treatment your child will require for the metabolic bone disorder complication.

As with any complication involving your child's growth and development, it is important to address the underlying cause and origin. While your inclination may be to treat with additional vitamin D and calcium, so as to improve bone health, you may find your child's complication if far too complex with these simple remedies. In fact, because many metabolic bone disorders are genetically based, your child's pediatrician will need to design a program that works to manage the symptoms and progression of the disorder.

Once you've confirmed your child's treatment plan and diagnosis, it is important to also consider the issues that may affect growth and development. Accessing the services of a physical therapy, orthopedic physician as well as specialists in orthotics and other walking devices, may be important to your child's development and progression through treatment and recovery of the bone disease. In other words, using a multi-disciplinary approach is important to your child's overall well being when faced with a metabolic bone disease. The first step, however, is in the confirmation of the diagnosis and the cause and origin.