Do children with common rickets show signs of autism?
If vitamin D deficiency caused autism, then children with vitamin D deficient rickets would be at greater risk for the disease. To the best of my knowledge, no studies have looked at the psychiatric profiles of children with vitamin D deficient rickets to look for evidence of autism. However, children with rickets are more likely to be hypotonic (flabby muscle tone), display decreased activity, and have developmental motor delays. Hypotonia is common in children with autism, as is decreased activity, and developmental motor delays are the rule.46 47 48 49 Does vitamin D explain autism’s frequent infections? Vitamin D deficiency in childhood is associated with an increased risk of infections so the vitamin D theory of autism predicts autistic children would be more prone to infections. A recent study found that children who went on to develop autism were not prone to increased infection in the first two years of their life but they looked at infection rates before the child was diagnose
