Nutritional rickets - Vitamin D and beyond

•Nutritional rickets can be caused by vitamin D deficiency and/or dietary calcium insufficiency.•A deficiency of either vitamin D or calcium alters the necessary level or intake of the other element to prevent nutritional rickets. Vitamin D deficiency has been considered to be the cause of nutritional rickets for most of the past century. During the past two decades, however, it has become clear that nutritional rickets may be caused by vitamin D deficiency or by dietary insufficiency of calcium. The combined deficiencies of calcium and vitamin D interact, and several other factors are also relevant in the pathogenesis of nutritional rickets.