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http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/child-abuse-or-vitamin-d-deficiency-rickets.shtml

The Vitamin D Newsletter


Child Abuse or Rickets
June 13, 2009

This is a periodic newsletter from the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit
trying to end the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. If you are not
subscribed, you can do so on the
website<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45994349/77824903/112685/0/>. If
you want to unsubscribe, go to the end of this newsletter.

This newsletter is not copyrighted. Please reproduce it, post it on Internet
sites, and forward it to your friends and family. Dana Clark, our underpaid
but superb webmaster, will post this newsletter on the
website.<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45994349/77824903/112686/0/>

"By the streams of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion."
(Psalms 137:1)

*Dear Dr. Cannell:*

I am writing to ask your help because I think my problem has something to do
with Vitamin D. Six months ago, Marissa, who is now one-year-old, developed
a painless bump on her arm. I watch her closely; I know she did not fall;
she was only six months at the time. In the emergency room they found a
broken bone in her arm and then x-rayed her entire body and found two more
broken bones, but these other two places were not swollen and Marissa did
not cry when the doctor pushed on the area.

Well, a child abuse expert was called in and we were accused of abuse and
they took our baby away, saying we had beaten her. I can’t forget Marissa
screaming when they tore her out of my arms. We were shocked. We could never
do such a thing. Even though they could not find any evidence of abuse
except these broken bones, the DA tells me if I don’t plead guilty and
testify against my husband and say he did it, I will be prosecuted as well
and never see my baby again. Our lawyer says I can be forced to testify
against my husband in child abuse but he would never hurt Marissa. I don’t
know what to do. My husband is ready to plead guilty to save our baby from
foster care but I don’t think I can let him do that.

I have learned of other African American parents in the same
situation. Neither of us would ever abuse our child, it took seven years of
trying and then infertility treatment to have her. The reason I am writing
is because I have read about cases of rickets where unexplained fractures
are common, especially in African Americans like us, that are being called
child abuse. I breast fed Marissa but I now know that breast milk doesn’t
have enough Vitamin D. We should have given it to her but our pediatrician
never said anything about it and La Leche league says breast milk is all
infants need.

When we learned Vitamin D may be involved, I asked my doctor to test me and
my level was 5 at first. He prescribed Drisdol and now it is 18 after taking
50,000 IU per week for two months. When our lawyer brought up rickets and
Vitamin D deficiency the DA had Marissa x-rayed for rickets and tested for
Vitamin D; her x-rays were normal and her blood level is now 21, but the
child abuse doctors never tested her for Vitamin D when they first took her
away from us and she had been on 400 IU formula in foster care for five
months when they finally tested her.

We had another radiologist look at the original x-rays and compare them to
her current ones. He said it looked like rickets and he said her bones look
much better now at the growth areas. However, when he found out it was a
child abuse case he said he would not get involved.

From your website, I learned breast-feeding mothers have to take 6,000 IU a
day to get enough Vitamin D in breast milk. Marissa never went in the sun;
our pediatrician said babies should never go in the sun. I don’t know what
to do. I know you used to testify in child abuse cases, will you help us? We
can pay.

Kathryn

Boston, MA

*Dear Kathryn:*

No, I won’t testify. The American legal system, when it comes to child abuse
allegations, is no Zion. My years testifying in child abuse allegations
involved the “memory
wars<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45994349/77824903/112687/0/>,”
and those wars are over, won by plaintiff attorneys suing psychiatrists,
often with the help of my testimony. However, I will put you in touch with a
pediatric radiologist who may be able to help.

My interest in child abuse cases started with the McMartin preschool
case<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45994349/77824903/112688/0/>.
(I immediately thought the McMartins and Buckeys all totally innocent as I
recognized the most fatal of the psychiatric disorders, hysteria, in those
prosecuting them. I still remember Ray Buckey looking into the camera, with
panic-stricken media all around him, saying, “This could happen to you.”) My
involvement in such cases ended with the Archdiocese of Boston
case<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45994349/77824903/112689/0/>
. (I thought the priest I was hired to defend guilty.)

My cases centered on recovered memory therapy, especially multiple
personality disorder (MPD), a now discarded and discredited psychiatric
diagnosis that destroyed thousands of innocent American families. Of note,
during my 15 years of work in the field, every MPD patient I saw had
excellent mental health insurance coverage. That is, the absence of mental
health insurance apparently protects one from contracting multiple
personality disorder.

Cannell J, Hudson JI, Pope HG Jr. Standards for informed consent in
recovered memory therapy. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law.
2001;29(2):138-47.<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45994349/77824903/112690/0/>

The issues you raise about Vitamin D deficiency being misdiagnosed as child
physical abuse are so common they were recently the topic of four papers in
*Pediatric Radiology*. First, Drs. Kathy Keller and Patrick Barnes, both
pediatric radiologists, published four cases reports. The course of each
child was similar. Concerned parents took their child to the doctor for leg
bumps, well baby checks, or even the flu. X-rays showed multiple skeletal
fractures that were asymptomatic. No mention of bruises, skin abrasions,
retinal hemorrhages, parental drug abuse, parental sociopathy, nor evidence
the child was frightened of their parents. The children had been seen
previously by physicians, nurses, lactation consultants, day-care workers,
audiologists, family and friends with no suspicions of abuse. Such parents
often have a reputation of being the most protective and concerned parents
on the block. Drs. Keller and Barnes thought all four children had rickets.

Keller KA, Barnes PD. Rickets vs. abuse: a national and international
epidemic. Pediatr Radiol. 2008
Nov;38(11):1210-6.<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45994349/77824903/112691/0/>

The key here is the history as much as x-rays. These are often black
children, living above latitude 35 degrees, usually breastfeeding without
Vitamin D supplementation, often born in the late winter or early
spring. The key on exam is that the fractures are painless, unlike traumatic
fractures, and there are no bruises. A common finding in the neonatal
medical record is craniotabes, or softening of the skull. About 20% of
“normal” newborns have soft bones as evidence by craniotabes; of course
these newborns are not normal, they are simply the newest additions to the
Vitamin D deficiency pandemic.

Yorifuji J, et al. Craniotabes in normal newborns: the earliest sign of
subclinical vitamin D deficiency. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008
May;93(5):1784-8.<http://list.netatlantic.com/t/45994349/77824903/112041/0/>

Unfortunately, as 25(OH)D levels are not routinely measured on American
newborns, we do not recognize the multitude of afflicted infants, and the
infants seldom get Vitamin D, unless they are on formula. Even if they are
on formula, 12 months later they are weaned on the empty calories of
“natural fruit juice,” instead of “evil cow’s milk,” so the deficiency is
just delayed by the Vitamin D formula, not prevented. That is why so many
cases of autism present around 12-18 months; it is not the presence of
vaccinations but the disappearance of Vitamin D; the two just happen to
co-occur.

Kathryn, as far as your pediatrician telling you babies should never go in
the sun, he is just following the guidelines of the American Academy of
Pediatrics (AAP). In 1999, the AAP advised mothers to always keep infants
out of direct sunlight, use sun protective clothes, sunblock, and make sure
children’s activities in general minimize sunlight exposure. Furthermore,
quite inexplicably, the AAP scientists claimed there was “no evidence” such
an unprecedented and radical bit of advice would affect vitamin D levels.
(p. 330)

             ***********************************************

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