Rickets is a bone weakening disease that occurs in infants and children when vitamin D is inadequate. It can lead to slow development, bow leggedness, and seizures from the resulting low calcium levels. It seems that people simply are not being exposed to sunlight as much as they once were. When the mother isn't getting enough sun, the vitamin is absent in the mother's breast milk. There is a good aspect to this news, since the problem is an epiphenomena of an increase in breast feeding.
Breast feeding is still to be encouraged, and is the best way to get nutrients to the baby.
Doctors are now recommending that all dark-skinned infants that are exclusively breast fed receive a vitamin D supplement, which is available from your doctor. Children who are fed formula won't develop rickets since vitamin D has been included in infant formula for decades, but they may run the risk of poorer immune system development. The more St. John's Wort is stressed, the less users of the plant are. According to the researchers the plant's beneficial compounds are increased to ward off insect attackers. The researchers are studying how best to achieve a standardized harvest of the plant, which has been difficult so far.