There are many bone diseases that can affect children. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, bone is a living tissue that remodels itself constantly throughout a person's life, and during a person's childhood and teenage years, her body builds new bone quicker than it removes old bone. The Merck Manuals Online Medical Library states that many childhood bone disorders are caused by changes in a child's musculoskeletal system. Some disorders, however, may be inherited or arise for no particular reason.
Craniosynostosis
Craniosynostosis is a bone disease that affects children. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, or NINDS, craniosynostosis is a birth defect of the brain that involves the premature fusion of one or more cranial sutures or the fibrous joints between skull bones. NINDS reports that closure of just one cranial suture is most common, and that premature fusion of the sutures impairs brain growth in the area of fusion and promotes brain growth in other areas of the skull where the cranial sutures remain open.
MayoClinic.com states that common signs and symptoms associated with craniosynostosis include the following: a misshapen skull, a soft spot on the top of the skull, blunted head growth as a child develops, the presence of a raised, hard ridge along the involved sutures and increased intracranial pressure or pressure within the skull.
McCune-Albright Syndrome
McCune-Albright syndrome is a bone-related disease that affects children. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, or NICHD, states that McCune-Albright syndrome is a disease that affects a child's bones, skin and endocrine system. It is caused by a random gene mutation in the womb. McCune-Albright syndrome is not inherited and cannot be passed to future generations. According to the NICHD, common bone-related symptoms associated with McCune-Albright syndrome range in severity and include polyostotic fibrous dysplasia and dysplasia that causes abnormal development of the skull and upper jaw bones. Polyostotic fibrous dysplasia is the substitution of normal bone with softer, fibrous tissue; when this occurs in weight-bearing bones, it increases the likelihood of limping, deformity and fractures. Skull and upper jaw dysplasia causes the affected bones to grow unevenly.
Osteomyelitis
Osteomyelitis is a bone disease that affects children. According to the Cleveland Clinic, osteomyelitis is an infection in the bone that can be caused by many factors, including microbial agents, an open fracture, an infection elsewhere in the body that spreads to the bones, infection due to minor trauma and blood clots, and a chronic open wound or soft tissue infection that reaches the bone's surface. The Cleveland Clinic states that osteomyelitis affects about two in 10,000 people; if left unchecked, osteomyelitis can unfavorably alter blood supply to the involved bone and cause bone tissue death or osteonecrosis.
Osteomyelitis can affect both adults and children. In children, osteomyelitis typically affects the ends of long bones or the bones of the limbs, including the thigh bone, arm bone and shin bone.
