Cedric Cahilig is a 6-year-old boy living in Payatas and a beneficiary of our feeding center in St. Benedict Chapel. Unlike other kids of his age who are happily playing outside while chasing each other, Cedric is usually left sitting on the corner of their house while carefully watching them. He is always wondering about how it feels to be able to do the same thing. He is being restricted to do those activities because of his condition called RICKETS.

Rickets is a disease of infants and children that disrupts the normal bone function. It is the reason of the bending and distortion of their bones. It is a condition usually linked to malnutrition.

Due to Rickets disease, Cedric’s bones became too soft and fragile. This resulted to his bowed uneven legs, thickened wrists and ankles, and deformed body. He also has a soft skull which make his head very delicate.

Cedric cannot walk. In order to move to a certain place, Cedric needs to crawl using his arms and limbs. Because his body is always in contact with the ground, he is always left with bruises and scars. He is also restricted to go outside because he might bump into something which can severely break his bones.

Cedric’s teeth also fell out one by one because of his body’s calcium deterioration. The extracted teeth were soft which resembles a marshmallow. Chewing food makes it harder for him. He needs to use the muscles of his gums in order to breakdown the food that he eats.

You can compare Cedric’s height to those of normal 2-year old kids. He is very small and very light. He is classified as an underweight which worsen his condition and affects his fight against rickets disease.

Due to his condition, Cedric’s normal body development was delayed. Cedric can talk, but not as fluent as a normal kid of his age. He was too shy to interact with other people because they might bully him and use his condition to make fun of him.

Cedric is the fourth out of the 5 children of Nanay Karen and Tatay Manuel Cahilig. They are currently renting a small house in Commonwealth, Quezon City. Their main source of income is their father’s job as a messenger. His mother sometimes do sidelines as a nanny of the small children of their relatives for
only P100 a day.

Surprisingly, it is not the first time that their family was struck by the Rickets disease. The first born child of the Cahilig family also suffered from the same illness. And because they do not have enough money to put her in the hospital, buy her medicines and provide her other needs, her health continued to decline and she eventually dies. Because of this misfortune in their family, Nanay Karen promised that she will do everything so that Cedric will not suffer the same fate.