An apple a day…chronic glossitis in a 4-year-old boy

Summary We report a case of chronic glossitis in a 4-year-old boy due to scurvy.The boy showed up in our department with a patchy depapillated tongue. A detailed dietary history revealed an unbalanced diet without any fruit or vegetable.The biological investigations showed a low serum ascorbic acid. The boy was treated by oral ascorbic acid during 15 days. The glossitis improved within one week and serum levels of vitamin C returned to the normal range. In industrial countries, scurvy became a rare disease in healthy children. However, since a few years, cases are reported in children and teenagers with unbalanced diet coming from economically favoured families.These extreme cases are one of the signs of a more general deterioration of dietary habits in paediatric populations in our societies.This emphasizes the importance of effecti ve nutritional education programs aimed towards both parents and children.