St. Louis family goes viral on TikTok, millions help toddler diagnosed with Rickets
“I’ve never heard of rickets before, we know rickets is very rare.”
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Reign Lee, a mother of three kids under the age 3, says her 3-year-old daughter Willow stopped walking earlier this month.
“With her not being mobile, that was a big red flag for me,” said Lee.
As a young mother, she took her questions to TikTok.
“What is going on? Who can I ask? I can ask a million people but at the same time, if I post this video on TikTok, it’s a nice platform, it’s a lot of people on there, nurses, doctors... mothers,” said Lee.
The video blew up in hours, with more than 30 million views to date. The comments are flooded with advice, guidance, and most importantly, a plea to the mother to take Willow to the hospital.
“They said take her to the hospital, they say something is wrong, this is serious, then let’s do it. I took her myself, I was nine months pregnant and I took her myself, and then he told us she was diagnosed with Rickets,” said Lee.
Rickets is a severe Vitamin D deficiency, most commonly seen in children. Symptoms include delayed growth and motor skills as well as muscle weakness.
“Vitamin D deficiency is very common both in children and adults, but rickets is not as common. Rickets is more of a severe form of Vitamin D deficiency,” said Dr. Daniel Bekele with North City Urgent Care.
Dr. Bekele says he hasn’t seen a case of the bone disease in more than 10 years. In most cases, supplements can cure Rickets.
Willow now has a feeding tube to make sure she gets the nutrients she needs, with that and physical therapy, she’s expected to make a full recovery.
“It’s all about what we make it. We even went as far as taping the NG tubes to our noses to make her feel comfortable. I just want my daughter to know this is something she will get through,” said Will Lee, Willow’s father.
With the help of her parents, two sisters, and now, her new family on TikTok.
Copyright 2025 KMOV. All rights reserved.
