Kids and Calcium: Is Your Child at Risk for Osteoporosis?

The USDA food guide pyramid for children recommends two servings a day from the milk group for children ages two to six; children one to three years old require 500 mg of calcium daily, while children four to eight require 800 mg. Rudolph suggests that parents look at labels on foods, keeping in mind that calcium intakes on most labels are indicated as a percentage of an RDA (recommended daily allowance) value of 1000 mg. As an example, if a food has 25 percent of the RDA of calcium, it has 250 mg of calcium or half of the RDA for a toddler.