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

In this article:
The Bone Bank
How Much Is Enough?
Sources of Calcium
Getting Calcium Into Your Child's Diet

Learn how calcium consumption can ward off osteoporosis, how much calcium kids need, and tasty ways to get your calcium into your children.

Drink your milk. You can probably hear your own mother saying those words when you didn't drink what she thought was enough. And now that you're a parent, you know that milk equals calcium, and calcium equals strong bones—but have you ever considered the long-term effects on your child's health if he or she isn't getting enough calcium? And how much is enough, anyway?

The Bone Bank

"Children need calcium for adequate bone development and growth," says Kristen Rudolph, a pediatric dietitian at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. "If children don't get enough calcium and their bone density is poor, they can get osteoporosis later in life." Osteoporosis is a complex disorder in which bones become so fragile they are susceptible to breaks with minimal trauma. And while the most important time for children to get adequate calcium is between ages 11 and 24, Rudolph says it is crucial that parents establish healthy eating habits—to include calcium—from toddlerhood. "As kids get into adolescent years one of the first things to go is dairy products, for various reasons—drinking milk isn't perceived as cool, or girls are trying to diet and give up milk—and kids will actually drink a lot sodas which inhibits the growth of calcium," says Rudolph. "Parents need to start children on calcium early on."

Rudolph has the support of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) which says, "Maintaining adequate calcium intake during childhood is necessary for the development of a maximal peak bone mass. Increasing peak bone mass may be an important way to reduce the risk of osteoporosis in later adulthood."

How Much Is Enough?

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.