Want your child to have strong bones? Here’s what you should do

Childhood is a critical time for building healthy bones. Both the size and strength increase significantly during this period. During adolescence, approximately half of our bone mass is accumulated. While genetics play a majority role in an individual’s bone mass, factors like nutrition and fitness also contribute to achieving optimal bone strength. Unlike youngsters, adults cannot replace bone tissue as quickly as they lose it. So, it is crucial for you to make to take the right steps at the right time to make sure that your kids grow up with strong and healthy bones. Here is what you can do.  

Ensure a calcium and protein-rich diet  
Between the age of 9 and 18 years, children have a higher requirement of protein and calcium in their diets. These can easily be fulfilled by adequate consumption of milk and other dairy products. Ensure that your child is keeping up with the required amount of calcium in their diet for healthy bones. In order to ensure the right intake of calcium and protein, you can include these in your child’s meals apart from milk and dairy products: Leafy green veggies, lean meat and soya bean.   

Encourage kids to go out in the sun  
Sun exposure triggers Vitamin-D production in our bodies. The healthiest way for children to fulfil their vitamin-D requirements is to go out in the sun early in the morning. Encourage them to spend more time participating in sports and outdoor physical activities and less time indoors in front of their computers or televisions. Add vitamin-D rich foods like egg yolks, mushrooms, fatty fish, orange juice, etc to their plates. 

Fill their plates with Vitamin K and magnesium  
These two nutrients are also helpful in building bone mass. Magnesium can be found in foods like almonds, spinach, black beans, oats, peanut butter, avocado and potato. On the other hand, to fulfil the vitamin-K requirement, consider adding leafy green vegetables like cabbage and spinach to your children’s meals. 

Motivate your child to exercise   
Just like nutrition, physical activity is also important to enhance bone development in children. Young people who exercise regularly show a significant increase in bone mass, finds a growing body of research. Regular weight-bearing exercise stimulates the growth of bones. Exercises like running, hiking, dancing, tennis, gymnastics, basketball, volleyball, soccer etc. are recommended for bone development than activities like swimming and cycling which benefit cardiovascular health.