After having a child, there are often aunts and uncles around, urging you to give your child calcium supplements:
“My baby has bow legs. Is it due to calcium deficiency? Should I get some supplement calcium?”
“Your baby has bald spots on the back of his head. Is he not absorbing calcium?”
“Is he sleeping restlessly and sweating a lot? Why don’t I give him calcium supplements right away?”
“Baby still hasn’t grown teeth? It must be calcium deficiency!”
……
As a new mother, how could I not be anxious when I heard someone say that? So, I rushed to the Internet to buy all kinds of supplement calcium, and tried them one by one to see which one worked best for my baby.
You think you are helping your baby by supplementing calcium, but you don’t realize that this is really messing around!
This is not how you supplement calcium for your baby! And calcium cannot be supplemented randomly. Excessive calcium supplementation will seriously affect the bioavailability of iron, zinc, magnesium, and phosphorus, which is not conducive to the baby’s health.
If you want to know whether your child needs calcium supplements, and if you want to know how to ensure your child’s calcium deficiency and good health, please read the following 7 supplement calcium suggestions patiently.
1. There is no need to rush to supplement calcium as soon as the baby is born
I often receive questions from mothers: How to supplement calcium for a 48-day-old baby? How to supplement calcium for a 3-month-old baby?
I just want to tell you that there is no need to supplement calcium so early, your baby is not calcium deficient!
Generally speaking, full-term healthy infants and young children do not need additional supplement calcium.
Article 4 of the 2016 edition of the ” Dietary Guidelines ” on breastfeeding guidelines for infants aged 0 to 6 months states: Vitamin D supplementation should begin within a few days after birth, and no calcium supplementation is needed.
2. These symptoms of babies are not necessarily manifestations of calcium deficiency
Why do Chinese parents always think their children are calcium deficient? Because whenever a child has problems such as bald spots on the back of the head, bow legs, restless sleep, late teething, etc., people around them will tell you, “This is because of calcium deficiency!”
However, these problems are most likely not related to “calcium deficiency”.
Occipital baldness:
Babies’ physiological sweating makes their scalp itchy, so they often rub their heads, which over time can lead to baldness on the back of their heads. Therefore, baldness on the back of the head is a normal physiological phenomenon and has little to do with calcium deficiency!
Restless sleep:
There are many reasons why babies sleep restlessly, such as being hungry, urinating, defecating, feeling uncomfortable, having night terrors, etc. In short, it has little to do with calcium deficiency.
Excessive sweating:
It’s normal for babies to sweat more than adults. If they sweat too much, instead of worrying about calcium deficiency, you should first check if they are suffering from heatstroke!
Not growing tall:
Height is related to genetics and nutrition, not calcium deficiency. Although advertisements often say that children need calcium supplements to grow taller, calcium supplements alone are really useless. The most important thing is balanced nutrition and regular exercise.
Delayed teething:
This mainly depends on the growth of each baby. Calcium deficiency or not has no effect on it at all.
O-shaped legs:
Some parents, seeing their baby’s bow legs, assume they must be suffering from calcium deficiency or rickets . This isn’t entirely accurate. Many healthy babies with no calcium deficiency also have bow legs. This is because babies’ bones aren’t yet strong enough to support their weight, resulting in a slightly bowed appearance. As children grow older, their muscles and bones become stronger, and their legs naturally straighten.
In short, don’t blame all problems on calcium deficiency, and don’t think that calcium supplementation can solve all of your baby’s health problems.
3. Breastfeeding babies are more deficient in calcium than in calcium
Mothers often ask, which calcium tablet is easier to absorb?
In fact, the key to whether the baby can absorb calcium is not how good the calcium tablets are, but whether the baby has enough vitamin D in the body. Vitamin D can promote calcium absorption in the baby’s body.
What kind of babies need vitamin D supplements? Generally, breastfed babies, because the vitamin D content in breast milk is relatively low.
Breastfed infants should receive 400 IU of vitamin D daily ;
Formula-fed infants do not need additional vitamin D supplementation because the formula already contains sufficient vitamin D.
For mixed-fed babies, the amount of formula powder they eat is related to the amount of vitamin D. Generally, 800-900 ml/day of formula powder can contain 400 IU of vitamin D. Mothers can calculate how much vitamin D their baby needs to supplement based on the amount of formula milk they feed.
4. Calcium supplementation and milk drinking are the most important thing before the age of one.
No need for calcium supplements for 6 months? What about after 6 months? Should I eat something special? Or take some calcium supplements?
In fact, babies don’t need extra calcium supplements at this time!
Because babies under one year old do not have a very high demand for calcium, as long as they add complementary foods reasonably and drink milk regularly every day, drinking 600 ml of breast milk or formula milk is more than enough to provide the calcium needed by children of this age.
So, don’t spend all day thinking about what brand of calcium preparation to buy for your child . The important thing is to control your child’s milk intake.
5. Milk and dairy products are always the best source of calcium
Before the age of one, breastfeeding is a serious matter for babies. But after one year old, many mothers no longer take breastfeeding seriously.
Because some families do not have the habit of drinking milk, when the baby is one year old and can gradually eat like adults, they rarely give the baby milk.
Mothers who are always calling for calcium supplementation for their babies should know that milk and dairy products are always the best source of calcium for babies.
Children between the ages of two and pre-puberty need 500 to 800 mg of calcium daily. Generally speaking, 1.5 to 2 cups of milk per day, along with a healthy diet, is considered sufficient for calcium. Maintaining a milk-drinking habit after the age of one year will help you avoid calcium deficiency.
6. Don’t use calcium tablets instead of a healthy diet
Almost all advertisements tell you: You are calcium deficient, take calcium tablets quickly.
However, did you know? The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend the use of calcium supplements (such as calcium tablets) for healthy children .
First of all, the bioavailability of calcium supplementation using this method is very low. Giving children calcium-rich foods seems to be more effective.
Secondly, this calcium supplement is not conducive to the development of good eating habits. Not allowing children to eat properly and take in the right nutrients, but instead relying on health supplements, is not conducive to cultivating children to establish healthy and balanced eating habits.
7. Get more sun exposure to supplement calcium, but don’t do it randomly!
When it comes to calcium supplementation, there must be someone around you who suggests that you let your children get more sun exposure to supplement calcium.
Sun exposure helps babies get vitamin D and promotes calcium absorption. However, sunlight also contains strong ultraviolet rays. Not only can this easily cause problems for a baby’s delicate skin, but studies have also shown that childhood sunburns can increase a baby’s risk of developing serious skin cancer later in life .
So taking your baby to the sun is not just about hanging out downstairs. Before going out, you must take sun protection measures for your baby and control the length of time they are in the sun.
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