In recent years, calcium supplements can be found everywhere, and almost all pharmacies and food stores have calcium counters. Various brands of tablets, injections, punches, chewables, oral solutions, etc. are available.
Media advertisements are launched to promote all-round, and movie stars have appeared to promote calcium, making consumers dazzled and confused. This social phenomenon has also attracted the attention of child nutrition experts. After academic discussions based on research, experts agreed that calcium supplementation for children is necessary, but it should be scientific and reasonable.
The truth: calcium supplementation is not more than feeding calcium tablets
When taking calcium tablets should be appropriate oral vitamin D preparations such as cod liver oil, or let the child more sunshine, otherwise, is to eat more calcium tablets, the child will still be calcium deficient.
Truth 2: Calcium supplementation does not help much with bone healing
Usually, children with fractures are not deficient in calcium and therefore do not need calcium supplements. Because of the reduced activity of children with fractures, the reabsorption of calcium by the kidney tubules increases, and the use of calcium by the bones is inhibited instead. If a large amount of calcium is supplemented blindly for a long time, it will increase the risk of diseases such as digestive and urinary tract stones.
Truth 3: Calcium tablets mixed in milk are equal to not eating
Calcium tablets mixed with food can only absorb 20% of the calcium. The correct way is to feed calcium tablets to your child 1 to 2 hours after breastfeeding.
Truth 4: Don’t forget to supplement the mother with the child
If the calcium content in the mother’s diet is insufficient, not only will the mother suffer from numbness and cramps in the calves, but the newborn may also suffer from congenital rickets.
Truth 5: It is not necessary to buy calcium supplements
Emphasize that children must also take calcium supplements? In fact, calcium supplements for children should also be based on dietary supplements.
The truth is that calcium supplements do not contain as much vitamin D as possible.
Calcium supplements are preferred to products containing vitamin D? The CCA reminds consumers to be cautious of taking a large number of calcium supplements with vitamin D. Overdosing can produce cumulative poisoning.
The truth is seven: the more expensive calcium products may not be more effective
The more expensive calcium products sold, the higher the calcium content, the higher the absorption rate, and the better the effect. Some calcium supplements claim “good deposition, fast absorption”, some claim “small particles”, and even launched “atomic calcium”, “nano-calcium”, so that people think that the smaller the calcium, the easier to absorb. In fact, the body’s absorption rate of calcium and calcium products have nothing to do with the size of the particles. It depends on whether it has biological activity.
Truth 8: A simple test with an instrument cannot determine whether you are deficient in calcium
Can a simple test with a device at the mall or pharmacy determine if you are deficient in calcium? In fact, the “single photon bone density tester” placed in these places can only measure the ulna and radius of the human arm, and the main danger of calcium loss in the human body is to cause calcium deficiency in the lumbar spine and hip bone, so this test is not accurate.
The truth is nine: not everyone needs calcium supplements
There is an overwhelming advertising campaign to promote calcium deficiency for all people, and people follow the advertisement to take calcium supplements. In fact, the current daily calcium intake of Chinese residents is 400 mg, and the recommended daily calcium intake of 800 mg announced by the Nutrition Society, so the calcium intake level is indeed relatively low. But on the other hand, the calcium intake of Chinese residents varies greatly from region to region, and not everyone is deficient in calcium.
Truth 10: Calcium supplementation for infants should be more cautious
Too much calcium can easily cause loss of appetite and affect the absorption of other nutrients in the intestine, leading to malnutrition. And most of the liquid calcium preparations given to infants are very sweet, and after being used to drinking such things, babies are certainly not willing to drink plain water. Your baby not drinking water may be caused by the same reason.
A very direct and common phenomenon of calcium supplementation is that it tends to cause constipation in babies. The reason why artificially fed babies are more likely to be constipated is because the proportion of calcium in formula is much higher than in breast milk, but it is not fully utilized, and in the case of insufficient hydration, too much calcium makes the stool harder and causes difficulty in defecation. In addition, although the amount of calcium in breast milk is not as much as milk, but because the ratio of calcium and phosphorus in human milk is 2:1, easy to absorb; while milk contains calcium and phosphorus, but phosphorus is too high, poor absorption, so the incidence of rickets in milk-fed children is higher than breast-fed children.