1. Mothers initially determine whether their children are calcium deficient through diet
For the child, the latest view should be: if the mother is not calcium deficient during pregnancy (pregnancy food), or that he has been supplemented with calcium, the child is born and there are no signs and symptoms of calcium deficiency. We then focus on the food he eats, whether it is breast milk or formula or after the addition of complementary foods (with rice flour or other foods), we can calculate whether the calcium inside the food is sufficient.
According to the standard recommendations of the Chinese Society of Nutrition (nutritional food), for a small baby from zero to six months, if his daily intake of calcium is enough 300 mg, children from seven to twelve months of age have a daily intake of 400 mg. For children aged one to four years, a daily intake of 600 mg is sufficient to meet the calcium needs of the child. So if the mother is exclusively breastfeeding and the mother is not deficient in calcium, she can not supplement. If you have to baby is eating formula. Under one year old eat in about eight hundred milliliters, should also be enough. If this child is half a year old after adding supplementary food, in addition to eating formula milk, but also add rice flour, rice flour inside the calcium than milk. There is no need to add more. Vitamin D should not be deficient either. In this case, there is no need to supplement with drugs.
In summer, choose two hours of outdoor activities, and at the same time to avoid exposure to the sun, you can choose to go out before 10:00 am and after 4:00 pm. This will allow your child to have a chance to receive ultraviolet light and produce enough active vitamin D in the body, but also to achieve the purpose of calcium supplementation.
2, if the calcium content in the diet is not enough, the child can have what calcium deficiency performance
(1) Often manifested as excessive sweating, sweating has nothing to do with temperature, especially after sleeping head sweating, so that the child’s head constantly rubbing the pillow, long after the cranium can be seen occipital bald circle.
(2) Mental irritability, disinterest in the surrounding environment, sometimes parents find that the child is not as active as before.
(3) Night terrors. The child often wakes up suddenly at night and cries a lot. This is because calcium is involved in the transmission of nerve impulses, muscle stress, blood clotting and other activities, and has the effect of calming and relieving insomnia. Calcium-deficient children often show irritability and fidgeting during the day when they are awake, and they do not easily fall asleep at night, sweating and night sweats, and they often wake up suddenly because of a little sound and cry more than once.
(4) After the age of 1 year, children are late in teething, and some children are still not teething at the age of 1.5 years, and their teeth are not in order. If children lack calcium during dental development, their teeth will be unevenly arranged or not aligned, and their bite will not fit properly.
(5) Delayed closure of the front chimney door, often not closed after 1.5 years of age.
(6) Anorexia and partiality. Calcium controls the ability of various nutrients to penetrate cell membranes and therefore also controls the ability to absorb nutrients. The human digestive juices contain a large amount of calcium, and if the body does not consume enough calcium, it can easily lead to loss of appetite, low intelligence, and decreased immune function.
(7) Infant eczema is more common in infants before the age of 2. Infant eczema mostly occurs on the top of the head, face, and behind the ears, and in severe cases can spread throughout the body. When infants are sick, they cry and fuss, and the affected area becomes red and papular, then blisters, vesicles, and crusts, and they sweat a lot behind the pillow and on the back when they cry.
(8) The forehead protrudes high and forms a square cranium.
(9) Often there are beaded ribs, due to the lack of vitamin D, rib cartilage hyperplasia, each rib cartilage hyperplasia connected like a string of beads, often compressing the lungs, so that children have poor ventilation, easy to suffer from bronchitis, pneumonia.
(10) Paroxysmal abdominal pain in children.
(11) When children learn to walk after the age of one year, if calcium deficiency can soften the bones, the body weight makes the lower limbs bend when standing, sometimes manifest as “X” shaped legs, some manifest as ‘O’ shaped legs, and easy to fracture.
In general, children with mild calcium deficiency can improve their calcium deficiency symptoms with dietary supplements. If the symptoms are more serious, vitamin D and calcium supplements can be taken under the guidance of a doctor.
3. Points to note about calcium supplementation
(1) Calcium supplementation must be supplemented with vitamin D
Proper supplementation of vitamin D can promote the absorption of calcium. If there is a lack of vitamin D, the absorption of calcium is only 10%. So calcium supplement baby must add vitamin D (cod liver oil) However, there is a class of calcium preparations, such as calcium amino acid, calcium threonate, calcium vitamin C, etc. can be actively absorbed by the body, without the help of vitamin D.
(2) Do not take calcium supplements containing phosphorus
Excessive intake of phosphorus will be formed into insoluble calcium phosphate excreted from the body. This inevitably leads to calcium loss. And because of the problem of food and water, the national phosphorus intake has been greatly exceeded, so the mother must look at the calcium ingredients when buying calcium products, do not give your baby calcium supplements containing phosphorus!
(3) magnesium affects the absorption of calcium
Excess magnesium can not only affect the absorption of calcium, but also cause motor dysfunction. For infants and young children, the body’s magnesium content through food intake is sufficient, do not need additional supplementation, it is recommended not to blindly supplement calcium supplements containing magnesium.
(4) food less salt, beneficial to the absorption of calcium
When the sodium intake is high, the body will reduce the absorption of calcium. Therefore children who are taking calcium supplements should strictly control the intake of salt, just feed 1-2 times a day with slightly salty food.
(5) Phytic acid and oxalic acid in food affect the absorption of calcium
Foods such as spinach, bamboo shoots, amaranth, beans, wild rice, onions, etc. contain too much oxalic or phytic acid, not only the calcium contained in the food itself is not easily absorbed, but also affects the absorption of calcium agents. Therefore, before cooking these vegetables, these dishes can be scalded in boiling water to remove the oxalic and phytic acid.
(6) Calcium and dairy products should not be taken together
If calcium tablets are added to milk, the milk and calcium will easily combine to form a clot, and not only will the calcium not be easily absorbed, but the milk will not be easily digested. The correct way should be to give calcium to your child 1-2 hours after feeding, after most of the food in the stomach has been emptied.
(7) Calcium should not be taken with fatty foods
The fatty acids generated after the decomposition of fats and oils combine with calcium to form milk lumps, which are not easily absorbed by the intestine and are eventually excreted with the stool.
4.Introduce some calcium-rich foods.
Milk and dairy products: cow, goat, horse milk and its milk powder, cheese, yogurt, condensed milk, ice cream.
Fish, shrimp, crab and seafood: carp, carp, silver carp, loach, shrimp, shrimp, shrimp skin, crab, kelp, nori, clam, sea cucumber, snail, etc.
Meat and eggs: mutton, pork brain, chicken, eggs, duck eggs, quail eggs, pine eggs, pork pine, etc.
Legumes and soy products: soybeans, beans, lentils, broad beans, tofu, dried tofu (100g of dried tofu can be supplemented with 200mg of calcium), tofu skin, tofu milk, etc.
Vegetables: celery, rape, carrots, sesame, parsley, snow peas, black fungus, mushrooms, etc.
Fruits and dried fruits: lemon, loquat, apple, black date, dried apricot, orange cake, dried peach, hawthorn, raisin, pecan, watermelon seed, pumpkin seed, peanut, lotus seed, etc.