Question: How do children build bone mass?

In the good old days, children ran home from school, gulped down a glass of milk then headed outside to play. This healthy tradition has been replaced by children who prefer soda to milk, computers to outdoor play, and sitting on the couch instead of engaging in active play. These children may be losing more than a healthy tradition – they may be losing bone mass.

Health experts say the failure to build enough bone mass during childhood and adolescence could result in debilitating osteoporosis as they age.

Consider the following findings:

• According to the Mayo Clinic, children break their arms nearly twice as often today as they did 40 years ago.
• According to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, children with broken bones have lower bone density than their fracture-free peers.

The key ingredients for strong bones – milk, sun and exercise – are easy to come by yet few children get adequate supplies of these ingredients. The greatest need for these ingredients is during the fast-growth period between the ages of 8 and 18.

Given this, following is a recipe for developing healthy bones:

• Food and supplements. Make sure your child’s diet includes foods rich in calcium and vitamin D. Calcium and vitamin D can be found in several kid-friendly foods like fortified cereals, salmon, cheese and other dairy products. Also consider adding a daily multivitamin to the mix.
• Sunlight. Children need 20 minutes to an hour of sunlight a few days a week. Exposure to sunlight is the best way to prevent rickets and vitamin D deficiency. Skip the sunscreen for these minutes since it blocks about 90 percent of the sun’s vitamin D from penetrating the skin.
• Exercise. Although any amount of exercise increases bone mass, experts recommend that children participate in at least an hour a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity.