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Do Kids Need Calcium & Vitamin D?
Rickets you say, we don't want our kids to get weak bones???
Young kids and babies need calcium and vitamin D to prevent a disease called rickets. Rickets softens the bones and causes bow legs, stunted growth, and sometimes sore or weak muscles.
So the short answer is yes all kids needs Calcium & Vitamin D for bone growth & Development. So where and how do we get sufficient levels of both.
Children need sunlight on their skin for their bodies to make vitamin D. They get about 80% of their vitamin D this way. Adequate Vitamin D levels are crucial to help your child absord the Calcium for their body, without sufficient levels of Vitamin D the children won't be able to absorb adeqaute levels of calcium to keep their bone denisty.
Calcium is one of the most important minerals in the body. Bones are 70 percent calcium, and it is minerals such as calcium which give bones their hardness for protection and support. What most people may not know is that bones also serve as the calcium bank of the body. There are daily deposits and withdrawals of calcium from bones. Calcium is vitally important in other organs in the body – mainly muscles. Without enough calcium, a person’s heart may beat out of rhythm or even stop! The release of calcium from bones prevents dangerously low calcium levels in the body.
This image below shows how Vitamin D travels through the body. the key point being that Calcium binds with it and then helps regenerate the bones, if there's no Vitamin D after the Liver Kindey and Small Intestine then the calcium won't replenish the bones.
Most people recognize strong relationship between calcium and vitamin D. The job of vitamin D is bringing calcium from foods eaten into the body for use. It also helps bones to store the calcium.
So what are the consequences of low Vitamin D & Calcium in the body.
Weaker Bones: Calcium is probably on your radar when it comes to your kid's bone health, but there's something else to think about: Vitamin D. Indeed, the body can only absorb the bone-strengthening mineral when there's vitamin D present. Kids build bone throughout their childhood and adolescence, so getting enough of both Calcium and Vitamin D is critical during that time. In rare cases, kids can fall so short in vitamin D that they develop a condition called rickets, when bones become weak and soft and their legs appear bowed.
Weaker Immune System: Vitamin D also plays a vital role in the immune systems health. What's more, published research shows that vitamin D blood serum levels of 50 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) appears to protect against viral respiratory infection—which is especially important in light of COVID-19.
Weaker Disease Control: Researchers are also studying whether vitamin D plays a role in the prevention of diseases like cancer and heart disease—though the National Institutes of Health (NIH) says there's not enough evidence to show cause and effect, however low levels have been proven to lead to a more stressed and more imbalanced body.
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