09 Jun 3 Top Tips to giving your child a lifetime of healthy bones
3 Top Tips to giving your child 
a lifetime of healthy bones
#1. Make sure your child has their daily-recommended intake of calcium. 
Different ages, genders and stages of life require different amounts of calcium. Children 
are aged between 4-8 years should aim to have 2-3 serves of calcium-rich foods each day to reach a total intake of 700mg/day. Older children (9-11 years) and teens (12-18 years) should aim to have 3 serves of calcium-rich foods each day to reach a total intake of 1000-1300 mg/day. This is their period of rapid bone growth.
#2. Get your child out in the sunshine 
while being Sun Safe.
Vitamin D is essential to bone health. In Australia we need to balance the risk of skin cancer from too much sun exposure with maintaining adequate Vitamin D levels.
In winter
– for a moderately fair skinned person the recommendation is 7–30 minutes (depending on the latitude of where you live) at noon. In summer – for the same moderately fair-skinned person, a walk with arms exposed for 5–10 minutes mid morning or mid afternoon in summer is beneficial for Vitamin D production. Exposure to sunlight is recommended at 10am and 2pm in summer (11am or 3pm in daylight saving time). Avoid peak UV periods due to the cancerous effects of sunlight at that time.
#3. Encourage your child to have regular exercise. 
When we exercise, our muscles pull on our bones, which in turn build bone. Hence exercise builds stronger, denser bones. As a rule of thumb, 30 minutes of bone building exercise 4-6 times a week can help maintain better bone density. Bones respond better to weight-bearing exercises, including: stair climbing, tennis, netball, jogging, aerobic dance and resistance training.
Concerned that your child may not be getting sufficient exercise or the right types of exercise to build strong bones? Want to help your child with special needs or developmental delay who is not yet standing or walking, to build strong bones? To find out how we can help, ring My Favourite Physio 
on (02) 9790 4233 or DM us @myfavouritephysio to speak to one of our Expert paediatric Physiotherapists today.
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