8 mistakes of Vietnamese mothers that limit their children's height

Growth and height development for children in the first years of life are extremely important. Calcium deficiency not only affects the overall development of the body but is also one of the causes of problems with the child's height development.

In fact, many children, despite being supplemented with a lot of calcium, are still shorter than their peers. The reason is that calcium is not metabolized well. And this stems from some wrong habits of parents in taking care of their children's height.

Below are 8 mistakes parents need to know and correct:

1. Feed your child lots of meat and fish.

Eating too much meat and fish will reduce your baby's calcium absorption.

Too much protein from meat and fish is the reason why children cannot absorb calcium. An experiment showed that if a child eats 80 grams of protein a day, about 37 mg of calcium will be lost. If the amount of protein is up to 240 grams, about 137 mg of calcium will be excreted.

Therefore, parents should arrange their children's daily diet to include moderate amounts of meat and fish so as not to disrupt the balance of food.

2. Mix calcium with food and milk

Some parents have the habit of crushing calcium tablets and mixing them with food or milk to feed their babies. However, this method is very unscientific. Children can only absorb a maximum of 20% of the calcium mixed in food, the rest will be excreted after digestion. Calcium retention over a long period of time will cause constipation in infants.

3. Feed your child bone broth porridge.

Feeding your child bone broth is not a way to help increase height. The calcium in bones is not easily dissolved. After simmering a pot of bones for about 2 hours, the fat in the bone marrow is gradually dissolved into the water but the calcium remains in the bones.

Therefore, the view that only giving children bone broth soup is enough calcium is incorrect.

Regular bone broth does not contain calcium.

If parents want to use bone broth to supplement calcium for their children, there is a way: Add a moderate amount of vinegar to the pot of bone broth and simmer slowly for about 1-2 hours. Vinegar can help dissolve calcium in bones effectively.

4. Feed your baby cooked beans, sweet potatoes and spinach with calcium-rich foods or after drinking milk.

Beans, sweet potatoes and spinach are foods that contain a lot of phytic acid. This acid will bind with calcium in the body to create salt. Therefore, if you feed your child these 3 foods with foods that contain a lot of calcium such as milk, the calcium will not be absorbed into the child's body. The body can even immediately excrete this salt compound.

Therefore, if you feed your child shrimp, crab or seafood, you should avoid eating beans, tofu, sweet potatoes and spinach. Otherwise, it will just be a waste.

Of course, acids only affect babies at the time of eating. This means that if your baby eats sweet potatoes today, he can drink milk tomorrow without worrying about the acids in the sweet potatoes absorbing calcium.

5. Do not let children sunbathe to absorb vitamin D.

Determining the right time for sunbathing for children also plays a very important role. If the sunlight is too harsh, it will damage the very young skin and significantly affect the health of the baby.

Vitamin D is needed to absorb calcium. Without vitamin D, the body cannot produce a hormone called calcitriol, which helps in calcium absorption. In addition to sunbathing for children, vitamin D is supplemented through some foods such as milk, egg yolks, salmon, cod liver oil, mushrooms, cheese...

6. Let children eat too much greasy food and drink soft drinks

The average amount of calcium - phosphorus that needs to be absorbed in the baby's body is 2:1. That means the amount of calcium is twice the amount of phosphorus, which is the ideal condition for the baby to grow in height in a healthy way.

However, in reality, many mothers give their children too much soft drinks, bread, pizza, chips and other foods rich in phosphorus during the day. This leads to a calcium-phosphorus ratio in the body of up to 1:10 or even more. Too much phosphorus will "excrete" calcium from the child's body, leading to calcium deficiency and inability to grow tall.

7. Cooking food too salty

Food that is too salty causes children to gradually lose calcium.

Excessive salt intake can increase the excretion of minerals through the urinary tract, especially calcium excretion. In other words, the more salt children eat, the more calcium their bodies will lose.

Therefore, this is one of the convincing reasons for mothers not to give their children salt too early and too salty.

8. Eat lots of green vegetables rich in oxalate while taking calcium supplements

Some vegetables such as amaranth, spinach, asparagus, onions, white beans, soybeans, contain oxalate that easily combines with calcium in the body to form calcium oxalate, affecting the digestion and absorption of calcium in the body. Therefore, when supplementing calcium for your child, parents should pay attention to this.

Growth and height development for children in the first years of life are extremely important. Calcium deficiency not only affects the overall development of the body but is also one of the causes of problems with the child's height development.

In fact, many children, despite being supplemented with a lot of calcium, are still shorter than their peers. The reason is that calcium is not metabolized well. And this stems from some wrong habits of parents in taking care of their children's height./.

According to Family and Society