Signs of calcium deficiency in children

Mothers all know that if children lack calcium, they will be stunted, slow to grow and especially will have difficulty growing tall. But how do you know if your child is lacking calcium?

During the early stages of life, children need a lot of micronutrients - especially calcium - for the development of bones, joints and other organs in the body. If the amount of calcium provided or absorbed by children is not enough, it will lead to calcium deficiency.

Signs of calcium deficiency in children

- The child is fussy, has trouble sleeping, and is often startled when sleeping. Each time, the child has fits of screaming, stiffening the whole body, red and purple face, the crying lasts for hours or all night. The more you comfort, rock, or breastfeed the child, the more he cries, and he may stop breathing during the crying fit.

- Sweating a lot, especially when sleeping.

- Hair loss in a ring shape at the nape of the neck.

- Or have laryngeal spasms causing difficulty breathing, hiccups, regurgitation...

Severe cases may have apnea and rapid breathing, episodes of increased heart rate and may cause heart failure. Children with severe rickets due to calcium deficiency have slow fontanelle closure, flat head, protruding chest, bow legs or bowlegs, delayed tooth growth, and slow development of motor skills.

Older children often show signs of fatigue, loss of appetite, weakness, dizziness, sweating, poor sleep, etc.

Reason

- Newborns who lack proper sunbathing face vitamin D deficiency and the risk of hypocalcemia.

- Prolonged calcium deficiency may be due to hypothyroidism.

- Because the baby's diet is not reasonable.

- Due to mother having diabetes, pregnancy poisoning...

- Due to the baby suffocating and lacking oxygen in the blood during birth.

Prevention and treatment of calcium deficiency in children

- In many cases of mild calcium deficiency, the doctor may give the baby calcium, combined with vitamin D every day until the calcium level in the baby's body is balanced.

- To proactively prevent rickets and hypocalcemia due to rickets, mothers with young children need to ensure exclusive breastfeeding.

- You should also let your baby sunbathe every day (before 9am) to increase calcium absorption through vitamin D synthesis. You should take your baby outside, sit in a place without drafts, expose your baby's arms, legs, back, chest, and abdomen to sunlight for about 10-15 minutes. Give your baby vitamin D every day.

- Mother's daily meals also need to include foods rich in calcium such as shrimp, crab, fish, milk, spinach, Malabar spinach, amaranth, jute, Malabar spinach, sesame, soybeans... (pay attention if your baby is allergic).

- When children start eating complementary foods, priority should be given to foods rich in nutrients and calcium. Remember to give them more oil and fat, fresh fruit juice and ripe fruit. The child's room should be airy, clean and have plenty of light.

Ways to incorporate calcium into your child's diet

- Breakfast: Feed your child a crunchy breakfast cereal that always comes with fresh milk. If your child doesn't like milk, you can replace it with soft, easy-to-swallow crab vermicelli soup with tofu or fried tofu dumplings with soy sauce, which are rich in calcium.

- Sign your child up for school milk.

- In hot weather, encourage children to eat ice cream or drink cold milk drinks, with cocoa or fruits like strawberries or oranges, which children like much better than plain milk.

- On cold rainy days, give your child hot cocoa milk with a few salty or light crunchy biscuits fortified with calcium.

- Use the blender to create attractive drinks with milk, cream (made from milk) or frozen yogurt with flavors of vanilla, banana, pineapple, durian, custard apple, cocoa...

- Feed children cakes with filling mixed with milk.

- Add skim milk powder to sauces of savory dishes such as ragout, meat curry, beans, potatoes, etc.

- Give children cheese and yogurt as snacks.

- Refreshment: Give orange or tangerine juice to drink.

- Feed your child lots of green vegetables like spinach, kale, broccoli rich in calcium or other vegetables.

Most importantly, explain to your child that if they want to be tall, healthy, and beautiful, they need to drink milk every day or eat yogurt, cheese, and ice cream made from milk.

At each meal, instead of drinking water, children should drink ¼ liter of milk (1 large glass), adults should also drink 1 glass. If you are afraid that your children will gain weight from milk, you can use "skim" milk; school-age children should drink 2% fat milk, toddlers should drink whole milk.

According to Shopping Guide Magazine - NT