8 mistakes Vietnamese mothers make that limit their children's height.

Height growth and development in children during their early years is extremely important. Calcium deficiency not only affects overall physical development but is also one of the causes of height growth problems in children.

In fact, many children, despite receiving plenty of calcium supplements, are still shorter than their peers. This is because calcium is not metabolized properly. And this stems from some incorrect habits parents have in caring for their children's height.

Here are eight mistakes parents need to be aware of and correct:

1. Feed your child plenty of meat and fish.

Eating too much meat and fish can reduce a baby's calcium absorption.

Excessive protein intake from meat and fish is a major reason why children cannot absorb calcium. One experiment showed that if a child consumes 80 grams of protein per day, approximately 37 mg of calcium will be lost. If the protein intake reaches 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 food balance.

2. Mix calcium with food or milk.

Some parents have a habit of crushing calcium tablets and mixing them with food or milk for their babies. However, this method is very unscientific. Babies can only absorb a maximum of 20% of the calcium mixed in food; the rest will be excreted after digestion. A large amount of calcium accumulated over a long period can cause constipation in infants.

3. Feed your child rice porridge made with bone broth.

Feeding children bone broth porridge is not a method to promote height growth. Calcium in bones is absolutely not easily dissolved. After simmering a pot of bones for about 2 hours, the fats in the bone marrow gradually dissolve into the water, but the calcium remains in the bones.

Therefore, the idea that feeding children only bone broth soup provides 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's a way: Add a moderate amount of vinegar to the bone broth and simmer slowly for about 1-2 hours. Vinegar can help dissolve the calcium in the bones effectively.

4. Feed your child cooked beans, sweet potatoes, and spinach along with other calcium-rich foods or after they drink milk.

Beans, sweet potatoes, and spinach are foods high in phytic acid. This acid binds with calcium in the body to form salts. Therefore, if you feed your child these three foods along with calcium-rich foods like milk, the calcium will not be absorbed into the baby's body. The body may even immediately excrete this salt compound.

Therefore, if you're feeding your child shrimp, crab, or other seafood, you should avoid serving them with beans, tofu, sweet potatoes, and spinach. Otherwise, it will just be a waste.

Of course, the acids only affect the baby at the time of consumption. This means that if the baby ate sweet potatoes today, they can drink milk tomorrow without worrying about the acids in the sweet potatoes absorbing the calcium.

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

Determining the right amount of time for sunbathing is also extremely important; if the sunlight is too intense, it can damage their delicate skin and significantly affect their health.

To absorb calcium, vitamin D is necessary. Without vitamin D, the body cannot produce a hormone called calcitriol, which contributes to calcium absorption. Besides sun exposure, vitamin D can be obtained from certain foods such as milk, egg yolks, salmon, cod liver oil, mushrooms, and cheese.

6. Feeding children too much fatty food and sugary drinks.

The average calcium-to-phosphorus ratio that a child's body needs to absorb is 2:1. This means that having twice as much calcium as phosphorus is ideal for healthy height development.

However, in reality, many mothers give their children too much soda, bread, pizza, french fries, and other phosphorus-rich foods throughout the day. This leads to a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio in the body of 1:10 or even more. Too much phosphorus will "eliminate" calcium from the child's body, leading to calcium deficiency and stunted growth.

7. Cooking food that is too salty.

Foods that are too salty cause children to gradually lose calcium.

Excessive salt intake can increase the excretion of minerals through the urinary tract, especially calcium. In other words, the more salt a child eats, the more calcium their body will lose.

Therefore, this is one of the compelling reasons why mothers should not feed their children salt too early or too much.

8. Eat plenty of oxalate-rich green vegetables while taking calcium supplements.

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

Height growth and development in children during their early years is extremely important. Calcium deficiency not only affects overall physical development but is also one of the causes of height growth problems in children.

In fact, many children, despite receiving plenty of calcium supplements, are still shorter than their peers. This is because calcium is not metabolized properly. And this stems from some incorrect habits parents have in caring for their children's height.

According to Family and Society