When parents think about their
children's health, they don't think about their bones. But building healthy
bones by adopting healthy nutritional and lifestyle habits in childhood is
important to help prevent osteoporosis and fractures later in life.
Osteoporosis, the disease that causes bones
to become less dense and more prone to fractures, has been called "a
pediatric disease with geriatric consequences," because the bone mass
attained in childhood and adolescence is an important determinant of lifelong
skeletal health. The health habits your kids are forming now can make, or literally
break, their bones as they age.
Bones are the framework for your child's
growing body. Bone is living tissue that changes constantly, with bits of old
bone being removed and replaced by new bone. You can think of bone as a bank
account, where (with your help) your kids make "deposits" and
"withdrawals" of bone tissue. During childhood and adolescence, much
more bone is deposited than withdrawn as the skeleton grows in both size and density.
For most people, the amount of bone tissue
in the skeleton (known as bone mass) peaks by their late twenties. At that
point, bones have reached their maximum strength and density. Up to 90 percent
of peak bone mass is acquired by age 18 in girls and age 20 in boys, which
makes youth the best time for your kids to "invest" in their bone
health.
Building your children's "bone
bank" account is a lot like saving for their education: The more they can
put away when they're young, the longer it should last as they get older.
