Guidelines on Bone Health for Kids

All people have bones. Even animals have because if we didn’t, then we would be like jellyfish in the sea. Bones play a vital role in a human’s body as it provides support into our bodies and most importantly, help us form our shape. Have you ever noticed that just a broken bone in one part of the body could be very painful? Even if bones are very light, bones are strong enough to support the human person’s weight. That’s the reason why while we are still young, we need to take good care and not take for granted our bones.

Learning about the importance of bones must always start when the child is young. If you are a parent or even a teacher and want to educate your child about bones and its functions into our bodies, this article can be your best guide. Learn more about the tips on how to take good care of your bones and discover different things with regards to taking good care of bones. 

Bones and its functions  

Bones make up the model of a human body. We call this type as a skeleton. Bones are also bodily, developing and changing parts of our bodies. For a baby skeleton, it is made up of more than 300 parts and by the time they become adults, the number of bones changes from 300 to 206. But this does not mean that we lost the 94 bones, it’s just that some of the baby bones we have since we were born are made and completely formed of cartilage. As a person grows bigger and heavier, the cartilage is slowly replaced by a harder bone, that is why most of the bones join together to make a bigger bone.

Bones also safeguard the body’s various organs. Most of them were the soft parts of our bodies such as:

• Skull: It serves as a natural helmet that protects the brain and helps to form the shape of our faces. 
• Spinal Cord: This serves as the pathway for messages between our body and our brain that is protected by the spinal column and the backbone. In other words, it protects the nerves. 
• Ribcage: which serves as the shelter or shield around our lungs, heart, and liver.
• Pelvis: This serves as the protection of the bladder, some part of the intestines and for women, the reproductive organ. 

Lastly, aside from providing structure in the body, bones can also be great team players as it also acts and helps in anchoring the muscles, tendons, ligaments. Bones also help in storing calcium in our bodies. They all work organized to assist a person to move around. 

Why is bone health significant? 

As we grow old, our bones continuously change or even replaced by a new bone as the old bone is broken down. When we are still undeveloped and young, our body makes fresh bone quicker than breaking the old bones. The weight of our bones also increases. As for most people, they reach their top bone mass about the age of 30. As soon as the bone masses increases, the bone remodeling continues. 

Bones, if not properly taken care of and lacking calcium can trigger different diseases. One of the common diseases could be osteoporosis. It is a disorder that causes our bones to become frail and fragile. It is only determined by how much bone mass you have by the time you range your 30th year. The higher the bone mass, the more bone you have and the lesser you are to develop osteoporosis as you age. 

What affects bone health? 

There are so many factors that can affect bone health and these are:

• The amount of calcium in your diet: Diets that are low in calcium contributes to diminishing the bone density, loss of bones early and risks in dislocation or fractures 

• Physical Activity: If you are not into physical activities, you can have the possibility to have bone illnesses than those who are physically active.

• Use of tobacco and alcohol: Vices like cigarettes or alcohol can contribute to a weak bone. This may also raise the danger of having osteoporosis. 

• Gender: Studies show that women have higher risks of having osteoporosis. Mainly because women have smaller bone tissue than men. 

• Size: If you are very thin, then you also can be at risk of having bone disorder. A smaller body frame means less bone mass and this can be a sign that you are prone to illnesses. 

• Hereditary: You are at greater risk if you have a family who has osteoporosis. It runs in your blood and you need to be aware of it.

• Eating Disorder: Those who are anorexic or bulimic have a great risk of bone loss.

• Medications: Too much medicine regardless of what are those can cause damage to the bones. 

How to take good care of bones

When we were born in this world, we only have one body. And our main duty is to take good care of our body and look after it. Here are the natural things we can do to take care of our bones. 

• As much as possible, eat healthy foods such as dairy products. This could help in giving your bones the calcium it needs. 
• Have a consistent exercise and make it sure that you shield your bones whenever you are playing sports. And make sure you are doing the right activity that involves strenuous activities.
• When you always ride a motorcycle or bicycle, never forget to wear your helmet, elbow and knee guards. 
• Always sit and stand straight 
• Always avoid abusing your body just like having vices. Smoking and drinking do a lot of disadvantages in our bodies. If possible, avoid it.

Wrapping up

No matter what excuses we make, we should always be the one to take good care of our bodies. We are the stewards of this body that God gave us so we need to take good care of this. If you are a parent, you should always educate your children to practice healthy living and to have regular check-ups. Start them young and you will see that they will grow up very healthy and free from any sickness. Give them vitamins as much as possible.

If you are concerned about the health of your bones or your child’s bone health, it is safe to consult your doctor right away. Your doctor will recommend a bone density test just to make sure. The results of these tests will help your physician determine the rate of bone loss. In the end, we don’t want to damage any part of our bodies, so we must take good care of it.

Read also:

• Incredible Benefits of Sunlight to Kids’ Health 
• Physical Education Activities Your Kids Must Try
• Babies at Birth – Why Babies Have More Bones than Adults