Hypocalcemia is the medical term for when your blood calcium levels are too low. It is crucial that your child’s blood contains the right amount of calcium. Calcium is crucial for growing and building strong bones and teeth during the childhood. A calcium deficit is difficult to identify and can only be determined by a blood test.
However, in some cases, your child can suffer from the following symptoms: muscle cramps, dry skin, dry hair, brittle nails, weakened tooth enamel, and/or tingling in the fingers and toes. In extreme cases, your child can suffer from short stature, cataracts, and/or seizures. Short stature is the term used for the condition in which a child’s height is below the average height of his or her peers. A cataract is the clouding that can appear in a clear lens that is located in the eye behind the pupil. However, those three cases are very rare and are often caused by more underlying reasons than just hypocalcemia.
In the following table, you can see the amount of calcium that your child needs every day:
| Age | Mg per day |
| 1 to 3 years | 500mg |
| 4 to 8 years | 700mg |
| 9 to 11 years | 1000mg |
| 12 to 18 years | 1300mg |
If your child does not consume enough calcium every day, it is really important that you change his or her diet by adding foods rich in calcium. Dairy products are rich in calcium, especially milk and soy milk, hard cheeses, and yogurt. Milk contains 270 mg of calcium per cup (250 ml), and soy milk contains even more, 300mg of calcium per cup. Hard cheeses, such as cheddar, contain 320mg in every 40 g, and yogurt can contain between 240 and 340 mg of calcium in 200 g. Nevertheless, not only dairy products contain calcium but also dried figs, apricots, soybeans, chickpeas, sesame seeds, and nuts.
It can be very easy to increase the calcium intake of your child with, for example, the following tips:
- Drinking milk daily instead of sweet drinks
- Offering cereal with milk as a snack during the day
- Making healthy smoothies with yogurt, milk, and fruit
- Freezing ice blocks with milk or yogurt blended with fruit
- Choose desserts made with milk.
- Try dressings based on yogurt for salads, dips, and pasta dishes.
Getting enough vitamin D is also very important for your child’s calcium intake. In addition to calcium, vitamin D is also crucial for healthy bones. Additionally, vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium from food. This means that, even if you have a calcium-rich diet for your child, it is just as important that their diet also contain the right amount of vitamin D. All babies and children until age 18 need a 400 International Unit (IU) vitamin D supplement every day. Sunlight is the main source of vitamin D. Therefore, it is important that your child spends enough time outside. There are also a few food products that contain a small amount of vitamin D, such as oily fish and eggs.
Sources:
- https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/hypocalcemia-in-children, Hopkinsmedicine, 23-05-23
- http://conditions.health.qld.gov.au/HealthCondition/condition/8/78/233/calcium-for-children, Conditions.health, 23-05-23
- https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Alberta/AlbertaDocuments/vitamin-d-for-babies-and-children.pdf, Alberta Health Services, 29-05-23
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