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Educate your patients on the importance of 3-A-Day of Dairy: Here's
a great
tool (PDF: 618k) to show families how to get their 3-A-Day of Dairy
every day for stronger bones.
Developed in conjunction with The American Academy of Family
Physicians, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Dietetic
Association, and The National Medical Association.
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Dairy Council Digest Archives
The Role of Dairy Foods and Activity for Growing Children
Summary
Children's diets and physical activity patterns can influence their growth and development as well as health outcomes. Changes in children's diets, such as the decline in milk intake, and their low levels of physical activity are placing this generation of growing children at risk for poor skeletal health and other disorders.
Milk and other dairy foods provide calcium, vitamin D (if fortified), and other nutrients important for skeletal and overall health. Studies demonstrate that increasing dairy food or calcium intake positively influences children's bone health. Unfortunately, children's dietary intake of calcium falls short of recommended levels, in large part because of their low intake of dairy foods. The American Academy of Pediatrics, recognizing the importance of adequate calcium intake for growing children, urges pediatricians to recommend milk and other dairy foods to help children build bone mass and prevent rickets, a disease that causes bone deformities.
Several factors influence children's decision to consume milk. These factors include the availability of soft drinks and other beverage choices, concern about body weight, eating away from home, participation in school feeding programs, parents, and taste.
Health professionals are concerned that the increased availability of soft drinks, especially in schools, is crowding out nutrient-rich beverages such as milk in children's diets. Displacement of milk by soft drinks and other less nutritious beverages may contribute to low calcium intakes and adverse health consequences during childhood such as poor bone health and fractures, dental caries and tooth erosion, and obesity. As a result of this concern, efforts are being made to encourage schools to restrict the sale of soft drinks.
Parents can play a positive role in influencing children's beverage choices. A recent study of mothers and their 5-year old daughters found that mothers who drank milk more frequently had daughters who also drank milk more frequently. Furthermore, the milk-drinking mother-daughter pairs consumed fewer soft drinks and had higher calcium intakes.
Regular physical activity offers a number of health benefits for children including helping to increase fitness, control body weight, and build and maintain healthy bones. During the growing years, regular weight-bearing exercise increases bone gain and contributes to peak bone mass in adulthood. Many children, particularly adolescents, fail to meet recommended levels of physical activity, thereby compromising their bone and overall health.
Strategies to improve growing children's dietary intake and their physical activity patterns include positive modeling by parents and other childcare providers, as well as education programs. Because childhood is a critical time for developing healthful lifestyle habits that can last a lifetime, implementing these strategies during the early years can be expected to have long-term health benefits.
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