How often should newborns take calcium supplements?

Calcium supplementation is very helpful for the body's bones. When the body is deficient in calcium, you should choose a variety of ways to supplement calcium. However, the amount of calcium supplementation should not be too high every day. If you supplement too much calcium, it will not be very good for the body. This should be paid attention to when supplementing calcium. How often should newborns supplement calcium? Many people are not clear about this. The following is a detailed introduction so that you can have some understanding.

How often should newborns take calcium supplements?

Infants grow very fast and require relatively more calcium, but the daily dietary calcium intake of Chinese residents often does not meet the recommended intake standards. Therefore, it is now advocated that infants should be supplemented with at least 1/3 of the recommended amount of calcium starting from 2 weeks after birth. Babies over 2 years old may not get enough calcium as their dietary intake becomes more diverse and the proportion of milk intake decreases, so it is necessary to make reasonable adjustments to their daily diet. If calcium intake cannot be guaranteed, supplementation should be carried out. The principle of supplementation is to replenish as much as the deficiency requires. For babies who have already shown symptoms of calcium deficiency or have been diagnosed with calcium deficiency by the hospital, therapeutic supplementation should be carried out, with 300 mg of calcium supplementation after meals/before bedtime every day, or as prescribed by a doctor.

Symptoms of calcium deficiency in infants and young children

If your baby shows the following symptoms, parents should pay attention. The most accurate method is to go to the hospital to test the calcium content, such as dietary calcium measurement, serum calcium measurement, urine calcium measurement and bone mineral density measurement.

8 symptoms of mild calcium deficiency:

1. Night sweats: sweating more when sleeping or drinking milk

2. Easy to wake up and startle

3. Frequent irritability and crying during the day

4. Occipital baldness (hair loss ring on the occipital area)

5. Delayed tooth eruption or uneven tooth arrangement

6. Slow learning

7. Frequent cramps

8. Gray or white nails

4 major serious calcium deficiencies:

1. Rickets, which may even cause various bone deformities: pigeon chest or funnel chest, O-shaped legs or X-shaped legs, square head, ping-pong head, bracelets or anklets, rib valgus, etc.

2. Low muscle tone and delayed motor function development.

3. Abnormal cerebral cortex function, dull expression, and delayed language development. 4. Low immunity, etc.

After understanding how often newborns should supplement calcium, parents should supplement calcium according to the baby's needs. Do not blindly supplement the baby, as this can easily cause other problems in the baby's body. Do not choose calcium when the baby is not lacking in calcium. Parents should know this.