When it comes to your little one’s healthy growth and development, their bones and muscles have an important role to play. After all, they’re the foundations of your child’s ability to run, jump, and explore.
As a parent, you’re likely familiar with calcium’s role in supporting their growth, and may have even instructed them to drink their milk in an effort to help them ‘grow up big and strong’.
But, did you know there’s another nutrient involved with an equally important role to play?
Enter vitamin D, calcium’s partner in maintaining your little one’s healthy bones, teeth and muscles. This is because your child’s body requires adequate amounts of the sunshine nutrient to absorb the calcium it needs.
What is Vitamin D?
Unlike most other vitamins, the human body is able to synthesise this unique vitamin after sun exposure.
It’s formed mainly in the skin and then used by every cell in their little body.
In sunny Australia, we get most of it from sunlight exposure (roughly 90%). In our diets, we get the remainder of our consumption from food sources such as oily fish, fortified milk and egg yolks (1).
Why Is Vitamin D Important?
It’s important for strong bones, muscles and overall health (2). This is because adequate levels are required for the body to absorb calcium from food.
As you may know, calcium is important for building strong bones and teeth and for the nervous system’s healthy function (1).
Calcium is one of the champions of bone health, so helping to ensure your children are optimally absorbing this essential mineral may help support healthy bone growth and development.
But this isn’t all it can do. It also helps to support a healthy immune system (1)!
During the younger years of your child’s life, maintaining adequate levels is important. By ensuring they get sufficient vitamin D, you may help to support their general health, immune system health, and healthy growth and development.
The information provided in reference to this ingredient is general in nature and provided as information only. Any product-specific therapeutic claims for this ingredient are linked to specific dosage requirements based on evidence of traditional or scientific nature.
If you’ve found this article useful, you may like to learn more about the signs and symptoms of inadequate sunshine vitamin consumption.
References
- HealthyWA. (n.d.). Vitamin D. [online] Available at: https://healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/U_Z/Vitamin-D [Accessed 21 Feb. 2020].
- Betterhealth.vic.gov.au. (n.d.). Vitamin D. [online] Available at: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/vitamin-d [Accessed 21 Feb. 2020].
