Miriel Team · calcium, vitamin D, dairy, toddler nutrition
Calcium and Vitamin D for Growing Kids
Everyday foods that bring calcium and vitamin D to your child's plate, plus ideas for dairy-free families.
Calcium and vitamin D work as a pair for growing bones, and both fit easily into ordinary meals. Calcium is part of what bones are made of, and vitamin D helps the body use it.
Bones do a lot of their building in childhood and the teen years, so the everyday plate matters. You don’t need to count anything. A few calcium foods spread across the day is a good everyday aim.
Where calcium comes from
- Dairy. Milk, plain yogurt and cheese are the easiest sources for most families.
- Fish with soft bones. Canned salmon or sardines, mashed well with the soft bones mixed in.
- Tofu made with calcium. Check the label for calcium sulfate or calcium chloride.
- Greens. Broccoli, bok choy and kale, cooked until soft.
- Fortified foods. Some plant milks, cereals and breads have calcium added.
Where vitamin D comes from
Only a few foods carry vitamin D: oily fish like salmon and sardines, egg yolks, and foods with vitamin D added, such as some milks, yogurts and cereals. Time outdoors adds some too.
Because so few foods have it, many families also use a supplement. Ask your pediatrician whether your child needs a vitamin D supplement.
Easy ways to add calcium to meals
- Stir plain yogurt into oatmeal, or serve it with soft fruit for a snack.
- Melt grated cheese into scrambled eggs, pasta or a quesadilla.
- Blend milk or fortified plant milk with fruit, and serve it in an open cup with a meal.
- Mash canned salmon into small patties, or stir it through pasta.
- Add soft-cooked broccoli or bok choy to rice, noodles or soup.
- Crumble soft tofu into a stir-fry, or scramble it like eggs.
If your family is dairy-free
Plenty of dairy-free kids get their calcium from other foods. It just takes a little more planning.
- Choose an unsweetened plant milk with added calcium and vitamin D. Fortified soy milk is the plant milk closest to cow’s milk.
- Shake the carton well before pouring. The added calcium can settle at the bottom.
- Put a calcium food on the plate at most meals: tofu, soft greens, fortified cereal, or fish with soft bones.
- Ask your pediatrician which milk suits your child and whether anything else would help.
Small and steady works. Yogurt at breakfast, cheese on pasta at lunch and broccoli at dinner already puts a calcium food at every meal.