Best for Bones Foods
Tips to Try at Home
Help Your Daughter Build Strong Bones
Set a Good Example
Your daughter looks to you for ideas on how to act. Serve yourself bone-healthy snacks and meals. She may not admit it, but she will be more likely to try these foods if she sees you enjoying them. Plus, this will help you keep your own bones strong!
Avoid bone bandits that may put you and your daughter at risk for osteoporosis later in life, and she will learn to avoid them too!
Inform Her
- Introduce your daughter to Best Bones Forever for girl-friendly information about building strong bones.
- Let her know why she needs a balanced diet, full of foods with calcium and vitamin D, and why it's important for her to build strong bones now.
- Include your daughter as you make grocery lists or go shopping, so she can learn about food choices and meal planning.
- Teach your daughter how to prepare simple recipes for meals and snacks with calcium and vitamin D.
Provide Opportunities
- Add foods with calcium and vitamin D into your family's meals and snacks — even when you're on the go.
- Stock your fridge and pantry with foods with calcium and vitamin D. That way, when she reaches for a snack, you can be sure it will be building her bones.
- Have her try new, Snack Foods with calcium and vitamin D.
- Add foods with calcium and vitamin D into dishes that she already eats. Low-fat cheese is an easy addition to pastas and sandwiches. Try making soups with low-fat or fat-free milk, and substituting low-fat or fat-free plain yogurt in recipes.
- While you shop, take a look at food labels to see how much calcium and vitamin D different foods have — more brands are making foods that children like with added calcium and vitamin D. Â Check out sample text messages here.
- Include your daughter when preparing meals and snacks. Let her have a say in what foods to make to be sure that she will like and eat them.
Support Her
- Help her practice her math skills by adding up the amount of calcium she eats in a day — girls ages 9-18 need 1,300 milligrams of calcium each day. The handy calcium calculator will make this a snap.
Content last updated September 2009
