Getting anything that resembles a vegetable into a child’s mouth can oftentimes prove challenging. That’s even before you consider how many important vitamins and minerals they’re missing out on, simply because your child refuses to eat certain foods.
While calcium is often considered the mineral critical for kids, magnesium is equally as important and should not be overlooked, being essential for healthy muscles, nerves and bones – all of which are critical for a child’s healthy growth and development.
Magnesium is not something that can be made in the body, which means it’s essential that kids consume it in the diet on a regular basis to have enough.
Magnesium and kids – How much?
The recommended dietary intake (RDI) of magnesium each day for kids is:
| Age | RDI |
| 1-3 years | 80 mg/day |
| 4-8 years | 130 mg/day |
| 9-13 years | 240 mg/day |
| 14-18 years | 360 mg/day (girls) 410 mg/day (boys) |
Some of the key benefits magnesium offers kids:
- Relieves muscle cramps
- Muscle health and healthy muscle function
- Healthy bone development including bone mineralisation and bone growth
- Healthy teeth
- Healthy nervous systems
- Brain health
- A healthy response to stress
- Energy production
- General health and wellbeing
Getting enough magnesium into your child’s diet just requires some awareness of where magnesium comes from, and some creative preparation in the kitchen – finding unique and tasty ways to deliver it to the plate.
Here’s a list of some kid-friendly foods that contain magnesium, how much, and some imaginative suggestions for serving up more magnesium in your kid’s diet.
| Source of magnesium | Amount of magnesium | Serving suggestions |
| Spinach | 80mg (1/2 cup cooked) | Spinach and cheese trianglesBanana spinach pancakes“Green” smoothie with spinach and green apple |
| Avocado | 64mg (1 medium avocado) | Mashed avocado dip with carrot or cucumber sticksMexican tacos with cubed avocadoMake your own avocado sushi rolls |
| Quinoa | 60mg (1/2 cup cooked) | Quinoa frittersQuinoa pancakesStrawberry quinoa muffins |
| Banana | 37mg (1 large banana) | Banana breadFrozen banana bitesBanana smoothie |
| Salmon | 40mg (Small palm sized piece) | Make your own salmon sushi rollsCreamy salmon pastaHomemade “salmon” nuggets |
When dietary intake is inadequate, or when magnesium just needs topping up, a kid-friendly magnesium supplement can be helpful. Herbs of Gold Children’s Magnesium Care contains organically bound forms of magnesium that are well absorbed in the body. Available in a great tasting strawberry-vanilla flavoured chewable tablet, Children’s Magnesium Care supports healthy nervous system function and a healthy stress response in the body in children.