Jan 03, 2024

Magnesium sources in your kid’s diet

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 triangles Banana spinach pancakes “Green” smoothie with spinach and green apple
Avocado	64mg (1 medium avocado)	Mashed avocado dip with carrot or cucumber sticks Mexican tacos with cubed avocado Make your own avocado sushi rolls
Quinoa	60mg (1/2 cup cooked)	Quinoa fritters Quinoa pancakes Strawberry quinoa muffins
Banana	37mg (1 large banana)	Banana bread Frozen banana bites Banana smoothie
Salmon	40mg (Small palm sized piece)	Make your own salmon sushi rolls Creamy salmon pasta Homemade “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.