For healthy bones, how much calcium should your daughter get every day?

• 500 mg
• 1000 mg
• 1300 mg
• 1600 mg

Correct Answer = 1300 mg

For girls aged 9-18, the recommended daily amount of calcium is 1,300 milligrams each day. To get an idea of the calcium content of a variety of foods, look over our food chart.

If your daughter won't drink milk, what can you do?

• Force her to drink at least one glass of milk a day.
• Offer her non-dairy food options like broccoli, bok choy, tofu with calcium sulfate, and orange juice with added calcium.
• Not push the issue, she'll be fine.

Correct Answer = Offer her non-dairy food options like broccoli, bok choy, tofu with calcium sulfate, and orange juice with added calcium.

There are plenty of great sources of calcium besides milk. Juice (the kind with added calcium), broccoli, bok choy, and almonds will also give your daughter's bones a boost.

You would like your daughter to do physical activity that is fun, and also helps make her bones strong. Her best bet is:

• Basketball
• Bicycling
• Swimming

Correct Answer = Basketball

Your daughter's bones will benefit most from weight-bearing physical activity, or activity in which her body is working against gravity so that her feet, legs, or arms are supporting her weight. Some fun weight-bearing physical activities are walking, soccer, volleyball, jumping rope, and karate.

Your daughter does not enjoy team sports. To ensure that she gets a good daily dose of weight-bearing physical activity:

• Sign her up for the soccer team anyway.
• Since she rides her bike after school - that's something active.
• Figure she gets enough weight-bearing physical activity in PE class.
• Go for a brisk walk with her after dinner.

Correct Answer = Go for a brisk walk with her after dinner.

Although participating in bone-healthy activity is just one part of your daughter's overall health and well-being, show her that it's an important part. By engaging in these activities together, you will not only be a great role model, you'll also help your bones stay strong; and it will give you a chance to spend some time with your daughter. And after all your bones need calcium and weight-bearing physical activity to stay strong, too.

Your daughter is so busy on school nights, she hardly has time for a healthy dinner containing foods with calcium. To keep her bones in mind, you can:

• Wait until the weekend and give her a feast of foods packed with calcium.
• Throw a snack-sized bag of almonds in her backpack as she rushes off to ballet class.
• Hope that she got enough calcium during breakfast and lunch - evenings are too hectic to worry about that.
• Stop for some take-out chicken on the way home from her piano lesson.

Correct Answer = Throw a snack-sized bag of almonds in her backpack as she rushes off to ballet class.

There are lots of calcium-packed snacks that are great for your girl-on-the-go. Foods like almonds, pudding packs (made with low-fat milk), and cereal bars with added calcium can easily be tossed into a backpack so your daughter can get a calcium boost even when she's not at home.