Calcium is essential for young growing bodies and dairy foods (milk, yoghurt and cheese) are the best source of this bone-building nutrient. The NZ Ministry of Health recommends that children under the age of five drink 500ml (about two cups) of milk each day. Make it full-fat milk up until the age of two – they need the extra fat and kilojoules for growth.

If your child isn’t into large glasses of milk, try these calcium-rich food ideas:

• Sprinkle cheese on food
• Turn old bread into Cheese Crispies – slice bread into fingers, thinly spread with Vegemite or Marmite, sprinkle with cheese and bake at 160C for 20 minutes until crisp
• Yoghurt – a handy snack. I buy natural yoghurt and add honey or fruit. Fruit yoghurt often has preservative which I try to steer clear of, especially for little ones. Check the use-by date: the fresher the yoghurt, the more live, healthy bacteria are in it.
• Custard
• Milk puddings
• Rice pudding – turn left-over cooked rice into pudding by adding milk, a sprinkle of brown sugar and some sliced banana. Or beat an egg with 2 tablespoons of sugar and a cup of milk, pour over 1/2 cup of cooked rice and bake at 160C for 20-30 minutes
• Smoothies and milkshakes
• Milk ice-blocks – beat a little sugar and vanilla essence (or Milo) into milk and freeze in ice cube trays with an ice-block stick in each
• Make porridge with milk instead of water
• Make creamy soups with milk (not cream – it doesn’t have much calcium)
• Mashed potato with plenty of milk
• Broccoli or Cauliflower Cheese – Make a quick cheese sauce with milk, cornflour and grated cheese
• Sardines on grainy toast
• Salmon fried rice – make sure you eat the bones!
• Oranges
• Orange almond cake – oranges and almonds provide calcium but not as much as dairy foods
• Calcium enriched soy drink – I like vanilla flavoured So Good
• Play outside in the sun for a while each day. Sunshine stimulates bone-friendly vitamin D, weight-bearing exercise builds bones – and playing is more fun than house-work! Enjoy these bone-building moments with your children.

“Where does the saying ‘Lose a tooth for every pregnancy’ originate?”, I asked my dentist as I sat in the chair yesterday. My mind was focused on pregnancy. No – I’m not pregnant! But I was in the middle of writing a story for Healthy Food Guide magazine.

“It’s not a lack of calcium, as some people think”, he explained. “It’s the pregnancy hormones going haywire. They change the type of bacteria in the mouth – and make the gums more sensitive to them!”

These pregnancy bacteria increase the risk of gingivitis and ultimately periodontitis – the clinical name for gum disease. If it’s not treated, your teeth could fall out!

And just to scare you some more, it seems that pregnant women with gum disease are more likely to have a low birth weight baby.

Then there’s the frequent snacking and cravings – especially if it’s for sweet stuff like double chocolate ice-cream or Pepsi at 3am. And that lovely (not) ‘morning’ sickness. I’ve never met anyone where the nausea and vomiting only arrived in the morning – it’s usually all day and night. Vomiting up all that stomach acid does your teeth no favours. It’s the same for reflux – a common problem at the end of pregnancy when the baby squashes your stomach, there’s less room for dinner, and the acid is pushed back up to your mouth.

Here’s some warning signs of gum disease:

Your gums are tender and swollen
Your gums bleed when you brush or floss
You have persistent bad breath or a bad taste in your mouth

But it’s not all bad news. If you brush and floss daily, and visit the dentist for a check-up and clean, you will have healthy teeth, your husband will want to kiss you and you’ll likely have a big healthy baby!