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Calcium for children aged 11 to 14

One thousand one hundred and fifty milligrams a day — the highest calcium figure of the entire life course, higher than at any adult age. The skeleton is being built now, and this is the window that does not come back.

EFSA note on this row: EFSA band is 11-17 years

These are published population reference values, not a diagnosis and not a prescription. A reference intake describes what covers a healthy group; it cannot tell you your own status, and no page can. Pregnancy, chronic illness, medicines and malabsorption all change the picture — take those questions to a doctor, midwife, pharmacist or dietitian.

Why the peak is here and not in old age

Most people assume calcium requirements rise with age because osteoporosis does. The published values say the opposite: EFSA sets 1 150 mg a day for 11 to 17 year olds and 950 mg for adults over 25. The reason is that roughly the whole adult skeleton is deposited by the mid-twenties, and the fastest deposition of all happens during the pubertal growth spurt, which for most children falls inside this band.

Peak bone mass is the capital you spend for the rest of your life. Bone is lost slowly from middle age onwards regardless; how much you can afford to lose depends on how much was laid down here.

Where the intake usually goes wrong

This is also the age at which milk consumption typically falls and sweet drinks replace it. The arithmetic is unforgiving: 1 150 mg a day is roughly the calcium in a litre of milk, and no single other everyday food comes close to that density.

That does not make dairy compulsory. Calcium-fortified plant drinks, calcium-set tofu, small fish eaten with the bones, cheese, yogurt, and low-oxalate greens such as kale, cabbage and broccoli can all contribute. But a diet with no dairy and no fortified alternative will not reach 1 150 mg by accident, and this is the age when it matters most.

Vitamin D and loading are part of the same answer

Calcium absorption depends on vitamin D status, and at these latitudes there is no skin synthesis for months. Weight-bearing physical activity is the other input: bone responds to mechanical loading, and running, jumping and team sport at this age contribute to peak bone mass independently of what is eaten.

So the honest version of the advice is three things, not one: enough calcium, enough vitamin D, and enough loading.

A note for parents

Restrictive eating and rapid weight loss during adolescence affect bone directly, and in girls a diet-and-exercise pattern severe enough to stop periods causes bone loss at exactly the age when bone should be accruing. That is a clinical situation, not a nutrition table one, and it is worth acting on early.

How this compares with every other group

Ordinary food against the 1 150 mg figure for children 11-14 years

Top of this list: Tofu, 350 mg in a 100 g serving (a slab) — 30% of the 1 150 mg figure for children 11-14 years. It would take about 4 of those to cover a full day from that one food, which is why a real diet spreads it across several rows.

† The calcium in tofu comes from the setting agent. Tofu set with a calcium salt is a strong calcium source; tofu set with magnesium chloride (nigari) carries a fraction of it.

Portion sizes are ordinary household servings chosen for this table, not official reference portions, and the shortlist is an editorial one: everyday foods eaten in this region rather than the highest per-100 g entries in the database. A raw per-100 g ranking would be topped by dried herbs, drink powders and fortified breakfast cereals, which answers a different question. The composition data is American, so where US fortification practice differs from European practice the row carries a dagger and the reason. For the full per-100 g ranking of a nutrient, the food-data section of this site publishes one.

The whole nutrient, not just this group

The Calcium reference intake page carries the full age and sex table, the upper level, and what the value type means.

Related pages

Sources: EFSA Dietary Reference Values · Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII · USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy (food composition) · EFSA scientific opinion on dietary reference values for calcium (2015) · Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII · checked 2026-09-06

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