(Ivanhoe Newswire) – If your school-age kids are just now learning to build healthy bones by drinking milk, they may be finding out too late. Nutrition researchers now say pushing kids to build healthy bones should begin at infancy.

During today’s Experimental Biology 2010 meeting, researchers from North Carolina State University and the US Army will present evidence that very early calcium nutrition may have a greater impact than previously thought.

Scientists tested their hypothesis on 24 piglets, feeding one dozen a calcium-rich diet during the first 18 days of life, while depriving the other dozen piglets the same type of diet during the same period. Study authors concluded the calcium deficiency had predisposed the second group of animals to having bones that contained more fat and less mineral.

“Our work suggests that calcium nutrition … may be of greater importance to life-long bone health due to its programming effects on mesenchymal stem cells,” NCSU Animal Science Professor Dr. Chad Stahl is quoted as saying.

Interestingly enough, Dr. Stahl says it might be time for physicians to stop thinking about osteoporosis as an elderly disease, but rather an adolescent disease with later onset.