• Question: How strong are your bones if you were to be a child?

    Asked by 533enqm32 to Dan, Jennifer, Luke, Martin, sakshisharda on 5 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Martin Lindley

      Martin Lindley answered on 5 Mar 2018:

      An interesting question …

      small children actually have very soft bendy bones in compared to adults

      as you grow your bones get longer and change how strong they are

      they are very strong and very rigid (they don’t bend) through your adult life

      as you get older then the bones become less strong and more likely to break easily

      this can all be changed by doing exercise and through your diet……

      A healthy diet and regular exercise (especially load bearing exercise …..running) helps to keep your bones strong.

    • Photo: Luke Williams

      Luke Williams answered on 5 Mar 2018:

      I’m not a huge fan of running Martin – my bones are probably not as strong as they could be!

      You can also have things put on/through/around your bones to give them more strength if, say, you have had an accident. Usually some sort of metal like titanium. But typically you have this sort of thing if your bones have already broken. So I suppose the question is – if you are young and your bones are more bendy, does this mean they are actually stronger than an adult’s bones which may have broken?

    • Photo: Jennifer Paxton

      Jennifer Paxton answered on 5 Mar 2018:

      Bones are amazing! Adult bones, that haven’t been broken, are said to be as strong as concrete! They are made from a very clever material that is both hard and strong but also quite ‘springy’. Like Martin says, exercise can help to keep bones strong and that’s because bones can actually tell how much exercise you are doing…. Did you know that tennis players can have stronger bones in their ‘serving arm’ than their other arm? This is because the serving arms is getting lots more exercise, serving and hitting the tennis balls and this affects the bone. Another good example is astronauts. When astronauts are in space, there is no gravity and so their bones are not getting ‘exercised’ in the same way as on Earth, and the bones can’t ‘feel’ the amount of force that things like walking and running put on them. So…..their bones actually start to get much weaker and this can be dangerous when they come back to Earth! It’s important for astronauts keep exercising in space to help prevent this weakening too much.

      But sorry….you asked about children didn’t you?! Children’s bones aren’t quite as strong as adults….they are a lot more bendy and some of the bones don’t even fully form until you are an adult! Do you know where your collarbone is? That bone is still made of a softer material called cartilage and only fully turns to bone when you are in your 20s. The whole skeleton is made of cartilage to start with but turns to bone over time.

      Another fun fact about bones….did you know that children have MORE bones than adults? Adults have 206 but babies are born with over 300! Do you know what happens to them?…

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