OtterKnow Kids EncyclopediaYour body has 206 bones, and together they make up your skeleton! Bones are hard and strong so they can protect the important parts inside you. Without bones, your body would be floppy like a jellyfish!
Your skull protects your brain, and your ribs wrap around your heart and lungs like a cage. Bones also grow as you grow — when you were a baby, some of your bones were soft and bendy. As you get bigger, they get harder and stronger. Your bones are alive, which means they can even heal themselves if they break!
Eating foods with calcium, like milk and cheese, helps keep your bones strong and healthy. Exercise also makes your bones tougher by putting healthy stress on them. Taking care of your bones now helps them stay strong for your whole life!
- A baby is born with about 270 bones, but some of them join together as the baby grows up!
- The smallest bone in your body is inside your ear, and it is only about the size of a grain of rice.
- Your thigh bone, called the femur, is the strongest bone in your body!
