Prevent Back Pain with Backpack Safety Tips
You and your child can work together to ensure a successful school year injuries from lugging books around.
It's about time to start buying school supplies for your child. Although it's easy to pick out pens, paper and markers, other choices must be made with greater considerations. Take, for example, the backpack, also known as the bookbag.
You may buy your child a backpack because it has his or her favorite super hero or princess on it, or maybe it has their favorite color. However, improper backpack use can lead to back pain in your child and start habits of bad posture that follow them into adult life.
What is a "bad" backpack?
I remember a conundrum I had in sixth grade. I couldn't figure out how to work the combination lock on my locker, so I ended up lugging my heavy textbooks around in my backpack every day. This wrecked my back. I still have some lower back pain, and I'm sure it didn't help my scoliosis at all.
According to KidsHealth.org, doctors recommend that children carry no more than 10 to 15 percent of their total body weight in their backpacks.
For argument's sake, let's say I weighed 100 pounds in sixth grade. Ideally, I should have kept about 10 pounds of books and binders in my backpack. I recall my parents weighing my backpack at one point and being shocked to see that it weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 pounds!
As a parent, it is essential that you inform your child on the importance of keeping a light backpack and to store uneccessary items in a locker or desk. Furthermore, stress to your child the need to wear both shoulder straps on the backpack. Although it may look "cool" to sling it over one shoulder, improper wearing of a backpack, even one with a proper weight, can throw off a child's posture and lead to shoulder and neck pain.
Are there back-friendly backpacks?
Sure there are!
Many packpacks now come with back-friendly features. According to KidsHealth.org, some of these features are:
- A chest belt to help spread the load across the body.
- Wide, padded shoulder straps to prevent uncomfortable friction between the straps and the shoulders.
- A padded back, which can prevent your child from getting poked by a sharpened pencil or the edge of a ruler.
As always, proper wearing of the backpack is essential to preventing pain. Make sure your child uses both shoulder straps. Additionally, ensure that the straps are tight enough on the body that the pack rests at the middle of the back. Backpacks slung too low, or that come to rest near the buttocks, will lead to back pain.
You are responsible for the well-being of your child. Try to find a back-safe backpack, and do not settle for one strap backpacks or messenger bags. Talk to your child about properly loading his or her backpack, and insist he or she leave unneeded items at home or at school.
Show your child how to use all the compartments of the backpack, as they are there for a reason! Finally, do not hesitate to get in contact with your child's school to discuss ways parents and teachers can work together to ensure lighter backpacks and less back pain for all students.
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Paula Blumsack
9:05 pm on Monday, July 30, 2012
Hi Justin, thanks for the informative article. Its time to start reducing the load the children carry by having the large textbooks broken down into removable sections. Children should only have to carry the section they are currently studying. As a parent of 5 children and married to a Doctor of Chiropractic we were never able to get our 5 children to follow the back pack alignment process to avoid neck and back pain and they did just fine. Here's why: Our children have had regular chiropractic checkups their entire life. We were more concerned about the torque and tension the heavy backpack placed on our child's brain-stem and spinal cord versus the muscles of their back and neck because we knew that an uncorrected problem over time could alter body function. What's alarming is that parents may not realize that their child may already have an underlying spinal problem before the child started carrying a backpack. We don't ask the parents in our office to bring in their child's backpack so we may fit it properly. We ask the parent to bring in their child to make sure their body is working properly and able to adapt to all the stresses they put upon it everyday. It's not about the backpack its about their life.