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Check Out Your Kids’ Backpacks

tinaby Dr. Tina Gottlieb

 

Picture yourself carrying a 15 or 20-pound bag of garden soil on your shoulders. How would your shoulders look – hunched forward? Would your head be facing down to help support the weight of the load? Now picture your kids when they head out the door to school. Are their shoulders hunched forward and their heads facing down to support the weight of their backpacks? Do your kids ever complain of back pain? They could be carrying around too much stuff in their backpacks.

 

What can make a backpack too heavy?

  • There can be a tendency to pack everything the child could possibly need all week long into the backpack.
  • The trend is to eliminate hallway lockers, especially in middle school and high schools. The rationale is to increase safety (fewer opportunities to hide things) and because there are more e-textbooks available to students these days. But not all textbooks are e-books, and students end up carrying more books, binders and notebooks than in the past.
  • Things tend to accumulate in the backpack during the school year.

 

There are significant risks to the spine – Kids’ spines are growing well into the high school years. According to Spine (the leading industry journal), carrying a heavy backpack can distort the natural curves of the mid- and lower-back, causing muscle strain, irritation to the spine, and back pain. If damage is done to the spine at any time during the growing years, it can result in immediate as well as future problems.

 

Simple precautions can prevent significant problems

  • Backpacks should weigh no more than 10% of a child’s bodyweight.
  • A backpack should never hang more than 4 inches below the waistline.
  • Use smaller notebooks and carry only what is needed each day, rather than carrying a large, heavy binder filled with paper.
  • Use a backpack with individualized compartments and distribute the contents evenly.
  • Impress your child with the importance of carrying the backpack across both

           shoulders (using padded straps), rather than slung over one shoulder.

 

Dr. Tina Gottlieb is a chiropractor in Temecula with an upper cervical chiropractic practice. She can be reached at 951.699.5161. For more information, visit www.drtinachiropractic.com.