Beware of your child’s backpack; it may cause back pain
Does your child sometimes complain of back pain? If so, then his or her heavy backpack could be a cause for the same. Every year millions of children walk down to and back from school. They do so with a huge load in their backpacks filled with books and materials. Your child may be doing it too. If so, then as a parent you should be aware that over stressing your child’s back with heavy backpacks could cause back pain in your child. This was revealed by a leading study conducted recently. As a result of this act apart from back pains, these could also lead to other serious health conditions too. These include neck pain, tingling and numbness of the arms and shoulders. Apart from these the child could suffer from muscle spasms too as a result.
The results of heavily loaded backpacks
The problem of bad posture in children is frequently addressed in various scientific publications. If your child is in the early school going years of 7 to 10 years, then he or she is exposed to a number of factors that predispose him or her to the occurrence of bad posture. One of the top factors for the same is that he or she has to carry a heavy backpack .Thus spinal deformities may be caused leading to back pain. This pain is also referred to as the “Backpack syndrome“.
Experts claim that over time the heavy backpack can cause an unnatural alignment of the spine. Thus as a result the student is forced to offset the pressure by arching the back or bending forward at the hips. Most experts in the field suggest limiting the backpack weight to 10-15% of the child’s body weight is reasonable.
What you could do as a parent to help?
As a parent you should ensure that the weight of your child’s backpack should not exceed 10-15% of his or her body weight. Apart from this you should provide your child with bags that have multiple components. You must also consider bags with tightened, padded straps worn on both shoulders. This will ensure better distribution of the overall weight. As a student your child may also have to be seated at the desk over prolonged periods. Thus you must encourage him or her to sit with the right posture. Otherwise in case if your child is prone to slouching, rounding the shoulders, or protruding the head forward may experience further pain as a result.
We hope that the information provided will help you to deal with the problem of heavy backpacks for your child. In case you need additional information in regard to spine health and related topics keep reading the informative blogs of Dickson Chiropractic. Dickson Chiropractic is a leading chiropractic care center in Dickson, TN, providing chiropractic care for different types of health conditions like sciatica, whiplash, back and neck pain, migraines etc. For further details about our services visit our website.
