Kids Backpack Health Tips

About 14,000 children are treated for backpack-related injuries every year. Overweight, improperly fitted or improperly worn backpacks can cause neck, back and shoulder pain along with arm tingling and numbness. 

When used properly, backpacks evenly distribute the weight of the load across the body, reducing potential health risks. 

Here's checklist to help you keep your student safer:

• Limit loads to 10% or less of body weight. When a backpack is too heavy, the weight's force can pull a child backward. To compensate, the child might bend forward at the hips or arch the back. This can make the spine compress unnaturally, leading to shoulder, neck, and back pain.
• Wear the back pack over both shoulders. Kids who wear their backpacks over just one shoulder will likely end up leaning to one side to offset the extra weight. This encourages lower and upper back pain and strain their shoulders and neck.
• Choose a backpack with wide straps to avoid them digging into the shoulders. This can interfere with circulation and nerves leading to tingling, numbness, and weakness in the arms and hands.

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Using Backpacks Wisely:

• Lighten the load. Use the bathroom scale to check that a pack isn't over 10% of your child's body weight (for example, the backpack of a child who weighs 80 pounds shouldn't weigh more than 8 pounds).
• Encourage kids to use their locker or desk often throughout the day instead of carrying the entire day's worth of books in the backpack.
• Make sure kids don't tote unnecessary items — laptops, cellphones, and video games can add extra pounds to a pack.
• Encourage kids to bring home only the books needed for homework or studying each night.
• Ask about homework planning. A heavier pack on Fridays might mean that a child is delaying homework until the weekend, making for an unnecessarily heavy backpack.
• Picking up the backpack the right way can help kids avoid back injuries. As with any heavy weight, they Use all of the backpack's compartments, putting heavier items, such as textbooks, closest to the center of the back.

If your student is struggling to get the backpack on or off, leans awkwardly while wearing the backpack, is experiencing neck or back pain, numbness or weakness in the arms or legs, talk to Dr. Dukes. An ounce of prevention might just help you avoid pounds of agony. www.DukesChiropractic.com