Here are a few tips to prevent back pain due to heavy school bags
- Because narrow straps can dig into shoulders, choose a backpack with wide, padded shoulder straps and a padded back.
- Make sure that only books that are needed are carried, ask the child to prepare the bag according to next day’s time-table at night…too often in a hurry in the morning the child carries all the books resulting in a heavier bag.
- Parents can minimize the risk of injury by making sure that children do not over-pack their backpacks. A child should never carry a pack that weighs more than 10 percent to 20 percent of his or her weight.
- Children should be taught always to use both shoulder straps. Using only a single strap can strain muscles and may increase curvature of the spine
- Another recommendation is to use all compartments of the backpack. Place the heaviest materials nearest to the center of the pack.
- Use a small school bag, this will prevent a child from cramming it with useless items
- Periodically remind your child to clean out trash and remove old papers and homework.
2 comments:
One factor is also the weight of the empty bag itself. Very often a padded kind of bag will weigh much more than a regular bag even when empty! Also what about water bottles, doc?
Water bottles are a tricky issue since in the US the water is taken from the tap, hence I do nto think American Acasemy of Peditrics needs to issue any guidleines for the same.
In the Indian context I feel that wide strapped bottles made of light unbreakeable material may be fcarried weighing less than a kilo preferably ( less than a litre of water) These may be re-filled during the interval if possible
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