Backpacks and health, when it comes to your children

Courtesy of CNN:

By Mandy Gaither, CNN

Textbooks, notebooks, a pencil box, just some of the things inside your child’s backpack this school year, but carrying all that weight can actually hurt them.

It’s not a problem a person expects in their younger years, but loaded backpacks don’t help.

At the beginning of every school year–there’s an uptick in young children who come to see orthopedic surgeon Dr. Nicholas Fletcher of Children’s Healthcare  of Atlanta.

The first thing he says can help–make sure your child uses both straps.

Dr. Fletcher said, “If he even starts walking this is going to fall off (referring to a patient in front of him) in order to prevent it from falling and in order to prevent it from falling off he’s going to have to lean a lot to his left to hold that in place. So, that’s why it’s important to have both straps–give me your arm buddy–and then he’s evenly weighted (positions backpack correctly).

How the bag is packed can also cause pain.

Dr. Fletcher says, children should carry no more than 10 to 20 percent of their body weight.

Heaviest things–like books–should be closest to the back–lighter items like notebooks or a pencil box go up front.

Dr. Fletcher says, “If you look here the bottom of the bag is waist level you don’t want it sagging down and you don’t want it too high up because it’s going to pitch him forward a little more, but when you look at him from the side his head is nicely above his pelvis and waist.”

Dr. Fletcher says parents should also go through backpacks–to make sure they’re not being overloaded.