Weighty Subject
The weight of a child's backpack may seem like a small detail in the hustle of everyday life, but those books can add pounds quickly. What can that mean for your child's back?
From elementary to middle school, children are still developing physically, according to Dr. Stuart Surkosky, a chiropractor at the Care Chiropractic Center with 23 years of experience. A developing child should ideally only carry 10 percent of his or her body weight, Surkosky said.
This is the standard recommendation in the medical field since it prevents stress on a child's developing spine.
While 10 percent is a good limit to stick with, Surkosky said the weight in a backpack should never exceed 15 percent of the child's weight. For a child weighing 70 pounds, that's 10.5 pounds.
“Once you get to 15 (percent), there can be great concern,” he said.
This is an important issue because children in elementary and middle school are not structurally developed, Surkosky said. Children can have up to 33 spine segments that have yet to develop and fuse together while a developed adult has around 26, according to Surkosky.
“Wearing a backpack changes the center of gravity,” Surkosky said, which can lead children to change their posture in response.
The backpack's weight pulls children backward, and without skeletal maturity, their muscles and ligaments may adapt to the new position.
“That adaptation may not be beneficial in the long-term. It's not usually beneficial,” Surkosky said. By changing how they carry themselves, children can compress the spinal discs, gel-like connective tissues between each vertebra.
“These kids are having more and more problems with neck, head and low back pain,” Surkosky said, including strains and sprains of the spine and general wear and tear at a premature age.
However, most of these problems are treatable and can be corrected by seeing a musculoskeletal doctor such as a chiropractor, he said.
“Posture is something that needs to be evaluated too, not just the region of pain,” Surkosky stressed, because posture can be an underlying factor.
For children with immediate pain, heat and ice can be alternatively applied, according to Anna Dumont, a sports medicine doctor with Tri Rivers Musculoskeletal Centers. If the pain lasts for more than 72 hours, however, children should see a doctor to evaluate the pain.
There are many ways to prevent back and neck pain in children or to lessen the impact of carrying a backpack daily, Surkosky said.
With such a variety of backpacks available, Surkosky said parents need to choose a child's backpack wisely, making sure to buy one that can adequately support what the books will weigh.
The ideal backpack should have thick, padded shoulder straps, and the width of the strap does matter since wider straps will distribute weight more evenly, Surkosky said.In addition, a good backpack will have padding along the back and a belt to fasten around the waist, which can help “unload (weight) from the spine,” he said.Backpacks with multiple compartments also allow students to spread out their belongings so the weight is not all concentrated in one area, but students can also help with this by not taking unnecessary things to school.“It is important to distribute the weight by loading the heaviest books at the back of the pack,” Dumont said, which Surkosky also emphasized.Finally, a lightweight backpack is best, as long as it can support what it needs to, since this will also help minimize how much weight students must carry.Surkosky believes teachers are becoming much more aware of the importance of lightening the load.“The teachers have become much more aware of that, especially in the past five years,” he said. “A lot of the schools have addressed this.”Some districts may allow students to take home previous editions of books to have resources at home, he said. In other instances, there are textbooks available online or students have their resources downloaded to a tablet, he said.One change he believes would be beneficial would be to allow students more time to stop at their lockers between classes to swap out unnecessary books.But what Surkosky wants parents to remember is that students should never wear their backpack on one shoulder, he said, since this can lead to more back strain.“They're too cool to wear the pack on both shoulders,” he joked.
