Ensuring A Child’s Spine Health: How To Choose The Perfect Backpack

Children usually ask their parents to get them the latest trends in backpacks. Parents, however, should have other considerations when choosing backpacks for their kids aside from its appearance and brand. For one thing, they should keep away from one-strap bags as these could be detrimental to their kids' health.

James Miller, a physiotherapist specializing in skeletal muscles, said two-strapped backpacks are a lot better because it allows the even distribution of the bag's weight, as per ABC . Parents should also weigh in the bag with its contents to make sure it is the ideal load that a child should carry on his back.

Miller said backpacks with one strap will cause pain in the neck, back and shoulders. Aside from the straps, there are reasons why students experience back pain such as a sedentary lifestyle or a high body mass index or BMI. Chiropractors Association of Australia president Andrew Lawrence said some studies show a cause and effect relationship between backpacks and back pains.

The bodies of children are resilient, but since they are still developing. It could get distorted by heavy weight, according to the Peak Performance Chiropractic. When a child bends forward to adjust to a heavy bag, the spine is pressured and compressed. To ensure that a child does not hurt himself, limit the weight of the backpack to not more than ten percent of the weight of the child.

Parents should not take the dangers of heavy backpacks for granted as it has already caused 5,000 emergency room appointments every year, according to Corrective Chiropractic. Most injuries related to backpacks may not be emergencies but when heavy loads become consistent, it can lead to skeletal injuries and later on affect the children's structural development and posture.

There are many sizes and shapes of backpacks, but not all of them will be healthy for your children. Make sure the kids' backcpacks properly fit them at the back and the waste.

If you need spine surgeries due to unstoppable joint pains then you should see a specialist like New Jersey's #1 spine surgery expert - Joshua Rovner for proper treatment