If your child complains of back or shoulder pain, the problem could be as simple as a heavy backpack with research showing that 2% of school children suffer from spinal deviation due to the weight of the pack they carry into college every day.
While 2% suffer from scoliosis, or spinal deviation, 4% have Scheüermann’s disease or “the development of a hump” in addition to muscular contractures, muscles or tendons that have becom shorter or a variety of other lumbar, dorsal or cervical pains. And all this because of the excessive weight of the backpacks which they carry to school every day.
From Primary school, children carry an average of 3.2 kilos, a figure that increases to 5 kilos or even more by the time they reach secondary education. To these loaded backpacks they must then add another bag carrying sportswear for at least two days a week.
“Carrying more than three kilos behind your back generates bad postural positions that lead to problems and diseases,” says the traumatologist at the General Hospital of Alicante, Pedro Gutierrez.
“Every week we each see two or three cases in the hospital of children with back pain or problems that we refer to rehabilitation,” warned Gutierrez. And, he explains, “any weight we carry on our back forces us to throw the head and torso forward. The more weight and more time that we are carrying that weight further damages their posture, ”he adds.
“The body has memory and we begin to see deformities developing from 10 years of age,” he warns.
Physiotherapist Sara San Cristóbal says that scoliosis is so frequent that the clinic is already setting up a specific unit to treat it in children. “They frequently come to physiotherapy because of the weight of the backpacks, but of course there are other influences, like the way that they carry their packs, ”says San Cristóbal.
“They must not be too heavy,” she says in recommending that the weight that children carry does not exceed between 10 and 15% of their body weight. In addition, they must be correctly fitted and carried.
If it is a conventional backpack, she explains, it is important to adjust it properly to fit the back ensuring that the straps are wide and padded. Do not carry them across one shoulder.
A case with wheels might be less harmful, but they must not always be pulled with the same hand otherwise they can produce asymmetries in the back and problems in the wrist, especially if they are being dragged up and down stairs and pavements.”
The president of the FAPA Enric Valor considers the weight that children carry as “brutal.”
“In the digital age, I cannot understand why they have to transport such a quantity of material every day. Nor do I know why Primary children need so many books,” he says.
The Right Way to Wear a Backpack for a Good Fit
Always wear both shoulder straps rather than slinging your backpack with one strap on one shoulder. …
Adjust the shoulder straps so the backpack is high on your back and the shoulder straps are comfortable on your shoulders.
