Back to school special: Vamanos! Backpack Backpack!

It's that time of year again! By now, you have your child's school supplies and hopefully your school routine is becoming more routine. Does that routine include hours of homework after school as well? Finding the time to cook dinner, spend some quality time together and help with homework can be challenging. Along with those hours of word problems and vocabulary tests comes pounds of text books, workbooks, pens, paper and calculator all squished into the very fashionable and expensive backpack your child HAD to have. But how much weight on your child's back is too much? And, how can you make changes to take the strain off your child's back?

Taking the time to weigh your child and his or her backpack may sound like a good idea for the immediate future, but you could also be helping your child avoid a lifetime of back and neck aches down the road too. When muscles are tightened and strained on a regular basis, pain or discomfort can occur. Continued strain on the muscles can lead to joint changes as well. Muscles have attachments to bones and if muscles are too tight, they can drag the bone they are attached to with them, disrupting the alignment of the joint. The result? Pain! And if those muscles are left strained over an even longer period of time, early degeneration and arthritis can result. In this case, on ounce of prevention is worth a pound of treatment!

So what can you do now? Well first start by weighing your child. The weight of your child will determine how much weight he or she can handle on their growing bodies. Then weigh your child's backpack. Below is a list of how much your child's backpack should not exceed:

Along with backpack weight, one strap versus two strapped backpacks should be considered. The one strap style seems to be heading out the door and with good reason! One strap over one shoulder look can cause the side of the neck the strap is on to be strained and can even cause numbness and tingling down the arm. The best way to wear a backpack is with two straps over the shoulders.

Other tid bits of advice: Load the heaviest items in the back of the backpack, closest to your child's back. Arrange books and pencil holders so they won't slide around. Also, tighten straps so the bottom of the backpack rests in the small of the child's back. The backpack should not rest more than 4 inches below your child's waistline.

Now, to find a genie to help with dinner...


Need more information? Give us a call at (636) 825-6555.

                

I don't have any issues, why should I see a chiropractor?

Would you only see your doctor when you're already dead or your dentist after the tooth fell out? Seeing your chiropractor prior to any problems or in the begining of a problem makes the chances of fixing the issue more probable. However, there is one major reason that everyone should see a chiropractor..............a record of your spinal health.

Take this example: You are driving along on a sunny morning when you decide to pull in to the local coffee shop drive through. After getting your beverage you are stopped waiting for the light to turn green. When from behind a teenager texting on her cell phone hits you at about 25 MPH. The impact was hard enough to push you into the car in front of you and caused damage to all three cars. You feel okay for the moment so after exchanging information you continue on your way to work. Later that same day you start to feel some tightness in your neck. The following morning you can hardly turn your head from side to side. You immediatly call your doctor or go to the ER and they determine that you have whiplash or some other muscle sprain/strain condition. They perscribe you medicine to relax the muscle and for pain. Three months later you are still in pain, you have tried PT which has either helped some or didn't help at all, the insurance company is not wanting to pay so now you have hired an attorney.

This senerio assumes that you have never seen a chiropractor before. Every chiropractic patient knows that if you get into a car accident the chiropractor is one of the first calls to make. However, back to the senerio, the attorney will request all medical records related to the accident. When the radiologist report comes to him it reads: Normal radiologic findings and other than you stating that you hurt there is nothing to show how badly you were injured. This allows insurance companies to down play your injury. This is where seeing a chiropractor prior to the accident can make a big difference for you. Without pre-injury records what stops the insurance company from claiming that it was a pre-existing condition? Or that you are claiming that the pain is worse than it really is?

Same example from above with chiropractic: You just left your quarterly chiropractic wellness check when you decide to pull in to the local coffee shop drive through. After getting your beverage you are stopped waiting for the light to turn green. When from behind a teenager texting on her cell phone hits you at about 25 MPH. The impact was hard enough to push you into the car in front of you and caused damage to all three cars. You feel okay for the moment so after exchanging information you call your chiropractor to inform them of what happened. Your chiropractor gives you a emergency appointment and has you come in the same day. The chiropractor performs a full examination to evaluate the extent of the damage you sustained in the accident. The chiropractor orders any x-rays or other tests they deem appropriate. After it has been determined that it is safe for you to be adjusted, the chiropractor treats you for your injuries. The following morning you are a little sore from the accident but still able to go to work. After completing your treatment plan with the chiropractor you are well on the way to pre-injury status. Since the insurance company is refusing to pay you have hired an attorney for your case who requests the records from your chiropractor.

The notes from your chiropractor demonstrate every change that was made to your spine as a result of the accident. And since you went to the chiropractor the same day of the accident, changes to the spine can be made before your body has time to compensate for your injury and cause more damage.

Having that pre-injury status on record gives you ammunition should you ever have a accident in your life. No one wants to be injured but if you are injured due to someone elses neglegance showing a before and after picture of your spine makes it easy to determine the damage as a result of the accident. So consider making a consultation today and save yourself the headache down the road.

If you have any questions for the doctors feel free to email us at cwcchiropractic@gmail.com or call (636) 825-6555.