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.