Teenage Mutant Ninja Students?
When Kids Live Out of Their Aching Backpacks
If your child is carrying both house and home on his/her back to school every day, and your kid is not actually a turtle hatchling, then you need to read on. (By default, if you are a parent turtle with hatchlings, then ignore this article - I’m sure their backs feels just fine, and report to Guinness World Records immediately on account of your grasp of technology and the English language.)
One-third of America’s youth has back or neck pain with many of these cases becoming chronic and continuing on into adulthood, resulting in disability. Although there are many contributors to back pain, which we will gladly tackle and hopefully pile-drive into oblivion, the subject of this post is regarding backpacks.
Backpacks Should:
1. …Weigh no more than 10% of a child’s body weight. Use the following equation:
Child’s body weight ______ X .10 = ________. (The backpack should weigh no more than this amount. )
Use this equation with your child and do regular “weigh-ins”, as it will involve them on the importance of proper backpack weight, and provide a math lesson as they track their growing weight with that of their developing backpacks.
2. …be sized from just below the shoulders to just above or at hip height/pelvic bone height. (Padding next to the back helps).
3. …be worn with both shoulder straps. The shoulder straps should be wide and cushioned and be of equal length. (Can measure from the attachment to the adjustable buckle and put markings periodically, so your child can readily be compliant if the straps get loosened or pulled.)
4. …be worn the following way: The middle of the backpack should be worn in the middle of the back.
5. …when available, be worn with a waist harness (and ideally a chest harness)
Waist harnesses should belt just above the pelvic bones, when they are drawn snug, so that the backpack weight can shelf, so to speak, on top of these bones. (see pic). This will then allow for mild loosening of the two shoulder straps. Now, the downward load of the backpack will transfer less onto the shoulders and spine, and more on the pelvic bones and down the legs, which can accept the loading better. Keep In Mind: Using the waist harness doesn’t necessarily sanction adding more weight for a number of reasons which we will get into in another post.
Tip: One can go to a luggage repair store and have a waist harness belt added to your child’s favorite backpack.
Not Into Math or Physics?
There is always the wheeled backpack, but stay tuned for lifting strategies as transitioning these more weighted packs in and out of the minivan and up and down steps at school requires some know-how.
I am trying not to take everyone into the weeds on the nuances of study claims while giving the overall scientific consensus combined with clinical experience. I will, however, provide some citations at the end as support, but also should you require them when engaging school boards or for PTA meetings to make some changes.
Speaking of which….
Strategies for lightening up the load:
1. Backpacks should not be storage for extraneous things.
Schedule “What’s in the Sorting Hat/Bag?” events, and see what magically appears in your child’s backpack. Do this with AND without your child. Teach them the Marie Kondo method of letting go. Before “filing” / discarding, say “thank you” for all the Rorschach tests that have been colorfully haunting your kid’s bag under the guise of art projects.
Tip 1: Leave your interpretations to yourself. Interpreting their “artwork” as “clouds of cumulous crap” is not a way to build self-esteem….but empowering them to make like Queen Elsa and “let it go,” actually will.
“Freedom comes when you learn to say no, creation comes when you learn to let go.”
(Note to web editor: Please insert pic of my pointy gold leotard outfit here.)
Tip 2: Place a surprise in their bag, like a dollar bill, a new Beyblade, or an ice cream sundae to make Sorting Hat/bag Day more fun, and say, “see why it’s important to clear out your bag every so often? You never know what you will find.”
2. Pack the heaviest things closest to the body and not lopsidedly.
3. Use Lockers to leave books that are not required to be brought home. Get with the school board on mapping out locker location, and allocating time to visit the lockers for exchanges. If time allocation is not an option (unlike college or the real world where we are usually given more time), then perhaps the classrooms can have mini locker cubbies or designated areas in classrooms for leaving books while under lock and key.
4. Use devices for textbooks that are available as digital/ e-books.
5. Consider copy-laws and use google docs or doc-hub for copies or PDFs of book chapters, as these options and applications allow for note-taking and highlighting.
6. For assigned books, like novels, obtain an e-version. Or purchase an inexpensive copy for home use at a used book store.
7. Tote an empty water bottle to be filled at school as these can weigh one pound when filled. Empty them once school gets out into the planter containing plastic plants outside the teacher’s lounge before going home. Or, keep a separate water bottle on campus in your locker, which you still have no time visiting.
8. Photocopy (whatever that is) only current chapters from all classes into a single binder, and trade them out as courses progress.
9. Get a second copy of some or all textbooks for the home. Our school has a few copies as “loaners”. (Have the PTA spring the coinage for these.)
10. Extracurricular sporting gear or clothing, can be kept at school, brought, or packed separately from the standard backpack. Use wheeled sports bags when available as these bags can be heavy and are usually carried quite some distance, especially if you are accustomed to walking to the wrong field, or the correct field, but on the wrong day.
11. I’ll mention wheeled backpacks again here if someone just sends this list without the benefit of the entire article/post. And by wheeled backpacks, by extension, I also mean mini luggage carts that non-wheeled backpacks can fit on. An exoskeleton for your bag may not be the coolest option to have as a kid, (or maybe it is?), but neither is a Scheuermann’s back brace.
12. Desperation Option #1: Drive-by drop-offs where adult staff carries books to homeroom ahead of the school day (hand them my chiropractic card/ QR code, they’ll need it. ) This can also be done with sports bags after school, as you can exchange their book bags for their sports bags.
13. Desperation Option #2: Lobby publishing companies to make e-books available or to divide up the textbooks into a series like the Encyclopedia Britannica (whatever that was).
Please Note: If the bag is too heavy do not place it over the shoulders, even temporarily. Hug it, or slip both forearms into the shoulder straps like you are folding your arms at your lower chest level. Or better, throw the books ahead of you, and when you catch up to where they land, heave them again in the direction of the school, and so forth.
14. If you need a qualified source for help advocating, reach out to me at ergocomical@gmail.com.
- Dr. Goodbender
Medscape, “Back Pain Affects One-third of American Youth.” by Michael Vlessides March 14, 2019.
Ana Brzek, Tarja Dworrak, Markus Strauss, Fabian Sanchis-Gomar, Ibtissam Sabah, Birgit Dworrak, Roman Leischik. The Weight of Pupils’ schoolbags in early school age and its influence on body posture. BMC Musculoskeletal Disord. 2017;18:117. PMID: 28320364.
https://www.aota.org/Conference-Events/Backpack-Safety-Awareness-Day.aspx
Karen Jacobs, OT, EdD, OTR, CPE, FAOTA https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBCC76F04A61BC62F
Dr. Goodbender authored:
Lord O’sis: An Ounce of Back Pain Prevention for Our Pint-Sized Peeps
A graphic novel for kids and parents with a “search and find” and tips for reinforcing good posture and body mechanics
Facebook Parenting Group: Slumping-Spine Fighters!
(© Dr. Goodbender, Ergocomical, PA and is available only by written permission. ) Please reach out to us via e-mail for Public Speaking & Consulting
