With the beginning of the school year, children have to pick up books, cases, notebooks and carry them every day to take them and bring them from home to school and from school to home. In that transit it is important that children carry a backpack that meets at least a series of requirements to try to minimize the impact of improper use of backpacks.
According to Spanish College Medical Organization and the Kovacs Foundation, 51% of boys and 69% of girls under 15 have already had back pain at some time in their lives which impacts that probably when they are older they will have chronic pain. So the kids have to practice more exercise, lead less sedentary lives, avoid transporting overloaded backpacks and monitor the furniture in the classrooms and their homes where they do their homework, adopting the best possible positions. Also from this Foundation remember that backpacks must not weigh more than 10% of the weight of the child and that books should be cut into quarters to lighten the weight of the load. Of course, they are also in favor of incorporating digital content to minimize the contents of the backpack.
We remember here, also thanks to the work of the Collegiate Medical Organization and the Kovacs Foundation that, as every year, present their recommendations to prevent back pain:
- Backpacks must have wide, padded shoulder straps. They must also be extensible to adapt them to the size and shape of each child.
- The backpack belts should be padded and allow to adjust to the level of the abdomen.
- The frame of the backpack has to be anatomical and soft.
- The backpack should be able to stick to the body and low in the lower back, between the hips and above the culete, not below as you can see many schoolchildren (in the picture).
- The heaviest objects should go inside the backpack and the most attached to the body so as not to unbalance the child.
- The size of the backpack should not exceed the child's torso and, as we have said, it should not exceed 10% of the child's weight.
- To lift the backpack, although it is a rule that I think we do not meet the elderly, you must always try to keep your back straight and make the effort with your legs.
- In the case of backpacks with wheels we remember that the wheels facilitate dragging, weight lifting is avoided, with the height of the handle the child is prevented from bending over to carry the backpack.
Although it is still time to get the kids to be loaded with digital devices to school, at least, we can try to avoid dislikes in adult life related to backaches by following these safety tips and recommendations on backpacks.
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