School will be starting soon in Ulster County. And that means many Highland moms and dads are probably already thumbing through sales flyers in search of school supplies. One of the items that students will need is a backpack, which must be purchased with care. Physical Therapist, Dr. Jolly, and her First Care Medical Center’s physical therapy team explain why:
Backpacks, coupled with the school supplies stuffed within them, have the potential to cause chronic back pain and poor posture in both children and adults. They may also cause skeletal deformities to occur in children whose spines have yet to fully develop. There have been many studies completed over the years that bolster Dr. Jolly and her team of physical therapists’ claims. One of the more recent ones was published in a Spring 2013 issue of Pediatric Physical Therapy.
Part of the problem rests with a backpack’s design. Many are not equipped with padded backs, compression straps, waist belts and dual, contoured, padded shoulder straps. As such, they are prone to shift around while the student is in transit to and from class. All of that shifting around ultimately puts undue stress on Highland students’ musculoskeletal systems. And over time, that stress may lead to the health problems we mentioned earlier.
The other half of the dilemma may be attributed to how students choose to use their backpacks. Some of the kids load the bags up beyond capacity and then use bad form when lugging them around throughout the course of the day. That too may add to the stress already exerted onto growing muscles, bones and nerves. Similar may be said for tote bags, hand bags and front packs.
So with that in mind, Dr. Jolly and her physical therapy team urge parents to educate their kids about proper backpack use and break out the bathroom scale from time to time. Once the scale is out, both the child and the full backpack should be weighed separately. That’s because it is widely accepted among physical therapists, like Dr. Jolly, that if the backpack and its contents exceed 10% of the student’s body weight, some of items should be removed immediately. Otherwise, the body may sustain injury. Other physical therapists believe that the pack’s contents shouldn’t exceed 5%.
To learn more from Dr. Jolly and her First Care Medical Center team about the dangers of improper backpack use, please contact us today. Together, we can help Ulster County’s families get ready to enjoy a great, safe school year.