Children suffer from back pain from schoolbags

Prevent back pain with properly packed school bags

04/17/2013

Often schoolchildren do not think about packing their satchels properly. When the class is over, the books and notebooks are thrown carelessly into the knapsack. But a wrong-packed satchel can cause back pain and even postural damage.

Back pain prevented by satchels with wide, padded straps
Neck tensions and back pain are part of everyday life for many schoolchildren. Guilt is often a wrong-packed or too heavy satchel. „Heavy books should be in the backpack close to the back. The satchel should be shoulder-level“, reports Ulrich Fegeler from the Professional Association of Pediatricians in Cologne. „Because if the satchel is too low, the child has to work against it with the abdominal muscles and with the back muscles too high to keep the balance. If the straps are set too short, this promotes a round back, if they are too long, the posture tends to a hollow back.“ The expert advises therefore to broad, padded and infinitely adjustable straps on the satchel. This distributes the weight better.

Overall, the weight of the satchel should not exceed ten to twelve percent of the child's body weight. „But the resilience can be individually very different. The muscular strength of the child, his coordination and his sense of balance play a major role here“, says Fegeler. Sporty, active children could sometimes carry a weight of 17 percent of body weight without any problems. For other untrained children, sometimes ten percent of their body weight could overload them.

Avoid back pain through good load distribution in the satchel
Also Dr. Frank John from orthonet-NRW, a consortium of orthopedic specialists in North Rhine-Westphalia, advises to use satchels as light as possible. Responsible parents would pack the satchel together with their children in the evenings, taking care to only pack the books and notebooks that would really be needed the next day. Toys or unnecessary ballast should stay at home. Even with water bottles and lunch boxes can be paid to a low weight. But the main focus should be on the distribution of the loads, according to the expert. All heaviness should therefore be on the back, lighter items could be stowed in the front pocket area.

As the professional association of paediatricians informs, unnatural posture when wearing the satchel is one of the first signs of overloading. So, if the child bends strongly forward or backwards or has trouble putting on the satchel, parents should check if too much weight, poor distribution of the load or the satchels themselves is the cause of the problems. If a child complains about back pain, the position of the satchel can be changed. Maybe it makes sense to switch to another model. Tingling sensations and numbness in the fingers are among the clear warning signs of overload, according to the professional association. (Sb)

Also read:
Back pain from satchels
Before the bike tour to the health check
Pay attention to back-friendliness when buying a satchel

Image: Ingrid Ruthe