Archive for August 2016

• Never carry more than 10% of your body weight
• Always wear a backpack over both shoulders
• Pack heavy items closest to your spine

We often associate back pain with growing older, but these days many children and young people are experiencing back pain discomfort too. Often, the cause of the back pain for children is a result of carrying excessive loads to and from school in ill-fitting backpacks.

What happens when you wear a heavy backpack?

The spine is made of 33 bones called vertebrae and between the vertebrae are discs that act as natural shock absorbers. When a heavy backpack, with too much weight is placed on the shoulders of a child it can pull them backwards. To compensate this imbalance, the child may bend forward at the hips or arch the back, which can cause the spine to compress the discs unnaturally.