I had to smile driving to work recently when I passed a group of kids walking to school. Their bags were so big, it looked like the kids would actually fit inside them!
Whilst its cute, the wrong back pack – or even worse, a badly fitted backpack can harm your child’s posture and spine.
Here are some simple guidelines to help:
- ⦁ Never load the backpack to more than 10% of your child’s body weight. (Simply divide your child’s weight by 10. For example a child weighing 40kg shouldn’t carry a pack weight more than 4kg!)
- ⦁ Use bags with 2 shoulder straps, and fasten the waist strap. This helps distribute the weight evenly and across the hips. Avoid single strap bags.
- ⦁ Place the heaviest items towards the bottom of the bag.
- ⦁ Choose the right size bag – the bag should not be wider than the child’s chest.
We are here to help, if your unsure contact our office and we can arrange for one of our chiropractors to check if your childs back pack fits correctly.
