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| Source: https://tinyurl.com/yb3awwms |
Wellness Teacher & Certified Athletic Trainer Pam Riddle and Dr. Bradley Weiss of Performance Health Center of Natick, MA, presented a backpack safety and injury prevention lesson this past week to the 6th grade class.
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| Dr. Weiss |
Your child’s backpack should never weigh more than 15% of their body weight. Every years we give a series of Backpack Safety Workshops at a local Middle School. A random sampling of the student’s backpacks found the majority were 25-30% of their body weight. Only one student’s backpack was below 15%.
Heavy backpacks are one of the major causes of back pain in school age students. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics 6% of 10 year olds and 18% of 14-16 year olds have low back pain. Only 7% of those children with low back pain seek medical treatment.
There are many causes of low back pain in children including laptops, sitting, smart phones and poor posture. Here we will focus on backpacks. Below are important tips to make backpacks less dangerous to your school aged children:
- Make sure your backpack weighs no more than 10 – 15% of your body weight
- Empty your backpack periodically to insure it contains no unnecessary items
- Make sure your backpack hangs no more than 4 inches below your waist
- Use both straps!
- Use thickly padded straps
- If your backpack has a waist strap, use it!
- Always place the heaviest items closed to your back (your center of gravity)
- Always lift with your legs, without twisting
To reach Dr. Weiss, email him at DrBradWeiss@PerformanceHealthCenter.com
To read the full article, click here.
The Wellness Department would like to thank Dr. Weiss for his donation of time to supporting the education of our students.
Yours in Health,
