Is your child’s schoolbag damaging their back?

If your child has been complaining of back, shoulder and neck pains or even headaches, it’s time you weighed his/her school bag. Heavy schools bags can not only affect your child’s posture, but also cause disability.

A study conducted on students from Mangalore’s high schools indicated that a backpack weighing 5% of the child’s body weight can significantly change trunk and lower limb angles of children.

If the backpack weighs 15% of the child’s body weight, it changes angles pertaining to head, neck, trunk, and lower limb and affects overall posture.

The study published in the latest edition of Indian Pediatrics journal was conducted on pre-adolescent students (aged 12.5 years), by experts from  Movement Analysis Lab in Srinivas College of Physiotherapy and Research Centre and Kasturba Medical College in Mangalore.

Back pain is a common problem among children. About 10-30% of healthy teens complain of lower back pain. “For children in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, heavy backpacks are a big problem.

Notwithstanding a high court ruling which limits the weight of school bags to 10% of child’s body weight, the load on children’s back is increasing.

There is a substantial increase in the number of complaints relating to shoulder aches and backaches among children, which is a cause of worry,” Mumbai-based pediatrician Dr Samir Dalwai said.

The study said that daily physical stress associated with carrying backpacks causes the head and trunk to lean forward.

This could result in pain and disability in children given the fact that the growth of the skeletal system among children occurs during puberty.

The study, therefore, called for awareness to restrict backpack load to less than 5% of the body weight by using school lockers, CDs and USB flash drives.

It also stressed on the need to regularly monitor musculoskeletal problems associated with carrying heavy backpacks.