Is Your Child Suffering from Pain caused by Backpacks?

Is Your Child Suffering from Pain caused by Backpacks?

Are your children setting off for school in Milpitas, California, each day with a heavy backpack? If so, they might be setting themselves up for back pain and postural problems down the road.

According to a 2012 study led by Frances Kistner of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, children’s backpacks should not exceed 10 percent of a child’s weight. And yet, according to Consumer Reports, sixth-grade kids are carrying backpacks averaging 18.4 pounds, with some topping 30 pounds.

That’s simply too much, concludes Kistner. Her study, involving 11 schoolchildren ages 8 to 11, examined the effects of various loads on a child’s posture: 10 percent of body weight, 15 percent and 20 percent. The study determined that schoolchildren should limit their backpack loads to 10 percent of their body weight because of increased forward head position and the discomfort more than 50 percent of the children reported after carrying the heavier backpacks.

When a child carries too much weight on his or her shoulders, it pulls the youngster backward. The child either leans forward (termed “forward head posture” by chiropractors) or arches his or her back to compensate. Both positions can lead to spinal misalignments – vertebrae that are shifted out of place. Meanwhile, some kids prefer to wear their backpacks on one shoulder, which leaves them leaning to one side to offset the extra weight, straining not only their back but also their shoulders and neck.

A French study concluded that the longer a child wears a backpack that is too heavy, the longer it takes for a curvature or deformity of the spine to correct itself.

What happens to kids with spinal misalignments? Such misalignments put pressure on the delicate nerves within the spinal cord. Those nerves are the body’s communications system, delivering messages from the brain to the body and back. Misalignments interfere with those communications, preventing vital messages from reaching the limbs and organs. The result can be dysfunction, disease and pain.
That’s where Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP) comes in. Doctors of chiropractic who are trained in Chiropractic BioPhysics can rehabilitate and realign the spine back to health for a permanent and long-term solution to back pain and illness.

At Milpitas Spine Center in Milpitas, California, Drs. Dhanish Patel and Scott Riley and their dedicated team of chiropractors and therapists are focused on whole-body wellness. Their goal is to realign the spine, and strengthen the muscles in the back and neck to relieve the pressure on delicate nerves, giving your body the support and care it needs to heal and get out of pain.

If you live in the Milpitas, Fremont, San Jose, Santa Clara, or Sunnyvale area and your child routinely carries a backpack to school, call the Milpitas Spine Center for a complimentary consultation to see if your youngster qualifies for corrective care.