How often do you see a kid staggering under the heavyweight of their school bags? Their backs are crooked and seem like there are not just books on those heavy school bags.
This has become a common sight, as every morning you can see hundreds of kids going to school with the heavy school bags that can cause them health issue.
And the problem is these school bags are getting heavier every year. Not sure if those are the school books or teachers torturing students. Is there any solution? Before we answer that, first talk about the problems that these heavy school bags are causing to kids.
How heavy school bags affect your kid?
Dr Garima Anandani, senior spine specialist and clinical director, QI Spine Clinic said, the weight of school bag should be less than 10 per cent of the bodyweight of the children. If it is more than 10 per cent it can affect the spine health of your child.
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Dr Anandani added, “Backpacks take a heavy toll on children. And nowadays, every kid is carrying an overloaded backpack, that too they have to wear incorrectly because of the heavyweight that is making it uncomfortable to carry. This creates stress on the spine, which could cause a child to lean too far forward and experience distortion of the natural curve of the spine, rolling their shoulders and causing a more rounded upper back. Some students wear their bags on only one shoulder, and they might walk tilted to one side and suffer neck pain.”
Other than that a study was concluded on the primary school students of Kolhapur in Maharashtra. The main objective of the study was to find the effects of the weight of schoolbags and musculoskeletal health problems. Results came in and concluded that the school bag weight cause discomfort to students and even effects the musculoskeletal health of kids.
As 42 per cent of students reported discomfort in the shoulder region followed by 23.9 per cent reported in the neck.
You can say that the excess weight can cause spine, shoulder, neck and other musculoskeletal pains. But isn’t there any solution for the heavy school bags?
Heavy school bags solutions
The first thing that you can do to fix the problem of heavy school bags, is to teach your kids how to arrange their bags. Make sure that are not carrying any extra book and just following their time table.
Make sure that the heaviest book is near the back so that the weight can be distributed easily. Also, as a parent, you get to decide their school accessories. Make sure their tiffin box and the water bottle are not adding up to the extra weight.
One last thing is to pay attention to the backpacks itself. Choose the one that supports the back of your kid and not the one that has Power Rangers printed on it.
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Make sure that the bag has two wide padded shoulder straps so that it won’t evenly distribute the stress on the shoulders of your kids.
In Conclusion:
Schools are not doing anything about the heavy school bags. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. Make the necessary changes mentioned above and fix the problem of heavy school bags for your kids.
