Backpacks and Texting

School began in the Placerville area just over a month ago. Each day, kids rush off to school hauling a backpack and a cellphone telephone. How they use the backpack and cellular telephone may set them up for postural problems in the future.

Consumer Reports conducted a study of sixth-grade kids carrying backpacks. The average weight of a backpack is just over eighteen pounds, with some topping thirty pounds. Twenty to thirty pound is too much for a sixth grade child to carry, according to a 2012 study led by Frances Kistner of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

Kistner’s study, which involved 11 schoolchildren ages 8 to 11, examined the effects of various backpack loads. The study compared loads of ten percent of body weight vs. fifteen percent to twenty percent on a child’s posture. The study determined children should limit the backpack loads carried to ten percent of their body weight. Backpacks of a greater weight could increase forward head positions. Fifty percent of the children reported discomfort after carrying heavier backpacks.

Physics prevails and forces a child to compensate. Increased weight on a child’s shoulders could pull their head backwards. To compensate, youngsters may lean forward and project their head out and away from their shoulders. The forward projection of the head is what chiropractors call "forward head posture," a common result or cause of poor posture. The forward head posture will shift the spine. Kids are resilient but the long-term effects of a forward head can lead to degenerative spinal changes.

The cellular telephone kids carry with them exacerbate the problem Dr. Dean Fishman coined and trademarked the phrase "text neck". The average kid spends one-and-a half hours a day texting, according to a 2010 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Like forward head posture, bending the neck downward puts pressure on your neck and spine. Prolonged forward head posture from leaning forward can lead to a misaligned spine, which can lead to headaches, arm and shoulder pain, and possibly arthritis.

Spinal misalignments put pressure on the delicate nerves near the spinal cord. The result is nerve interference, which prevents vital nerve energy from reaching the limbs and organs. The nerve interference can lead to organ dysfunction and disease. When a spinal problem manifest in a child, they may not respond akin to an adult. The child may not tell you they are hurting. You may notice a change in the child’s school work, may appear more irritable, and/ or tired.

If you live in the Placerville area, please call Dr. Savage at Savage Chiropractic to have your child examined for spinal misalignments.