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With the school’s about to reopen for another term, King’s College Hospital London shares some useful information regarding the weight of a chid’s school bag…
It is not uncommon to see children in the UAE carrying backpacks that are twice their size. However, it’s important to realise that this can cause long term trauma to their backs, necks and shoulders – which may be irreversible.
Children, who carry backpacks that largely exceed 10% of their body weight can in the long term withstand muscle, skeleton as well as nerve damage. Research shows, in fact, that heavy loads can damage soft tissues on the shoulders and back, affecting the microstructure of nerves, which can in due course reduce nerve conductivity. In other words, those nerves could stop communicating signals.
Heavy backpacks can end up diminishing nerve capacity, which could ultimately delay or even restrict the muscles’ capacity to react to the brain’s signals.For more information, click here – https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130221141604.htm
In addition to these alarming effects, a heavily loaded backpack can cause the child to adopt a tilted posture due to the discomfort, making him or her lean more towards one side, which can lead to conditions, such as scoliosis. In similar conditions, heavy weight on the back will pull the child backward forcing him or her to bend forward or arch unnaturally to compensate. This then puts a lot of pressure on the spine, which will inevitably cause back pain, and sometimes injury. See here for further details – https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/backpack.html
It is extremely important for parents to ensure their children are not carrying heavy loads, as well as check they are wearing and strapping their backpacks properly for a better distribution of weight, i.e, no ‘cool’ off the shoulder one strapped look.
As for schools, they should provide enough lockers for all students and be keeping an eye out for overloaded backpacks – to help look after children’s health and wellbeing.
For more information, visit http://www.khc.ae
