It’s back to school and your children will soon be hunched over desks. They will also be carrying heavy backpacks over their shoulders and will be back into their extra curricular activities. The long hours of sitting and extra weight they carry in their backpacks can cause posture problems and low back pain. Here are some tips to help posture problems and low back pain as your children head back to school.
The percent of children (about 18%) and teenagers (about 66%) who get low back pain at some point in their lives is high. (1) In general, as people age their chances of getting low back pain increases. The percent of adults getting low back at some point in their lives is 80%. (2, 3)
Children and teenagers get low back pain for many of the same reasons adults would except for the fact they have had less wear and tear on their bodies. Some main risk factors for low back pain include: being sedentary, being overweight or obese, overtraining or too much physical activity, smoking, increased height, mental stress, and carrying a heavy backpack. (4)
Backpack Tips
If your children don’t use a good fitting backpack or don’t use it properly, they will be prone to develop posture problems and low back pain.
I often hear kids overload their backpacks with too many items which means they are carrying around extra weight. The current guideline is to not carry more than 10% of your body weight. Try to pack items you will need only for a class, or the morning or afternoon. As well, heavy items should be placed in the backpack closest to the body for better weight distribution. Other items can be packed in other pockets.
If your children don’t use a good fitting backpack or don’t use it properly, they will be prone to develop posture problems and low back pain.
Here are some buying tips:
- Choose a bag made out of light weight material like nylon or canvas. Pick the right size for your child. The top of the bag should come to the top of the shoulders and the bottom should not extend below the hip bone (pelvis).
- Pick a pack that has multiple pockets to help distribute weight in the pack more evenly.
- Make sure the bag has wide and padded adjustable straps that fit around the shoulders and padding that contacts your child’s back. If possible, get a backpack that has an adjustable waist and chest strap.
Speaking of straps, it would be best if your child actually uses all of the straps when wearing them (at least on long walks). A lot of kid’s swing one of the shoulder straps over their shoulder either out of laziness or to look “cool”. Using all four straps helps to transfer some of the weight of the backpack off of the spine and on to the hips.
Long hours of Sitting
Long hours of sitting at a desk studying and using the computer can create posture problems and lead to low back pain. If you notice your child slouches excessively or their head or body tilts to one side make sure you consult a chiropractor. Chiropractors are specialists in assessing and fixing posture problems related to low back pain.
Long hours of sitting at a desk studying and using the computer can create posture problems and lead to low back pain.
Here’s an article I wrote on how to assess one of your family members’ posture: ‘Need Chiropractic Care? Check Your Posture’
Human beings are meant to move to keep their brains and bodies healthy. Prolonged sitting and lack of exercise tenses the nerves and muscles in the spine creating poor posture. If your child sits about six hours a day at school and does this five days a week they will gradually seize up. Furthermore, if your children are inactive and they go home after school and sit for another three to four hours watching TV or playing video games the perfect storm exists. It won’t take long for posture issues and low back pain to occur.
Solutions for Children with Low Back Pain
Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care is a safe and effective treatment for children with low back pain. In fact, when I was 14 years old, my Mom and Dad took me to the chiropractor for the first time. I was struggling with low back pain which kept me from playing hockey. I was off for about two weeks. We received no solutions from the medical profession during this time so my parents thought a trip to their “witch doctor” might be the way to go. Well it was. Dr. Goldie had me upright and skating within three visits.
Chiropractic care is a safe and effective treatment for children with low back pain.
I’ve already mentioned consulting chiropractor to assess your children’s posture. I have also written a couple of articles in regards to treating children and chiropractic for low back pain. You can refer to those articles here:
‘Chiropractic Care for Children’
‘Prevent Low Back Pain with Regular Chiropractic Care’
‘Chiropractic Care for Low Back Pain’
Exercise
Unless you have been hiding in a closet your whole lifetime, you know as well as I do that exercise is good for you and your children. Too much sitting is one of the best ways to end up with a chronic illness. This includes chronic low back pain.
High levels of fitness are associated with longer lifespans and being “unfit” is a greater predictor of early death than being a smoker. (5) Regular exercise also helps prevent low back pain. (6) However, your child may not experience the health benefits of exercise if they’re sitting most of the day which extends beyond school hours. (7)
High levels of fitness are associated with longer lifespans and being “unfit” is a greater predictor of early death than being a smoker. Regular exercise also helps prevent low back pain.
Human beings are hardwired for movement. Our ancestors of over 10,000 years and modern day hunter and gatherers were and are more robust and healthier than modern day human beings. (8, 9) They do not get chronic illness like we do. Hunter and gatherers rely on movement to get food, build shelters, and protect themselves from predators and neighbouring tribes.
However, our ancestors also relied on being “lazy” to conserve energy to ensure they had enough energy when they needed it most. So we’re also hardwired to be “lazy” to survive.
Most of us no longer need to be physically active to acquire food and shelter. So the result is that we’re “lazy” most times. We know we should be getting more exercise, but we often don’t feel like it. We’re not “forced” to do it to survive anymore.
Understanding that we’re supposed to be “lazy” is a good a thing. We can stop thinking of being “lazy” as a personal failure and use it as a strategy to get more active.
In the future, I will share some tips on how to make an exercise and movement more of a habit. In the meantime, here are a few strategies to get you and your children more active:
- Are you as a parent doing regular physical activity? Your children mimic what you do. The earlier you make exercise a routine, the more likely your child will do it.
- Pick an activity or exercise you think you would actually enjoy so you’re more likely to stick with it.
- Limit the time you spend sitting. In fact, if you’re not active already doing something that is low intensity is a good first step. Spend more time standing, walking, gardening, cycling, or even housework.
- Get a standing or treadmill desk.
- Take walking meetings
- If you drive to work, park 10 to 20 blocks away from work and walk.
- If you take public transport, get off a stop or two few stops before your office and walk.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
- Click here for some exercises that you and your children can do that can help with posture, strength and flexibility, and may help provide more comfort when standing and sitting.
Lose weight
30% of children in Canada and the United States up to the age of 17 are overweight or obese. (10, 11)
I don’t think I have to convince you that if your child is overweight or obese, they are going to have extra stress on their spine making them prone to low back pain.
Losing weight can be more complex than eating well and exercise. This subject matter extends well beyond this article so I’m going to point you to this article I wrote a while back: ‘Lose Weight to Help Your Low Back Pain’.
Summary
Using a good fitting backpack properly, getting your child into a chiropractor for posture assessments and regular care, and getting your child to limit sitting and move more are all important strategies to prevent low back pain as back to school approaches.
Leave a Reply