Backpack Safety for Teenagers

Your Teenager's Health Series : Backpack Safety For Teenagers

Children start carrying backpacks to preschool. Three years old and encouraged to bring a backpack to school! This sets up a pattern that is followed all through school. Sure, the little girls look so cute with their pink princess backpack as they get on the bus, but the bag normally comes home as empty as it went.

Backpacks can be useful for school-age children and useful for teens. They come in many sizes, shapes, and colors and allow teens to express their individual personalities. They’re also practical with the many compartments that help them tote notebooks, books, papers, lunches, and the many other items that teens need to carry.

Backpacks are considered safer to carry than a shoulder bag or purse because the strongest muscles in the body support the backpack. The shoulder muscles, back muscles, and the abdominal muscles are used to support the weight of a backpack.

It’s recommended that teens carry no more than 15% of their body weight in their backpack. They can cause muscle and joint strains, and back pain if the backpack is too heavy or not used in the right way. Shoulder, neck, and back pain can result in carrying a too heavy backpack. When your teen is carrying a pack that is too heavy, they may overcompensate by bending at the hips, or arcing the back to be able to carry it. This compresses the disk in the spine to compress and teens could start having back and shoulder pain.

Teens sometimes try to carry their whole locker with them during school. They either don’t have enough time to go to their lockers between classes. On the other hand, they just don’t want to visit their locker. They may also have personal belongings, laptops, DVD players, and CD collections.

If your teen wants to carry their backpack over their shoulder, they may end up with more problems. It can cause them to lean to one side to compensate for the added weight and cause them to develop upper and lower back pain, neck pain, and strain their shoulders. Improper use of the backpack can also encourage poor posture. Girls are more at risk for backpack injuries because they are smaller and try to carry loads in their backpack that are too heavy for them.

Tight narrow straps can interfere with circulation when they dig into shoulders and can cause nerve damage. Weakness in the teen’s arms and hands, tingling, and a numb sensation can also be caused by too tight, too small straps on a backpack.

Those large backpacks can also be a hazard to other people. Your teenager probably doesn’t realize how big their pack is and it can harm someone, especially in confined spaces, like the aisles of a bus. They’re also a tripping hazard and injuries have been reported by other teens falling over backpacks that are extending into aisles either in classrooms or buses. The risk of falling for someone wearing a backpack is greater because your sense of balance is altered, especially while climbing stairs.

Some hints to helping your teen avoid physical problems and still carry their essentials in a backpack. First, buy a backpack that is lightweight to start with. Leather may look cooler but they will add extra weight that your teen doesn’t need to carry. A lightweight canvas or nylon bag is recommended.

They should be equipped with two padded, wide shoulder straps that won’t dig into their shoulders. A waist belt can also help by spreading the weight more evenly over the body. It also doesn’t hurt to find one with a padded back that will give them extra carrying comfort. In addition, a backpack with multiple compartments is good for dividing the weight more evenly.

Some teens that carry, a lot of belongings sometimes will use a pull behind pack similar to pull behind carry-on luggage. These may ease the back pain but are harder to get upstairs, or roll outside. Some schools discourage use of rolling backpacks because of the tripping hazard they present in the halls.

As a parent, if you are aware of the health dangers involved in carrying a backpack, you can be proactive in finding the right one for your teen and making sure they don’t overload it.