By Anushca Van Aswegen

It is increasingly more common to find children complaining of back pain. In a previous blog, Martine addressed a few causes of childhood or teenage back pain but in the spirit of back to school I thought it appropriate to address schoolbag ergonomics. 

It is important to understand that there is a difference between the anatomy of children and adolescents versus those of adults. Children’s muscles, ligaments and tendons are still developing and thus more elastic giving their joints more movement. This puts them at risk for injuring these joints easily. The vertebral bodies in the spine of children and teenagers are softer and only fully developed between 18-20 years of age. 

Keeping the above explanation in mind, there are three aspects to look at when choosing and packing a school backpack: 

• Backpack style is one of the most important factors. 2 straps are better than one! Carrying a backpack over one shoulder places a lot of weight on one side of the body and lead to compensating side-flexion of the spine to the opposite direction. These compensating movements may change the spine of children possibly leading to scoliosis which could become a chronic condition. 
• Now that you have the backpack, let’s get it positioned properly. It is best to adjust a backpack’s straps so the backpack is positioned in the middle of the body, not high up on the shoulders and upper spine and not too low on the lower back and bum. If there is a strap holding the bag to the body (ie clips at the front) then this will bring the centre of gravity of the bag forward over the pelvis. This is the optimal position to minimise compensating spinal movements. 
• Now let’s pack this bag, but not too heavy. Some studies show that safe loads for children to carry is between 10-15% of their body weight. That means that an 11 year old boy, weighing 35kg, can only carry a max of 5kg on his back. It is important to minimise load by only taking the books and equipment to school that is absolutely necessary. Children should also be encouraged to use lockers at school should the schools provide these. 

Unfortunately it is not always possible to control the weight of backpacks but there are other things that are easy and fun for children to do to help prevent back pain from heavy backpacks. Its called movement! There are a variety of sporting activities available at most schools. Physio’s love helping youngsters build stronger bodies to establish healthy lifestyles that will serve them far longer than just their schooling careers. So let’s get the basics right and protect that spine at school.