GREENSBORO, N.C. — Consumer reports found a child's backpack can weigh upwards of 30 pounds which sports medicine doctors say is enough to cause lifelong back problems.
“We tend to fall into making sure we have a backpack big enough to carry as much as we can, I mean with lunch box, books, supplies, but the issue with that is you fill the backpack up,” Dr. RJ Turner said in the past during our back to school coverage.
He says a child's backpack should never be more than 20 percent of their weight. If your kid is 50 pounds, that means their backpack should be 10 pounds or lighter.
“If you notice that your kid's leaning forwards or backwards and there's not like really a good solution in terms of taking some of the weight out of the backpack, the best thing to do is just get a smaller backpack,” Turner said.
He also recommends backpacks with two straps that are padded so the weight is evenly distributed. These same tips apply, even in school districts that require clear backpacks.
Dr. Turner says it’s important to think about these things now.
“It really ultimately develops bad posture,” he said. “When you have bad posture, you're going to limit the amount that a child can grow and things like that.”
You also want to put the heaviest items closest to your child’s back. That keeps them from being over backwards.
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