Back to school means kids will again face the possibility of serious injury from San Antonio area youngsters lugging around overfilled and improperly loaded backpacks, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Dr. Nicholas Nira, a chiropractor at TSAOG Orthopaedics in San Antonio, will treat these kids for a variety of painful muscle pulls, strains, and worse.
He says making sure back to school isn't painful starts with the way the backpack is carried.
"You want it to be about two inches or so above the waistline," Dr. Nira says. "You want it to be up on the shoulders, and you don't want it to be swaying as they're walking."
He says always use both straps on a backpack, not just one. He says the backpack should be evenly balanced, because requiring a child to carry a backpack with one shoulder carrying all the weight leads to strains.
And Dr. Nira says the biggest problems he sees come from backpacks which just have too much stuff jammed into them.
"Typically you want to stay in the 10 to 15 percent of that child's body weight range," he said.
He says if possible, some items, like books, should be carried in the arms to relieve the stress on the shoulders and back.
What are some of the most serious problems he sees from overloaded or improperly loaded backpacks?
"Muscle strains or muscle sprains," he said. "They are going to suffer from neck pain, headache, mid back pain, and on the more serious side, possible scoliosis and other postural issues."
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