Don't let school weight your kids down

By JESSICA NOTEBAERT
Observer-Dispatch

s children head back to school, shopping for backpacks may be at the top of parents' to-do lists. While the selection is wide, not all backpacks are created equal. Help your child avoid potential back stress caused by a heavy pack by buying an appropriate backpack and reviewing the proper ways to carry and pack it.

The statistics

Standard use of backpacks - lifting, wearing and taking off - accounts for less than 30 percent of injuries to the back according to National Electronic Injury Surveillance System data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Seventy-seven percent of backpack injuries that send children to hospitals come from nonstandard uses such as tripping, hitting or dropping the backpack.
The two most common injuries caused by backpacks are foot and ankle injuries caused by tripping over a backpack and head and face injuries caused by being hit by a backpack, according to the data.

The data also reveals a difference in the types of injuries each gender is likely to sustain. More females are injured than males in standard backpack use. One reason for this deviation may be that females tend to be smaller and weigh less than their male counterparts, but they are required to carry the same weight in textbooks and other backpack items.

What the local experts say

There are six different mechanisms for injury involving backpacks -- wearing, lifting, taking off, tripping over, reaching into, or being hit by a backpack - said physical therapist Joe Martin, owner of Function Better Physical Therapy and Cutting Edge Fitness Center. Injuries can be avoided by paying more attention to backpack selection and by following general safety guidelines.

A backpack's intended purpose is to distribute weight over the strongest muscles in the body - the lower back and the abdominals. When the backpack is allowed to hang below the waist, the weight is forced on other, weaker muscles and can cause injury. Tightening the shoulder straps can easily relieve this problem.

"The backpack should be as snug as possible to the body as it helps maintain an optimal center of gravity for the child," Martin said.

Many injuries from backpacks can be caused by improper use of the shoulder straps. Skinny, excessively tight shoulder straps combined with a heavy weight can dig into a child's shoulders, causing discomfort or pain. Wearing just one strap of the backpack can affect the spine's alignment, causing lasting back pain.
"Choose backpacks that have wide and well-padded shoulder straps so that the total weight of the backpack is more dispersed," Martin suggests. "It is important to utilize both straps for better force distribution as well."

Apart from carrying too much weight, a cause of back injury can be swinging the backpack up and onto the shoulders or down off the body. Martin suggests maintaining control over the backpack as a means of preventing this type of injury.

What the national experts say

As society becomes more health- and safety-conscious, concern over backpack-related injuries is becoming more of an issue, said Dr. Michael Marks, president of Coastal Orthopaedics in Connecticut and a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Heavy textbooks and other items that burden students are causing parents and administrators to reflect upon safety.

"I think that parents are concerned about this issue because of the large number of books and other items the children cart back and forth to school."

Marks suggests several tips for preventing injuries, including putting the heaviest and largest books close to the back, having padded straps pulled snugly, and using the belt strap if possible.

"I don't suggest that children carry these heavy packs for long periods of time, but they certainly can transport their needs, if managed properly, to and from school."
Like most health-care professionals, Marks encourages parents to take complaints of backpack-related pain or injury seriously.

"If you really want to get to the bottom of the problem, see an orthopaedic surgeon who understands back injuries," he said. "Bring the backpack with you and let the orthopaedic surgeon show the proper method of it."

What the administrators say

Schools across the country have tackled the backpack safety issue in many different ways, with varying degrees of intensity. In Virginia, April has been designated Backpack Awareness Month. Former California governor Gray Davis signed legislation that required the state's Board of Education to set a weight limit for all elementary and middle-school textbooks by mid-2004.

Other methods of preventing injury have included banning backpacks entirely, making more homework assignments available in worksheet or CD-ROM format, capping possible backpack weight or giving students an extra set of textbooks to keep at home.

Mark Dunn, principal at Elliot R. Hughes Elementary School in New Hartford, said no backpack-related injuries have been reported in the school, but that general safety guidelines are encouraged. Dunn attributes this lack of injuries in part to a light backpack load.

"From the elementary perspective, many of our textbooks do not go home with students," Dunn said. "It's usually folders, homework, material that people need to see. Once in a while, a textbook will go home, but that's the exception, not the rule."

The responsibility of discussing backpack safety rests with the individual teachers. Many choose to go over basic common-sense safety tips in the beginning of the year, Dunn said. Also, a portion of Hughes' kindergarten orientation workshops involves the director of transportation talking about backpack safety.

What parents and students say

Backpack safety is an important issue for parents, including Preisca Walker of Utica, who has three school-age children. Walker said her two young boys don't really have too much to carry - elementary school students do not use heavy textbooks or carry weighty binders.

Walker's 13-year-old daughter, Christine Dennis, is an eighth-grader at Sen. James H. Donovan Middle School in Utica. Dennis uses a rolling backpack to help protect her back, Walker said.

Walker acknowledged that even the rolling backpacks have their safety hazards.
"Going up the stairs, if there's a lot of weight in it, it can pull you back," she said.
Courtney Moody, 14, a 10th-grader at West Canada Valley School, said that her backpack's weight fluctuates depending on how much homework she gets, but generally is not unbearable.

"Sometimes it's really heavy if I have a lot of homework, but it's not usually too bad," she said.

Moody said when choosing a backpack for school she thinks first of comfort. She opts for a backpack with two padded straps, "so the weight's all kind of even."
"If I have a messenger bag, I'll feel the pain on one side," Moody said. "It's not bad with two straps."