I have been talking with the nursing and physical education staff at some of the schools here in the Eastern Suburbs with a view to developing a guide for students on posture and general back health. The idea is to develop good habits at an early age as while your children are still growing. During childhood and adolescence their backs are not yet strong and it’s easy for them to suffer an injury that could affect the way their spine grows.

A lot of research has come out in the last few years showing the effects of backpacks on the discs in your spine and confirming that they can cause scoliosis and back pain in children. I have written previously on this topic with an article showing that backpacks should ideally weight 10% of the child’s body weight. In one study of 11 year olds, researchers did MRI scans of the children with no backpack on, then with it on and they gradually started adding weight. When they went above 10% they were actually able to see on MRI the discs being compressed and the spine starting to curve.

• 79.1% of children say their backpacks feel heavy
• 65.7% report feeling fatigued by the weight of their backpack
• 46.1% report back pain caused by their backpack.
• The weight of the average backpack is heavier, proportionally, than the legal load-bearing limit for adults.

It’s really important as your children are still growing and getting stronger that they don’t get overloaded. Pay particular attention to girls who weigh less than boys, are generally not as strong, and often carry more things than boys. Take advantage of any chance you get to carry fewer things; if you don’t need certain books that day take them out.

We also need to discuss how to carry it. Some studies have suggested this is even more important than how heavy it is.A 2005 study looked at what happens when kids wear their backpack on just one shoulder. In the study, 1263 teenagers were taken through a series of tests when wearing a backpack correctly and then incorrectly. Carrying the backpack on just one shoulder resulted in shift of the upper back and shoulders, and increased both upper back and lower back pain. Their conclusion: “Asymmetric backpack carrying is associated with high intensity pain”.

Apart from weight, the two things that will have the biggest impact will be the length of time that you carry it for, and how loose the shoulder straps are. Researchers have indicated benefits for carrying your bag less than 10-20 minutes a day, so if you get a chance to take it off for a minute or two, do so. Also, the looser the straps, or the lower the bag is hanging, the more strain it will place on your shoulder and upper back. The bottom of the bag should sit just above the waistline.