Take some weight off your shoulders today because Sep. 19 is National School Backpack Awareness Day.
Held the third Wednesday of September, the event is celebrated by “occupational therapy practitioners, educators, and students across the country,” and is sponsored by the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA).
With the motto “Pack it Right, Wear it Light,” AOTA says if worn the wrong way, a backpack can cause aching backs and shoulders, tingling arms, weakened muscles, or a stooped posture. Not just for students, AOTA states on its website that Awareness Day also reaches out to faculty, parents and community members to provide “safety tips to stay protected from back pain throughout life.”
The group estimates 79 million students in the U.S carry school backpacks, according to data from an American Community Survey from 2007.
Dr. Karen Jacobs, occupational therapist and professor at Boston University, and coauthor of “How Full is Sophia’s Backpack?”, said that today occupational therapy practitioners across the country will reach out to communities, offering health tips and backpack weigh-ins (Jacobs says backpacks should not weigh more than 10 percent of body weight).
Parents shouldn’t be persuaded by children to buy the backpack strictly because it is a child’s favorite color, or contains characters or superheroes that they love, according to Dr. Jacobs.
She offers 3 main tips for backpack safety, with the first being to choose a backpack that properly fits the child. The backpack should fit right in the waist and below the shoulders, with a padded back and shoulder strap. Dr. Jacobs recommends that there be a chest and waist strap to ease the load on the shoulders.
Taking away any need our children might have to overstuff a backpack, she also recommends not having a backpack with too many sections. Things like water bottles can be carried to school empty and filled at school. Safety features like reflectors are especially important in daylight savings time.
Jacobs’ second key tip is to pack the carrier correctly. “You want to make sure that the children only pack what they need for the day, and take the heaviest [weight] against the back because that is where your body really can hold it in place, and not have as much stress on the body,” she said.
While there are things that students need each day at school, there are also a lot of things that kids don’t need. “That’s where it needs to be a family affair. That’s where I would say to parents, even with students in college, talk to them. What do they really need in their backpacks?” the doctor said.
Her final tip for National School Backpack Awareness Day is to wear the backpack correctly with both straps over each shoulder. “Wear the chest and waist straps. Adjust the straps so that the backpack is right on the waist, and not lower on the buttocks,” Dr. Jacobs advised.
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