Dr. Kauffman's 4 Back to School Backpack tips!

It’s that time of year when we are all getting ready for back to school. So today, we have four backpack tips for you. 

Our first tip is to make sure that when you are looking for backpacks, that you get one with enough padding. You want to look for a backpack that has enough padding in the shoulders, as well as along the back. If the backpack you choose does not have enough padding in the shoulders, you will find that the strap is going to dig into the top of your shoulder, causing discomfort. If you do not have enough padding along the back of the backpack, then you could have a binder or a pencil that is sticking through the back of your backpack into your back.

If you see that your child has a heavy backpack and is using just one shoulder strap, that is way too long, you will notice them in a hunched over position or leaning to one side. Obviously, that's going to create problems that can create pain in the shoulder or in the lower back. So our second tip is to make sure that your child is using both straps on their backpack evenly. And you want to make sure that they are pulling their straps tightly, so that the backpack fits snugly against their shoulders and their back.

Our third tip is to make sure that the backpack is packed evenly on both sides. For example, if you have a heavy project on one side, put your water bottle on the other side to even out the weight.

Our last tip is that if the backpack's too full, or if there is too much weight in the backpack, you can take a textbook or a laptop out and carry it against your chest. This will assure that you are keeping weight in the front and the back evenly. We hope these four backpack tips have been helpful! If you want to check out more of our helpful video blogs, go to our website www.kauffmanchiropractic.com/blog.