As a parent, you can take numerous steps to ensure your children’s health while they’re at home, but things become more difficult when kids get to be of school age. They may be engaging in activities they wouldn’t think twice about but that you know could contribute to longterm back issues. Over the course of time, for instance, something as seemingly innocuous as hauling around a hefty backpack or sitting in a hunched position could lead to degenerative disc disease and other conditions.
In order to make sure that doesn’t happen, parents should speak to their children about some of the alterations they can make in order to have a healthy back throughout their lives. A new report explains how a healthy lifestyle might be accomplished.
A couple decades ago, children were either at their desks writing or moving around for recess or any number of activities throughout the school day. Cut to today and many activities have been replaced by a computer. As a result, a child is spending an inordinate amount of time sitting in a chair looking at a screen.
While this could cause health issues, it doesn’t have to if your child knows the right way to sit and move their body. Parents should strive early on to encourage their children to sit in a way that’s comfortable and healthy. While sitting, knees should be in a reverse L shape. If a child is having trouble doing so, parents might enquire with the school as to the availability of something that their feet can be propped up on.
You may not have control of the chair at school, but you do at home. Any seat should allow the child to comfortably reach the computer and prop their elbows up on the armrests. When a child sits, his or her kneecaps should extend a couple inches away from the chair itself. Make sure your child isn’t spending hours upon hours in front of the computer in this position, as even the most posture-conscious would have trouble staying in the proper position for that long. If homework requires such a time commitment, then you might speak with the child’s teacher to see what can be done to lessen the load.
The backpack has a critical role to play in terms of back safety, and the most important takeaway will be not to load the child up with more than they can safely carry. Again, if there’s a situation where there is simply too much to lug back and forth, a conversation with a teacher may hit upon a solution that works to everybody’s satisfaction.
Finally, make sure your child is getting plenty of time to both play and rest. The former allows your child to exercise their body while the latter ensures that their body is capable of recuperating from an activity. Both help contribute to a significantly lower injury potential.
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