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batch12

Why is carrying 5kg of books unhealthy for children?

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“Many authors have concluded that the weight of a school backpack should not exceed 10% of the child's body weight”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4564613/#:~:tex....

The average 6 year old weighs 20 kg. The average 10 year old weighs 30kg.

https://www.disabled-world.com/calculators-charts/height-wei...

> However, there is still no clear information about the impact that a school backpack has on the formation of spinal curvature in the sagittal plane in school children.

The next sentence following the stats quoted from the link.

That paper also finds problems with sitting:

> However, when the child begins to attend school, their time spent in a sitting position is extended, which can result in disorders of posturogenesis.

No 6 year old is lugging around a backpack full books; these are teens we're talking about.

5 kg is only a couple of textbooks. Teens need to pick what books to take home. Obviously digital is free weight, but physical textbooks have a real weight cost, I don’t want my kid going through what I had to go through.

Many experts will tell you walking 30 min a day is "enough exercise" too... I'd be very suspicious of these studies

If we take a young child weighting 20-30 kg, 5 kg would be 1/4th to 1/6th of body mass... 15-20 kg or 10-15kg carried daily by adult is not a light load. And children have less developed bodies.

Do 20kg children ever really carry 5kg bags though?

I wouldn't be surprised if 25kg kids would need to carry 5kg bags. When I was a teen, I had to carry 10kg and I am sure I wasn't over than 35kg at that time. I was particularly slim but not as slim as some kids I am seeing today.

25kg is the average weight of a 7 year old girl, so I think it’s fair to say the youngest lightest average child in school.

Id be interested what Grade 1 girls are carrying around that’s totalling 5kg - that’s three hardcover undergrad physics textbooks lol. And even if they do combine to 5kg, there’s no evidence it causes any harm to children!

It’s unhealthy to carry them in modern backpacks id say. Poor design in a lot of them helps contribute to back problems

I've spent a lot of time hiking and backpacking. I've also had to walk five miles home (that's about 8km for those not in insane countries that start with "United") when buses or trains were cancelled due to weather.

I absolutely refuse to buy a backpack without a hip belt of some sort, because while you might not really need it for the five-minute walk from the bus stop or train station to the office, that changes when you're carrying it for a two-hour walk in the snow.

As a child I remember doing 45min + a day with them

Thank you for the tip btw I am soon in the market for a backpack and will take care to get a good chest strap

Yep, a hip belt on a backpack makes a world of difference when you can put most of the weight on your hips instead of your shoulders.

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