The Woes Of A Heavy Backpack

myFOXDetroit.com Staff - Tuesday, most Metro Detroit kids will head back to class but they may be dragging along something painful, a backpack that's too heavy.

If your child complains about back pain, you may need to re-think what they're carrying.

"It gets really heavy after a while, " said Jess Greenwald.

As a freshman in high school, Greenwald's backpack is packed full. With just three of her textbooks inside, her backpack weighs more than 25 pounds. That's 27 percent of her body weight and she worries about the impact.

She added, "Sometimes my shoulders hurt a little bit but I mostly worry about like permanent back damage."

Pediatricians like Joe Craig say he hears this complaint a lot especially from teens.

"They may complain about back pain or shoulder pain or even knees or hips or just other parts of the body," said Craig.

Dr. Craig says kids should carry no more than 10 to 20 percent of their body weight.

"Kids pretty quickly get into a 30, 40 pound backpacks and then you're getting up to more than a third of their body weight," he stated.

Craig adds he's not seeing permanent damage in kids but warns it's a critical time in development.

"The idea is to bring down the weight and lessen the mechanical pressure, " Craig said.

He adds that rolling backpacks are an option but that can be a tough sell for some teens.

Greenwald stated, "You don't like, use a rolling backpack, that's kinda like social suicide or whatever."

So when Greenwald was having problems, she decided to make changes.

"My back hurt a lot, like everyday after school, obviously because I was carrying around like 40 pounds. I lessened my load a lot."

She and her sister hope schools will make some changes as well.