Click On Picture to View Backpack Safety Presentation

• More than 40 million students carry school backpacks
•  
• More than half of children in a study regularly carried more than the recommended 15% of their body weight in their school backpacks.
•  
• 58% of orthopedists polled in 1999 in Chicago and Wilmington, Delaware, reported treating children with back or shoulder pain attributable to carrying backpacks.
•  
• The most common symptom reported from backpack use is "rucksack palsy." This condition results when pressure put on the nerve in the shoulder causes numbness in the hands, muscle wasting, and in extreme cases, nerve damage.
•  
• More than 3,300 children, aged 5-14 years, were treated in emergency rooms for injuries related to backpacks in 1998; these numbers do not include students who went to family physicians or doctors of chiropractic.

We think backpack safety needs a champion. That's why we started Backpack Safety for Kids™

Backpack Safety for Kids™* is a tightly integrated program of software and marketing materials. The objective is to raise the consciousness of the community to the real physical problems that can develop from a child's backpack. 

Here's what is in the Professional Package . . .

• Posture Pro  posture evaluation software with integrated backpack stress calculator in lbs or kg.

·      First Contact Letter

·      Follow-up “Talking Points”

·      Backpack Safety Day Tips

·      Press Release

·      Background Facts

·      Files to Create Posters, Brochures and Handouts

·      Multimedia Presentations

• Backpack Safety Presentation now available as an optional 35mm slide show  

Posture Pro Exclusive: Backpack Safety Calculator

The Posture Pro software now comes with an integrated backpack safety calculator. Here's how it works.

1. Enter weight of backpack

2. Enter weight of child

3. Click on "Calculate"

Software will calculate the percentage of the weight of the backpack to the weight of the child (15% or less is ideal).

The calculator will will also notify you as to how much weight should be removed, or how much weight can be added to the backpack to reach the ideal level.

In the picture on the left we selected a typical fourth grade boy, and using his own backpack, worn the way he liked, we snapped the picture. The Posture Pro calculator suggested that we remove 6.25 pounds, which we did. We also adjusted the backpack for a proper fit.

This is what the next picture looked like. 

1. Backpack weight was now just under the 15% maximum weight.

2. The backpack is now fitted for the proper position on the back.

3. The Posture Pro Stress Calculator  shows a normal posture profile.

This exclusive calculator makes it easy to evaluate the safety of a backpack according to it's weight, and to evaluate the effect  wearing the backpack can have on the child.

It's Fast, Accurate and Easy to incorporate backpack screenings into your practice!

Interesting Note: In the first picture, the child kept grabbing the front of the straps in an effort to steady the backpack. We speculate that this additional pulling force on the straps will lead to the increased likelihood of neurovascular bundle compression.

Are You Ready To Be The Backpack Safety Expert In Your Town?

With the Posture Pro software loaded on your notebook computer, and an understanding of the training and marketing materials, you can become the "backpack safety expert" in your community, to be sought out by schools and parents to sponsor Backpack Safety Days, and to evaluate backpack choices made by parents and their children.

Order Backpack Safety for Kids Today!