Studies have found that back pain occurs at a very early age. Every 1 out of 3 children reports back pain. In most cases, back pain and spinal cord injuries occur majorly due to bad posture.
Kids are hyperactive, and they barely maintain an ergonomic posture. Being a parent, you need to prevent your kids from such injuries.
We know you can’t track their posture throughout the day; perhaps you can ensure that they maintain a correct and ergonomic posture while doing their school assessments or homework.
In this guide, we have listed tips that will help your kid maintain an ergonomic posture that will enhance the overall sitting comfort.
However, before that, let’s have a look at why ergonomic and correct posture is so important for your kid:
Importance of Ergonomic and Correct Sitting Posture for Child
At a younger age, a kid’s body undergoes various development phases. Due to lousy sitting ergonomics, your kid’s bone formation could be affected, or your child might face some of the following problems:
- Bad posture could lead to musculoskeletal pain.
- Bad posture could cause Repetitive Strain Injuries.
- Bad posture could affect the Spine Alignment
- Productivity gets adversely impacted
So, we hope you better understand how important ergonomic posture is for your child, especially sitting posture, as our body undergoes maximum strain while sitting.
Ergonomic Sitting Posture Tips
While sitting on a chair, you must ensure that your child is following the “three right-angle” rule:
- There should be a right angle between the feet and the ankle.
- Knees should have an inward right angle.
- Thighs and Hips must have a right angle.
This rule is sufficient to correct 70% of your child’s posture. For the rest 30%, we would suggest you follow the points mentioned below:
- Ensure that your child has an elbow angle of 90-110 degrees when their forearms are resting or stretched towards their desks.
- Feet must be resting flat on the floor. If your child struggles to place the feet, you can use some footrest or paper rim to increase the floor height.
- Your kid’s neck and back must be aligned in a straight line.
- The chair must have a waterfall edge design so that your child’s blood circulation in the legs doesn’t get affected.
- The desk must have an adjustable characteristic. It is because kids generally lean towards the desk, which can trigger back pain early.
- Ensure that the chair has a well-padded seat and “S” shaped ergonomic backrest. If it has a headrest, it will be more comfortable for your kid.
- The chair must have the height adjusting feature.
If your kid’s chair has a pair of adjustable armrests, it would be a plus point, and it will reduce maximum strain from the elbows and shoulders.
Conclusion
That’s so many tips above, right! A child’s ergonomic posture seems too complex to achieve. But the statement is not true at all. Take it like this “If one piece is aligned correctly, others will automatically fall in their respective places.”
Before teaching your kid about the different techniques to correct posture, we recommend you replace the chair and desk if they don’t comply with the abovementioned points. This will indirectly give your children the required energy to fix their postures.
Also, as a parent, you have to keep a constant eye on your child’s activities; if you find them in the wrong posture, simply just remind them to sit correctly. If you repeat this for a few days, your child will gradually become habitual to sitting ergonomically.
Fixing a child’s posture could take some time; you need to be patient. Trust us! It’s worth waiting. Your kid will stay away from most of the chronic body pains. If your kid is reporting some back pain, it is recommended to visit a medical expert as these problems can be fixed easily at a younger age. Later in the future, these could create a lot of trouble for your child.