Why You Should Check Your Child's Posture
By Sara Butler
Technology is pretty great, but it’s having a big impact on your children that isn’t as great as you may think. Technology is causing children to be more sedentary and to practice something that strikes fear in the heart of moms and chiropractors everywhere – poor posture. That’s right, poor posture has reached epidemic proportions in children for several reasons. That’s why it’s important now more than ever to make sure you’re policing your child’s posture, and here’s why.
What Causes Poor Posture?
Your child’s poor posture is influenced by several different things. They include:
- Large, overweight backpacks
- Hunching over tablets or smartphones
- Long hours of sitting in school or at home
These are just a few of the things that can have an impact on your child’s posture. They set your child up for a lifetime of aches and pains that could have all been avoided if someone had intervened when they were young.
Spinal Curvature
Your spine has a natural curve to it shaped like the letter S. If you allow your child to practice poor posture then eventually that curve will begin to change shape. The misalignments that can result from that change of curvature are called subluxations, and they make it difficult for the structures of the spine to get the nutrients they need and also cause irritation of the nerves in the spine, leading to other problems.
Back and Neck Strain
If your child’s spine is out of alignment, then it puts extra strain and stress on the muscles that work to support the spine all day long. After a time this strain leads to back and neck pain – pain that then begins to trickle down all over the body as other parts become imbalanced in an effort to correct the problem.
Organ Function
Your skeleton is the house your internal organs live in, and if that house is not holding its shape then the contents inside can become squished. Studies have shown that the physical stress on a skeleton out of alignment can damage organs after a period of time. In a child, those are organs that are still developing and growing – and that can cause damage that may impact them their entire lives.
Chiropractors at The Joint know how to care for your child and can help to give you practical tips to assist your kids to practice better posture. By starting them at the chiropractor early in life you can potentially save them from years of conditions and ailments that are the result of poor posture.