Children are no doubt great future assets as well as leaders and must be accorded attention during early childhood development, so they grow to become useful adults for society.
It is said that, our childhood have profound effect on our adult lives. That is why, the laws of the country provided enough protection for the child and young adults.
But, too often, many children’s health and wellbeing are not given the attention it needs.
Admittedly, at the national level, great strives have been made in respect of child rights and protection, but it remains unacceptable that at the individual level, not every child gets the help he or she deserves. Some do not get any care at all and subsequently develop health problems into adulthood.
Besides in the process of meeting challenges of life, some parents turn to over look, or take for granted vital issues that might look trivial but very important in early childhood development. As a result, children unknowingly face health challenges that could have been prevented.
It is, in the light of this, that we share in the concerns expressed by the Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Herbal Clinic, Dr Brian Michael Bonsu, that children risk developing hunchback in future as a result of carrying heavy loads in their bags to school.
The physician specialist speaking in an interview with the Ghanaian Times expressed regret that parents overlook the daily stress of children and most of the times add more to the load, by adding food, drinks and other unnecessary materials to their loads.
Some of these children walk long distances and get to school exhausted. The worse aspect as pointed out by the physician specialist is that, the heavy load for children, strain the muscles and which in turn pushes the body to go into an unnatural posture alignment which causes severe back pain.
The consequence, he said, is that the children might not show symptoms or experience pain straight away but in the long term they would develop imbalances in the body which can affect the nervous system.
He says that children carrying school bags develop forward head posture as they hinge forward at the hips to compensate for the heavy weight on their back.
The health concerns raised are alarming and we add our voice in urging parents to be cautious of the unnecessary burden they put on children by allowing them to carry bags that weight more than five kilograms, at their back. Those who do not weigh 50 kilogrammes, and carry heavy loads risk developing deformities later in their lives, according to the experts.
We would like to think that all parents are concerned about the health and safety of their children and would be mindful of the weight they allow them to carry daily to school.
Our advise is that parents must be very vigilant at all times and school authorities must provide safety lockers for their pupils to keep their school books that they do not require at home. That would help prevent the looming health hazard associated with carrying of heavy bags at their back to school.
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