How to Pick the Best School Backpack

Look for a backpack that is sturdy but lightweight, and no wider than your child’s body. As for the size, make sure it extends from about 2 inches below the shoulder blades to the waist. Reflective strips can make your child more visible. And consider these features:

Add comfort with wide, padded shoulder straps. Skip drawstring backpacks, whose thin straps can dig into your little one’s shoulders and restrict blood flow to the area. This can lead to back, neck, and shoulder pain and temporary arm and hand numbness. And opt for backpacks with two straps. Those with only one strap can create an uneven load and strain muscles, Castañeda warns.

“You also need to make sure your child is wearing the backpack the way it’s meant to be worn—on both shoulders,” adds Sara Bohac, M.D., a pediatrician at the Cleveland Clinic.

Protect the back with a padded back. Padding helps protect kids from being poked by any sharp edges on objects inside the pack, such as the corner of a textbook, and makes the backpack more comfortable to wear.

Distribute the weight with a waist strap. Though not essential, this feature helps spread out the weight of backpack contents more uniformly and may be useful for children who have several textbooks to transport.

Lighten the load with wheels. A rolling backpack may be a good option if your child sometimes lugs around a lot of heavy items. But check school policy; some have banned this style of backpack because it can pose a trip hazard for other students, clog up hallways, be difficult to maneuver up and down stairs, and may not fit in lockers.

“It’s particularly an issue for younger elementary school-age kids, since a bag can start rolling down the hall and they don’t know how to control it,” says Jennifer Weiss, M.D., a pediatric orthopedic surgeon in Los Angeles and spokesperson for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.