Improving Our Kids Reading Posture | Pediatric Chiropractor in West Omaha, NE
Dr. Jeremiah Sample and with me is my daughter Evelyn. She is our family’s resident bookworm. And we’re here today with Family First Chiropractic to talk about good reading posture.
The Importance of Good Reading Posture
Now, everyone likes to read quite a few books during the day and will often do it for hours at a time. Now, this posture she has right now looks wonderful. And this is how she starts on page one. But to give you an example of what she looked like at page 149, show them what it looks like by the time you get there. Yep, that’s it. Okay. When the posture starts to break down, as she becomes more engrossed in her story, she leans forward, causing stress on the thoracic spine, putting pressure on those discs, putting pressure on the lungs on the heart, lot of forward head posture here also causing disruptions in the connections between the cervical thoracic spine and tensing this musculature. Now, over time, this breakdown, that musculature will cause some sensations or misalignments in the spine, which can lead in children to things such as headaches, sinus problems, or even problems with attention. Now, to combat this, what we’re going to do is preferably as she breaks down, put a pillow underneath how prop those arms up to make it a lot easier. Another good step to use is to set a timer and add in an exercise.
Exercises to Help Reading Posture
So we’re going to show in order to put some motion this rash is mine is the cat and the cow. The cat and the cow exercise is a great way to get motion back into the thoracic spine, especially after you’ve been reading for an extended period of time. Now I was going to start it on her knees with her hands on the floor directly underneath her shoulders. Right on the breath in. What she’s going to do is she’s going to drop her belly down and bringing her head towards the back of respond, keeping her chin tucked. Alright, as she breathes out, she bring the belly button up towards the spine, rounding the back and this pumps fluid in and out of the disks, she breathes in again. Head back towards the bottom of the spine that the belly drew down, fully extending that diaphragm. Now she breathes out and exhales he’s the belly button towards the back of the spine, rounding in the back reading and again, using that pumping action to install the motion here in the musculature working during this at least once per hour while reading will add great benefit towards keeping your spine healthy and your child healthy as well. So backup it’s best to set an alarm so you remember to do it for a week and set your own alarm I guess.
If you have any questions about your child and the best way for them to keep reading their books, which we’d all like to encourage, comment below or if you have questions about your own reading posture, please let us know and we’ll get back to you.
Thank you!
