Is Texting Causing Your Child’s Neck Pain?

That looks like it hurts the neck.

That looks like it hurts the neck.

Dr. Dean Fisherman has brought up an excellent point in the Chiropractic Economics Blog.  Teachers tell kids to sit up straight in class.  Parents tell their kids “don’t slouch”.  One recent and often overlooked part of American children’s lives is cell phone posture.

Dr. Fisherman writes about a young woman and her mother visiting his office in Plantation, Florida.

The mother was seeing Dr. Fisherman for a clinical diagnosis and noticed her daughter hunched over into a ball while texting on her cell phone.  He was explaining to the patient that her daughter was losing her natural cervical curve and out popped the term “text neck”.  This new term is important because both adults and children can understand it easily.

Dr. Fisherman gave his new young patient an exercise regimen and advised her on better ways to view her cell phone while texting.  He then did case studies of several patients and developed a full plan for helping people use their cell phones in a safe manner.

We all have seen children (and adults) texting on their cell phones and playing their mobile games.  Both hands on the gadget, the gadget in their laps, shoulders hunched.  It may feel like a natural way to use the device, but it can cause neck and back problems in children.  This is especially dangerous for children because they are still growing and need good posture to grow up healthy.

Call Dr. Craig McGiffin at his Outer Banks chiropractic clinic to see if you and your children use your cell phones and other everyday tools safely.

2 Comments

  1. Dr. McGiffin,
    Be sure to check out the first ever real time interactive APP designed to help the patient change the way they hold the phone while texting, emailing, gaming and browsing the web, at http://www.neurotilt.com. The APP puts a green indicator light in the top task bar when the phone is held with proper posture and the green light turns red when poor posture is used. The exercises that were proven effective in our case studies are included in the APP. Lastly, the most important feature is a pie chart that tracks the utilization of the phones angle. The more green in the pie chart, the better the posture the more red in the pie chart, the more at risk for text neck. This pie chart gives the patient accountability and responsibility to follow your instructions in changing their posture. You can check the pie chart on their phone at re-evaluation time or at any time that you decide. If you put this APP on your patients phone you will get greater change in their lateral curve in a shorter time then you have ever seen before. It was proven in our case studies. Thank you for finding the blog interesting enough to post on your site. If you have any other questions regarding text neck please do not hesitate to call and check out http://www.text-neck.com.
    Respectfully,
    Dr. Dean Fishman
    The Text Neck Institute
    1-877-9TEXTNECK

    • Thank you so much for visiting our site, Dr. Fishman. Your article was extremely interesting, and with the rampant use of cell phones among teens, I felt it was important to get the message out. I will certainly look into your APP as well. Thanks again for the details.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *