This is one almost everyone does yet doesn’t think about. Lifting young children is a taxing thing to do. The thing parents don’t realize is their kid is getting heavier every day. Since the increased weight is relatively slow, like your hair growing, we tend not to notice. A friend who sees your child every 2-3 months will say ‘wow, little Jane is so much bigger!’. This is because they see the massive jump all at once, instead of incrementally.
Parents know their baby from day one and still think they are a little 6 pound 8 ounce baby despite being 12 months old now. Guess what, kids get heavier, very quickly. We must think about how to lift children
properly to save our backs.
Please refer to the photos. I like to break down lifting children to 3 steps, completed one at a time:
1. Squat down like a baseball catcher
2. Lift child onto shoulder
3. Stand up
This is a great way to lift as it removes the combination of all 3 steps, leading to better posture. When the steps are combined, posture is usually poor and twisting is much more common. Twisting = BAD. If you didn’t read our lifting health
tip, check it out too.
Until next time, lift properly.