30 Mar TCM and Paediatrics- The main cause of Childhood Diseases…
THE MAIN CAUSE OF CHILDHOOD DISEASES
In children under six years of age, diet is, by far, in my experience, the leading cause of commonly encountered paediatric complains. Children under the age of six are believed to have immature or weak digestion, and it is this fact that accounts for most of the encountered paediatric diseases including colic, earache, cough, swollen glands, allergies, and paediatric asthma and eczema. In Chinese Medicine, the digestive system is spoken of as the Spleen and Stomach and it is a statement of fact that, “in children the spleen is weak”
The Stomach receives the food and drink which are “rottened and ripened” The Stomach is like a pot that sits on a stove, the stove is the Spleen, and it is the warmth of the Spleen that provides the force for the transformation of food and liquids. Then the Spleen transforms the foods and liquids and sends the finest essence to the Heart and Lungs. This gives the Heart the capacity to move Blood and the Lungs the capacity to create Energy in the body.
Chinese doctors believe that the baby’s spleen and stomach or digestion are inherently weak and immature. This means that the baby’s digestion has a hard time separating “clear and turbid” from the foods consumed. And inversely even though the baby drinks and eats, they don’t make the same amount of energy or Qi and Blood and adult would. Hence why babies spend more time sleeping than adults.
This turbid material may collect in the stomach and intestines where it obstructs the Energy to these organs and depresses their function causing abdominal distention, stomach ache, constipation, diarrhoea and/or vomiting.
The most commonly encountered diseases are upper respiratory tract complaints, such as cold, cough, asthma, and allergies, or digestive tract complaints such as: colic, diarrhoea, stomachache and vomiting. The first group all have to do with phlegm accumulating in the lungs, while the second group has to do with poor digestion. However since according to the Chinese medical theory, phlegm is a byproduct of poor digestion, one can say all of these complaints are, in children, at root all due to their immature and therefore, faulty digestion. This is why Chinese medicine doctors are fond of saying that all paediatric diseases are due to indigestion.
I personally treat these diseases with the use of Chinese Herbal medicine and Tui Na or Xiao er Tui Na or paediatric massage. In TCM paediatrics, young children are prone to certain mechanisms within those diseases and therefore certain methods are used specifically for diagnosing young children, having their own treatment and principle modalities. In TCM paediatrics is really very much a speciality.
Anga Gonzalez MSTCM OMD LA.c
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine
San Diego California
Hannah Pearn Don’t Tell Me to Relax Team
Practitioner at Chiropractic By Hand, Balham
