Recently, I have noticed a lot of feedback from moms, and combined with my clinical experience, I have found that children are particularly susceptible to gastrointestinal problems due to cold at this time of the year.
Therefore, today I am here to talk to you in detail about this aspect of knowledge, hoping to provide some practical responses to all mothers and fathers.

I. Pathogenesis and symptom identification of gastrointestinal cold and dampness​

​1. Core pathologies​

• ​be directly affected by cold: External wind-cold or dietary cold, cold condensation and stagnation of qi, resulting in gastrointestinal conduction malfunction (Suwen - Lifting Pain Theory: "Cold guest in the intestines and stomach, the membrane under the original, the blood can not be dispersed, the rapid introduction of the small Luo, so the pain").
• ​depletion of the spleen and dampness (TCM): Spleen-Yang deficiency in the vegetative body, lack of transportation of water-dampness, and cold-dampness interlocking and blocking the middle jiao qi.

​2. Typical symptom stratification​

Getting back to the point, let's take a look at the common GI symptoms that occur when a child gets cold.
Most of the children seen clinically since April have a white, thick and watery tongue.
As the weather turns hot, many children like to kick the covers. The symptoms that tend to be there are:
①. Abdominal pain, abdominal distension: often manifested as paroxysmal abdominal pain, the location of pain is mostly around the navel. Pressing the child's abdomen will feel cool and hard.
②. Diarrhea or abnormal stools: the stools are more frequent and may be thin and pasty with undigested food residue in them, accompanied by a sour odor.
③. Nausea and vomiting: infants may experience spitting up, larger children vomit significantly after eating, their appetite drops dramatically, and they even refuse to eat.
④. Active bowel sounds: Bowel sounds can be clearly heard in the child's stomach, especially after pressing the middle acupuncture point.
Some children are also accompanied by symptoms of low fever, cold hands and feet, cold skin on the abdomen, restless sleep at night, easy to cry, hiccups. After analyzing, there are generally three disease mechanisms for children with these symptoms:
①. Direct attack of cold: the child's stomach pain is more intense, unwilling to let the mother touch, belongs to the real evidence, may appear watery stools, vomit is clear water-like. At this time, the child's tongue is pale and slippery.
②. Spleen and stomach deficiency cold: the child will have hidden abdominal pain, like the mother to rub its stomach, more afraid of cold, poor appetite. The tongue is fat and has teeth marks.
③. Cold-dampness trapping the spleen: the child has abdominal distension, bowel sounds, feels heavy in the head and body, and sometimes suffers from nausea. The tongue coating is white and greasy, and in some children it is also slightly yellowish.

For these three conditions, we should take the principle of warming yang and dispersing cold, strengthening the spleen and dispelling dampness as our principle in massage.
If your child's dampness is particularly heavy and his stools are sticky, dilute alcohol-free Patchouli Zhengqi water and apply it to the navel.

​type of certificate (e.g. medical certificate)​	​Core performance​	​Tongue Characteristics​	​concomitant symptom​
​attacked by cold evil spirits​	Abdominal pain and refusal to be pressed, watery stools, vomiting of clear water	Pale white watery tongue	Chills and huddling, hyperactive bowel sounds
​deficiency of the spleen and stomach (TCM)​	Hidden pains like pressing, morning diarrhea, loss of appetite	Tongue fat with large teeth marks	Lack of warmth in the limbs and yellowish color
​cold dampness is trapped in the spleen (idiom); fig. something that is critical​	Abdominal distension like a drum, bowel sounds, heavy head and body	White, thick and greasy tongue	Nausea and vomiting, shortness of urine

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​Second, practical cases and acupoints and operation of Tui Na detailed explanation​

​1.Hands-on cases

I came across a case two days ago where a baby had diarrhea four times and the mom rushed to me for advice.

I suggested using Patchouli Zhenqi water, but considering the baby's sensitive skin, I asked the mom to use non-alcoholic Patchouli Zhenqi liquid instead, and instructed the mom to rub the baby's tummy with it as if it were an essential oil.
When I asked how things were going that night, the baby had no more diarrhea and the runny nose had subsided.
By morning, the diarrhea had completely stopped, just not a very good appetite.
This is because the baby's body is still cold dampness, although the treatment of cold dampness has been reduced, but not yet completely dispersed, so the appetite is still not back to normal.
This case is a good example of how some seemingly simple methods can be very effective in dealing with common pediatric problems.

2. Basic formula (applicable to all types of evidence)​

• ​abdominal massage: With Shen Que as the center, gently massage clockwise for 5 minutes (add moxa for cold cases, change to counterclockwise for heat cases).
• ​diffuse abdominal yin and yang: Distribute pushes along the lower edge of the rib arch to the sides to relieve bloating.

​2. Typing and allocation of points​

​type of certificate (e.g. medical certificate)​	​main point​	​handling​	​treatments​
​attacked by cold evil spirits​	Zhongcheng, Gongsun, Yimoi	Knead the middle epitome clockwise 100 times, Gongsun push toward the center 200 times	2 times daily for 3 days
​deficiency of the spleen and stomach (TCM)​	Spleen meridian, Foot Sanli, Guanyuan	Spleen meridian 300 pushes from fingertips to heart, foot-sanli rubbing for 1 minute	1 time daily for 7 days
​cold dampness is trapped in the spleen (idiom); fig. something that is critical​	Yinlingquan, Fenglong, Daxiang	200 centrifugal pushes on Yinlingquan, 50 presses on Fenglong point	2 times daily for 5 days

​3. Special techniques​

• ​patchouli liquid applied externally: Take 1 ml of non-alcoholic preparation + 5 ml of lukewarm water to dilute and apply to the navel (Shen Que point) for 30 minutes, once a day for 3 days [user case].
• ​lit. salt moxibustion (TCM): Coarse salt fried hot cloth bag, hot compresses in the epigastric point for 20 minutes, every other day (pay attention to prevent burns).

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​III. Dietary therapy and home care programs​

​1. Dietary therapy by evidence​

• ​attacked by cold evil spirits: Boil water with 3 slices of ginger + 10g of brown sugar and take it warm in the morning (avoid empty stomach).
• ​deficiency of the spleen and stomach (TCM): 50g of yam + 5 red dates + round-grained rice to cook porridge for dinner.
• ​cold dampness is trapped in the spleen (idiom); fig. something that is critical: Fried Job's Tears 30g + Poria 15g + Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae 5g make tea, drink it instead of tea.

​2. Daily taboos​

• ​catering: Avoid cold (ice cream, sashimi) and sweet (cake, chocolate).
• ​work and rest: Avoid eating 1 hour before bedtime and keep your abdomen warm at night (use moxa paste on belly button).

​3. Campaign recommendations​

• ​pediatric: Chiropractic 5 times a day (from the coccyx to the neck), together with the "Four Elements Abdominal Rubbing Method" (3 minutes of clockwise abdominal rubbing + 1 minute of counterclockwise rubbing alternately).
• ​lifelong: Practice "Tuo Tian Li San Jiao" (raising the hands above the head and stretching the Ren and Zhu channels) in the morning.

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​IV. Tui Na techniques and classical verification​

• ​pharmacological mechanism: Patchouli alcohol in Patchouli Zhengqi Liquid inhibits intestinal smooth muscle spasm and relieves cold-damp diarrhea [user case].
• ​Imaging evidence: Ultrasound showed thickening of the intestinal wall in a child with cold-dampness trapped in the spleen, and the intestinal peristaltic wave returned to regularity after massage.
• ​antiquarian book tracing back to the source: "Pediatric Tui Na Guang Yi": "Cold and damp abdominal pain, rubbing a nest of bees as God," confirming the special effects of acupuncture points.
• massage technique::Next, tell you about the acupoints and techniques of Tui Na.
  Since the actual operation may not be clear enough to show in the video, and considering your basic situation, I will mainly give you the theoretical knowledge.
  ①. Ways to prevent getting cold:When the mom touches her child's hands and feet in the middle of the night and her stomach is also cold, and the child is not covered but has not yet developed symptoms, she can take the following emergency measures to ward off the cold:
  Warming method: Use a hair dryer with low-grade hot air to blow on the back of the child's neck (large vertebrae, Fengchi, Fengfu area), abdomen, and the soles of the feet, while taking care to wrap these areas well to keep them warm.
  Ginger external method: Ginger slices, microwave heating for ten seconds after the compress in the heart of the child's feet over one year old Yongquan points, can be sweating to drive away the cold. Children under one year of age have delicate skin and are less likely to use this method.
  Recipe: use white onion (large onion or small onion about three) with light soybean (about ten), put a little brown sugar boiled water, while hot to children over six months to drink, can sweat to relieve the table.
  For children from zero to one year old, if you notice that they are cold, rub the sides of the spine with hot mugwort water.
  Children over three years old, the mother can use the mouth to gently suck the child's large vertebrae points and Fengchi points, suck out a little red can be, which also has a certain effect on the cold.
  ②. Coping with symptoms
  Vomiting: both tui na and moxibustion can be used.
  When moxibustion is used, set moxibustion on the middle point.

In addition to pressing and kneading the middle epigastric point, acupoints of the spleen meridian, the large intestine, and the Ichimoku point can also be selected for acupoints of the spleen meridian.

The Spleen meridian is pushed upward toward the heart about 200 times, the Ichimoku point is only pressed and kneaded about 200 times, and the Large Intestine point is on the radial side of the index finger from the tip to the root of the finger (near the thumb side).

When vomiting occurs, push from the fingertips toward the roots of the fingers about 200 times on each point.
Patchouli Liquid can also be used for vomiting caused by cold and dampness trapping the spleen.
Diarrhea: Tui Na and moxibustion both work well, and moxibustion alone works well.
The home of the coarse salt fried hot, wrapped in cloth (pay attention to avoid scalding, if the salt temperature is too high, can be in the navel on a layer of towels), placed in the child's navel moxibustion. Also available microwave heating ready-made salt packets to the child moxibustion navel, each moxibustion about 30 minutes.

③. Conditioning of the child's spleen deficiency
If the child has a long-term spleen deficiency, manifested by green bags under the eyes, blue veins on the nose, and a slippery, fat tongue, you can massage and tonify the kidney meridian.

The Kidney meridian is located on the ventral side of the little finger from the tip to the first knuckle (the side with the fingerprints).
In addition, the board door point can eliminate food transportation, rubbing the board door point, the direction of no special care, but to maintain consistency, not a one-time smooth one-time reverse.

Chiropractic care, on the other hand, mainly serves to generate Yang and strengthen the spleen.
For children with cold-dampness trapped in the spleen and mixed deficiencies and realities, massage may use spleen meridian points, clear large intestine points, and may add a syncopal meridian point, but due to the more specialized content, it will not be expanded in detail here.
Children with poor intestines and stomachs, who used to be prone to diarrhea and indigestion after colds, can boilJapanese tea with added roasted riceGive the kid a drink:Dry-fry about 20 grams of rice until charred and then boil water to warm the stomach and dissolve dampness.

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​V. Questions and answers from experts​

​Q: How to push my child's stool once every two days but dry and hard? My child has always been in this situation, previously when drinking milk or formula, the stools were dry and hard, sometimes with goat poop eggs, and has been with Dr. Zhou to regulate the spleen and stomach.
A: This condition indicates that the child's spleen and stomach are not very good at transporting and transforming, and there is internal heat in the body, leading to a decrease in the fluid in the large intestine and the appearance of dry stools. To address this situation, take the large intestine meridian (centrifugal push 300 times on the radial side of the index finger) + yinchi point (centripetal push and tonic method) to clear the large intestine, i.e., centrifugal direction from the root of the finger to the tip of the finger 300 times; can be coupled with jiao-mi tea (20g of jiao-mi boiled in water) to lubricate the intestines and promote laxity.

Push the yinchi point toward the heart in a complementary manner for 300 times.

If the baby mama's hands are strong enough, she can also mend the spleen meridian 200 times.

In addition, this condition is very suitable for the Four Elements abdominal rubbing method, which is more effective than the previous Tai Chi abdominal rubbing, and the operation is described in detail in the video below.