[TCM] Pediatric question again

[amalia hallin dahl]

Hi Chanalee!

I'm in my 5. year of acupuncture-studies and right now I'm doing a study on atopic dermatitis in children (aged 0 - 3 years) and I'm treating children twice a week for 5 weeks, a total of 10 treatments.

When treating babies and children I use a very fine Seirin needle (0.16) with a guide tube to minimize the "pain". 

I usually let the parents have one needle, just to let them know what they are putting their child through, and everyone of them is quite amazed, because they are not able to feel anything, but the tube gently touching the skin. The child might make a lot of noise, but that is mainly because they are being held still. (But most of them actually doesn't seem to bother) The needling session is over in just a minute or two, because you withdraw the needles once you've obtained "de Qi".

One important thing about treating children is to decide if the child is of the excess-type (=there is enough qi to get rid of the problem) or more of a deficient-type (= there is not enough qi to expell the problem). This is important, because in the former you use a reducing method and in the latter you must use a reinforcing method. If there is a pathogen, this must be expelled first, using a reducing needle technique.

For this particular issue acute otitis media:

It's caused by a pathogen factor ( Wind,Heat,  Cold or Dampness) and therefor a condition of excess. So you must use a dispersing needle technique. If the child is generally deficient, then tonify qi after the pathogen has been removed. 

Main points for treating this condition are:

TB 5 (wai guan), TB 17 (yi feng), GB 41 (zu lin qi), GB 20 (feng chi) and GB 2 (ting hui)

When there is an attack of Wind/Heat or Wind/Cold:

TB 17 and LI 4 (he gu) will relieve the pain quickly

When there are signs of Heat  use Li 11 (qu chi)/ GV 14( da zhui) in addition

When there are signs of Dampness use GB 34 (yang ling quan) in addition.

In babies (like the one you mentioned) one or two treatments will probably be enough, using distal points like TB 5 and GB 41.

Good luck!

Amalia


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