Acupuncture for Babies, Children and Teenagers

Treating both the Illness and the Child

Rebecca Avern, Sarah Hoyle

• Publisher: Singing Dragon
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780857012753
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Acupuncture

This colour textbook is a comprehensive guide to diagnosis and treatment in paediatric acupuncture. Ill health related to modern lifestyles is discussed, as is the role of family dynamics in childhood disease. Rebecca Avern examines treatment of children from both a TCM and a Five Element perspective. Throughout, she highlights how diagnosis and treatment should be tailored depending on the age of the child. The book includes information on a wide variety of treatment methods, including needling and pediatric tui na.

The book covers all the conditions that children commonly present with in modern practice, including food allergies, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, issues relating to Autism Spectrum Disorder, and teenage depression, anxiety and eating disorders.

• Part 1 •

WHY DO CHILDREN
BECOME ILL?

• Chapter 1 •

INTRODUCTION TO THE
CAUSES OF DISEASE

The topics discussed in this chapter are:

• The importance of understanding the cause of illness

• Every child responds differently

• Causes of disease rarely occur in isolation

• How can something be both health-giving and a cause of disease?

• Lifestyle advice based on an understanding of the causes of disease

• Causes of disease are amplified in children

Introduction

One of my main reasons for writing this book is that the causes of disease in children in the developed world are very different from those seen when the classics of Chinese medicine were written. They are different, even, from a few decades ago when the first key English-language texts on acupuncture paediatrics were written. Flaws, in his book A Handbook of TCM Paediatrics, states very strongly that, although external, internal and miscellaneous causes of disease may all apply to children, diet is by far the most common cause of disease in children under the age of six. Scott and Barlow, in their book Acupuncture in the Treatment of Children, devote an equal part of their discussion on the causes of disease to External Pathogenic Factors and to diet, and briefly mention emotional and other miscellaneous factors. Diet and vulnerability to External Pathogenic Factors are still relevant in any discussion of why children become ill. However, there are many aspects of modern life that have become just as important. They warrant further discussion and understanding.

Life for children in the developed world in the 21st century is less physically precarious than it has ever been. However, there are new, insidious factors that cause children to become ill, or not to thrive. Childhood mortality rates have dropped dramatically. Yet many children live with some form of chronic disease that blights their enjoyment of life, diminishes their potential and makes them reliant on medication that may, in turn, cause other health problems.

The importance of understanding the cause of illness

Understanding why children become ill is just as important as it always has been. In Chinese medicine, the ‘superior doctor’ was one who understood both the condition and its cause. We may not be able to change the circumstances that are working against the child, but knowing what they are helps us to understand better and therefore treat her more effectively. A chronic illness or symptom nearly always arises within the context of the child’s life, circumstances and individual nature. Treating the child without understanding this background is like taking a quote out of context. It often leads to misunderstanding. A chronic symptom or illness rarely, if ever, arises out of the blue. We may talk of being ‘struck down’ by illnesses that come ‘out of nowhere’, which is often the case in acute conditions. Chronic imbalances, however, are woven into the fabric of a child’s individual story. The more we understand of this story (even though this may be difficult in some cases), the more effective our treatment and advice may be.

The practitioner may feel that whatever he does to help the child is a mere drop in the ocean beside the powerful forces at work in the child’s life that are making her ill. How can treating a child who is bedwetting help when the cause of her symptom is the fear she feels due to her volatile father? Can treatment of a child with anxiety, due to pressure and expectation, enable her to feel calm when the pressure and expectation continues? At the very least, treatment may mean that the effect of the cause of disease is reduced. At best, what felt like pressure to a child with Spleen qi and Heart Blood deficiency, for example, may not feel like pressure once these patterns of imbalance are significantly lessened. But, more than this, miraculous things sometimes happen when treating children. A small shift in the qi of the child can cause a domino-like change in the qi of everybody in the family, so that the whole unit finds a new and healthier equilibrium.

Every child responds differently

It is important not to jump to conclusions about the impact that factors in a child’s life are having upon her health. As Jung said, ‘the shoe that fits one person pinches another’.1 Every child has a different physical and emotional constitution (see Chapter 2), which means that there is a range of possible responses to the same aetiological factor. One child’s poison is another child’s cure. For example, one child may tolerate dairy food well, whilst in another it may cause appalling eczema. One child may be untroubled by her parents’ rows, whilst another may become fearful and anxious. Some children thrive on lots of exercise, for others it is too depleting. We all come with our own biases as practitioners. Being aware of what these are helps us to remain open-minded as to what is the cause of the symptoms in each child that we see.

In 2004, Professor Bruce Ellis of the University of Arizona developed the concept of ‘dandelion and orchid’ children. He proposed that some children (dandelions) can survive harsh environments without it having too strong an impact on them. Others (orchids) are more susceptible to their environment, in particular to their family circumstances. They may blossom if they have a largely nurturing experience, but the wrong circumstances will have a detrimental effect on them. He was, in essence, describing that some children have a more robust shen than others.

Causes of disease rarely occur in isolation

The causes of disease in the following chapters are divided into the categories first laid out in the San Yin Fang written in 1174, namely internal, external and miscellaneous. There is rarely only one causative agent in a child’s illness. It is usually when several factors combine, against the background of a child’s constitutional imbalance, that illness arises. The challenge for the practitioner is to consider all the causes of disease equally, and to be aware of her own bias in favouring one category over another. Any advice she gives should be related only to the causes that she considers are relevant for the individual child. A long list of ‘shoulds’ and ‘should nots’ is usually overwhelming and decreases the likelihood that any of them will be followed. Small pieces of pertinent advice tailored to the individual child are more likely to be taken up. Furthermore, most parents will resonate with suggestions that really are relevant to their child. The practitioner is sometimes only pointing out what the parent already knows, but it may take an outsider to remind him of it.

How can something be both health-giving and a cause of disease?

There is a fine line between a certain aspect of a child’s life contributing to health or detracting from it. Exercise is a good example of this. The right amount of the right kind of exercise will contribute to a child’s health. Either too much, too little or the wrong kind of exercise may make a child ill. The same applies to many causes of disease. A lack of nurture is likely to cause imbalance, whereas over-attentiveness may do the same. Finding a middle way that suits each individual can be difficult. Even more challenging may be incorporating it into the life of a family, the members of which may have needs that are at odds with one another.

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