Articles


Keep informed

We will also be keeping you informed with any interesting and useful articles, happenings and links.

Why not sign up to our Newsletter (look top right!) or join us on Facebook for the latest happenings.

village health facebook

The Treatment of Children
Traditional Acupuncture Micromassage
by Michael Buist


The concepts of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are naturalistic and rational, based on observing the character and (life) cycles of the natural world. Science is continuing to validate these truths in the West and a more derivative (materialistic, “scientific”) language has been developed that tends to mask the original naturalness and simplicity of concepts. It is the intention of this author to retain the original simplicity of concepts and to describe their practical usefulness in therapy.
Please understand that all these concepts are energetic, where matter (form) is regarded as a concentration of yin energy.

Everyone is unique. A child was considered to be one year old when it is born. The twelve “months” represent the functional development of the twelve major meridians where the last two systems are activated during (or for) the journey down the birth canal and the first breath.

The womb is likened to the earth where, like a seed, the foetus develops within. After birth the mother continues to function as the earth system for the child up until the child's digestive system is fully developed at five – seven years old. This is why it can be important to treat the mother (who might be exhausted or ill) in order to assist the young child. So saying, this nurturing does not end at weaning and, of course, parental nurturing and education continues as the individual develops.

"Of course, young and old can suffer from similar diseases, yet there are some major differences between children and adults that explain some treatment approaches that are exclusive to children."

These special features in childrens' physiology can be summed up as follows:

  • Energetically, children are “empty and hot” - i.e. their energy is less solid than an adult's and it is fast; the (radial) pulse is superficial and rapid.
  • Children can get very sick very quickly and can get better equally as quickly. They also respond very quickly to all stimuli e.g. a change in mood of the mother is instantly reflected in the child's behaviour.
  • Children have very little reserves of energy so diseases that can be easily thrown off by adults are much more serious in children due to exhaustion.
  • On the other hand, this rapidness of response to stimuli is an advantage to the practitioner, who can often obtain very quick results. Compared to adults, there is little accumulated history of partially resolved illnesses so treating the symptoms directly in children is often dealing with the causes of the disease itself.
  • Generally, children are not cold and have plenty of energy. They like to tear around when they are awake, and tear around even more when they are tired. Cranky! - “I am not tired!” (with a stamp of the foot)! Adults get lethargic and want to rest.
  • Children can get very hot very quickly, whether from internal or external causes. An example of internal causes is troubles due to teething. This can even lead to tantrums and convulsions due to the disturbance of the stomach (which contols the gums). The external causes are the infectious diseases, often accompanied by acute high fever. Not a happy little person and a real worry for the parents. Infectious diseases are a major category of treatable conditions in Chinese paediatric medicine and micromassage.
  • Children have weak digestion. For the first few months they can take only milk, and that with difficulty. “Wind” and “gripe” (i.e. digestive pains) give rise to a whole range of diseases caused by toxic accumulation of varying degree. This accumulation is regarded as caused by stagnation of energy resulting in stagnation of food and, when extreme, can lead to severe, even life-threatening diseases.

    • Treatment

    All these situations are treatable with micromassage. Generally speaking, the use of aupuncture needles is not indicated (“forbidden”, actually) on children under seven years of age. No such limitation is placed on acupuncture micromassage and it is much better to give this a chance to work before considering the use of more drastic measures, e.g. antibiotics that can have undesirable side effects; or surgery, which should always be the last resort. Surgery can also be assisted by micromassage.

    Normally the child loses its fear of pain and the unknown during the first treatment and is happy to have other treatments as necessary. It is painless. The differences between children and adults, and the “open” nature of children, has lead to some special diagnostic and treatment procedures exclusively for children.

    These procedures can take very little time and can get major results.

    For instance, diagnosis of the veins at the joints of the index finger or the small creases on the face can indicate the nature and severity of the condition; and special treatments of the fingers and hands can get remarkable results after only one or two minutes of treatment. Conventional acupoint micromassage can also apply and this can also take very little time.

    Childhood illnesses and their treatment are a whole category of traditional Chinese medicine and I am happy to present the topic to interested students and practitioners of natural medicine, and am also happy to teach first aid and home therapy techniques to interested parents, whether individually or in a group.

    For more information on Chinese Micromassage refer to our services page and Michael's practitioners profile.