I’d like to first thank the American Acupuncture Council to that for hosting me today, and I will be speaking about treating digestive disorders in children.
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Hello and welcome. I’d like to first thank the American Acupuncture Council to that for hosting me today, and I will be speaking about treating digestive disorders in children. So I think we can . Dive right in. Can you turn on the first slide? Yes, I’m Moshe Heller and I’m from Moshen Herbs.
And I’d like to discuss today treating digestive disorders in children because it is actually summertime, a fire phase. And a lot of times we don’t think about . Necessarily connecting the digestive disorders with the fire element. But there is a very strong connection, which we’ll see in a little bit, other than the fact that of course the the digestive fire right is associated with that kind of element, the fire element.
I wanted to point out that. Digestive disorders are actually extremely common in children and sometimes they don’t manifest as the main complaint, but they’re associated with many disorders that range from even cognitive issues of difficulty focusing to allergies, to various other things.
And I will point out as we go how this, what are the connections? But the first thing I want to make sure that everybody is clear on is that children are born with a weak digestive se system, meaning that that their spleen is often very deficient. And that’s very obvious. Babies have difficulty digestion di digesting and have a very soft yellowish
Bowel movements, which are all signs of some spleen, va acuity. As we see that the patterns of digestive dysfunction are easy to notice when we put the earth in the center, the spleen in the center, so there’s. Starting with wind affecting stress and in infections and anger, all can affect the spleen.
The, in the fire element we have heat and over overstimulation, overheating. Creates can affect the spleen in the center. And then the, in, in the metal element, we have dryness and frequent colds or invasions of. Pathogenic influences that can affect the the digestive system as well as affecting the large intestine if they they affect the younging causing constipation as well as the emotional state of the lung can when there’s loss or grief.
It can affect the spleen function a lot in the water element. Cold, raw, cold, eating, raw, cold foods, the use of antibiotics and some prenatal, like a, some kids are born with even weaker spleen, so the digestive system is even more sensitive to . The the foods that we introduced to them, even sometimes the breast milk itself and also prematurity affects the kidney and fear and fright.
All these factors can also influence the spleen. And there’s an interesting saying in pediatric, in Chinese medical pediatrics that actually all children disorders arise from fear and frighten and indigestion, meaning that fear is a causing factor for many disorders and also issues with digestion.
Those are the two main issues. . That children present with with disorders. As we can see here all these influences eventually can cause spleen G deficiency that affects the spleen’s ability, trans to transform and transport and therefore damp can be produced and and accumulations.
These are the sort of the digestive dysfunction issues that can arise. I also wanted to point out that we, there’s this really strong connection between our digestive system, our immune system, and our neurological system as an as . I call the neuro gastro immune system. They’re all connected and connected, as one system.
We know that the the immune system and our digestive system are very much connected through the microbiome and the microbiome health, meaning that the mini minute R microbiome is imbalanced then. It can lead to immune issues. So we can feel, see that the, there’s a lot of gassiness and bloating and discomfort in the belly, abdominal pain from this kind of mis the microbiome dysbiosis.
And that can affect our immune system and also . Through the the effect of the vagus nerve. Our neurological system affects both the immune system and the gastrointestinal system, meaning that there’s feedback back and forth between them. And so if there’s neurological dysfunction, it can affect our or vagus nerve dysfunction.
It can affect our gastrointestinal system and our immune system. And vice versa. If there are disorders, if there’s issues with our gastrointestinal system and our immune system, it can affect our neurological system through the vagus nerve. So this is a very important . Connection to always remember that aligns our immune system and our neurological system in in the same in affected by our gastrointestinal.
And there’s like a triangle that are very closely related. Anything that happens in one can affect the other.
So I wanted to say to point out that there are five common patterns of illness in children according to Julian Scott. This is his idea. And actually I found it very very true in my office, in my clinic. I always can probably . 90% of my pediatric patients will fall into one of these categories of disorders or as at least as, as a part of their diagnosis.
We’ll have one of these five. So these are very common patterns and I just wanna go through them really quickly so that we can remember. The first pattern that I want to mention is called an accumulation disorder. And accumulation disorders are very common in, in the early years. So somewhere between six months when new food is introduced to the baby.
And up to about two years at two years, I would say that is the point where the the digestive system matures. So at this point of time the digestive system is very delicate. And and therefore if some wrong food is introduced or some cold is affecting the digestive system accumulation can result.
And this accumulation is similar to the concept of. Food stagnation in adults, but it has a more of a, another aspect to it. It could be the beginning of of or the pre the precursor for For digestive, for food allergies later on in life. The symptoms are very similar. There are very clear sets of diagnostic symptoms that point towards accumulation.
And I’ll just point the most significant one is that there is a constant redding of the cheeks look red. Most of the time in those children, they it’s not like a healthy red cheeks that you would expect from newborns or, or babies or toddlers. But it’s it’s almost like a real strong red.
Kind of coming out from the skin. And it’s very typical of those those kids that have that accumulation disorder. And of course it comes with a lot of digestive issues and tendency to have colic and gassy and issues with with digestion and bowel movements. The next pattern is a regular spleen, chief acuity, which we can expect this is a more of a deficient condition.
You’ll see a child will be more flabby floppy, not flabby floppy. The muscles are not strong. Sometimes . Associated with low muscle tone and also issues with digesting food, with eating patterns are very, usually very difficult. And so it’s more of a deficient type of pattern.
The hyperactive spleen, chief acuity follows a similar pattern where there’s this kind of digestive deficiency. But the energy of the child, the emotional state of the child, is very hyper, very difficult to sit still and very manipulative and and not able to sit quietly.
There’s another type of deficiency with a mixture of hyperactivity, and that’s called the kidney chi deficiency Hyperactivity. The only difference between the. Spleen chi hyperactivity and the kidney chi hyperactivity is that the kids show some kidney vacuity on top of the spleen vacuity.
And a lot of times they’ll be very fearful. You’ll see them, they’ll be very hyperactive. They’re very curious. They’re, they’ll have issues sleeping, but their digestive system will definitely, they’ll have food issues also associated with that. And the fifth one is the lingering pathogenic factor.
I see a lot of that. The most important way you, there’s a few very strong clues towards lingering pathogenic factors, but I always palpate for the lymph glands and see if they’re swollen. There’s a suspicion. That and the child is not actively sick at that moment, that there’s something lingering.
A lingering pathogenic factor is involved. So I always check for that too. So these are the five common patterns, as you can see. Except for the lingering pathogenic factor, which also always almost involves digestive sys system issues. All the other four are clearly digestive dysfunction as at the core of those fi five patterns.
When we see that spleen sheet deficiency in kids, it’s really simple. That’s why I really thought it would be a very important to remember that. Because it’s actually very simple to treat them. There’s, these are very basic points. Stomach 36, CV 12, and I also sometimes might help.
I’m I, I. Didn’t write it down here, but UB 20 as the back shoe of the of the spleen is really important and helpful. You can use it with needles, you can use it with tiger Warmers. You can use moa, but it is really easy to treat children to strengthen their spleen with these points and so effective that is definitely worth stressing.
So useful points for accumulation and indigestion and colic issues. Again, we have . CV 12 and stomach 36 as the basic combination the use of CEN points in babies. I use them up to even up to two years old. I use cen very, I know traditionally there’s this idea that you need to prick it and express this kind of yellow fluid.
I find that even using a shone hin tool to press on these points until I get a little bit of a reaction then that’s all that’s needed or a quick in and out with a siren. Ear, needle. And sometimes I am able to . Put all all eight points ’cause only I don’t use the thumb eight points before the child actually realizes that I did that.
That means it’s really great. I also wanted to point out this combination of using CV 10. CV 13 and CV 12, all three. Because that helps to regulate the stomach function. CV three I call the upper sphincter of the stomach. The CV 10 represents the lowest sphincter of the stomach and CV 12 representing the stomach itself.
This, the use of those three points, whether it’s by massaging or ENA or by . Using po the needles or magnets. Sometimes it can help regulate the stomach chi, which is really important to make sure stomach chi is functioning well. As well as spleen cheer and the heart the relationship between the stomach chi and and the spleen chi is balanced.
We also I I like to use gallbladder I stomach 34 for calming stomach pain. That’s a a different point that’s usually used, but sometimes it helps to actually come if stomach 36 doesn’t and stomach 40 for transforming phlegm. If there is phlegm that needs to be transformed.
I, I frequently use when there is constipation, I use a combination of triple burner six and bladder 25. And and when I work on eliminating damp heat from the intestines, I use stomach 25, 37, and 39, the lower C point of the large intestine and small intestine. Here’s some tuna recommendations.
Of course massaging the around the belly button. Just remembering that if we are wanting to promote paralysis, we use it clockwise. And if we want to stop her stasis, we use it counterclockwise. So if there’s constipation, you would use it clockwise. If there’s diarrhea, you would use it counterclockwise.
The spleen is represented at the tip of the tongue thumb. Generally if I want to strengthen the spleen in pediatric patients, I would do rotations. On the thumb area. Basically in pediatric Trina rotations will create more ification, whereas linear or spreading outwards like this, Is more dispersing if you have a damp accumulation from spleen.
In the spleen. An excess spleen, not very common, but sometimes there is, you can disperse and the stomach area is just underneath, underneath the spleen in this area. So you can disperse the stomach by pulling outwards, or you can tonify the stomach chi by doing rotations.
So I wanna point out one of the formulas from Moshen Herbs that I use for a variety of digestive disorders. It is called Digest. Interestingly enough, it’s based on, I. BHA one. And it harmonizes the spleen and stomach and resolves de phlegm and regulates the liver chi. So it is, as I said, based on bha one from the Yin Nourishing School of Ju Chi.
This formula actually reduces food stagnation and preserves proper functions of the digestive organs. So it’s a great formula for supporting the digestive system and that’s what I like about digestive ’cause you can use it as a tonic to support a weak digestive system. Especially if there’s concerns about this weakness and it can also be a treatment.
So I modified it and her and and added herbs that support digestion. Clear some wind, heat and regulate the cheese. I’ll talk a little bit about these. Of these herbs, gin, , and . Both are actually considered great summer teas to prevent pathogenic influences in the winter.
There are cooling herb, cooling herbs. They’re both flowers representing summer and affect the head. But they are really great. Digestive regulators. I. We don’t think of them as such, but they are, and that’s why they’re really recommended to be in China it’s a known what would call summer tea.
You drink, you can drink in warm or. Cool. With and . And so I added that because it actually supports the digestive system. Again, another herb that relieves the exterior. But it is also a great digestive regulator. And it’s it’s really important herb for helping the digestive system.
And Tchen helps in the production of fluids, which is another important, very important concept that the EA is manufactured and distributed well. And that’s all in relationship to good spleen chi. So Tchen is an amazing, important herb for supporting the digestive system. So we added this herb to the formula digest and we can quickly break it down.
Di Digestive again based on . Preserve Baan Preserve harmony. Tchen and re are the main herbs. Sanja, Zu and Sharon. And Gya, and are all food transforming, helping the digestive system transform or breakdown proteins fats and carbohydrates. Excuse me. As well as a combination of Chen CIA urchin tongue, basically to transform d dampness.
And I’ve added these accurate, windy herbs used to regulate the digestive chi in them. So this is the format I wanted to really present today. I wanted to just mention another couple of formulas that are not . Focused on the digestive system, but affect it in, in, one of them actually does work on the digestive system.
The one the first one is called shield, and it is based on ing Pang. Yan is mostly Xi, which is strengthening to the spleen and Baiju. Which actually helps of course strengthen the spleen and work on the digestive system as the basis for a good immune system. As I mentioned before that relationship is extremely important.
The, this is a shield that if you have a child that has digestive system and tends to get colds very easily, shield is the formula even better than digest. And the last one has is called react. It’s based on one, but it is actually my food allergy formula. To support children who have who have this kind of accumulation disorder at the beginning.
And then it develops into these really food allergies that cause a lot of digestive issues and manifest with many other complaints. So that’s react. So these, this is all these formulas are, there are many more formulas that can affect the digestive system, but these are my points that I wanted to bring today.
I like to thank you for your time and thank the, again. . For hosting me and thank you for listening and hope you visit my MoshenHerbs.com for more information. .