Why is My Kid Getting Sick
All of The Time? By Lauren Breau,
L.Ac
I
f you’ve ever been a parent or a caregiver for a young child, you probably experienced a good amount of hand wringing and sleep deprivation when that child got sick. Thankfully, children
tend to recover from acute illnesses relatively quickly; in fact, some- times it seems that only 24 hours after they spiked a high fever, they’re running around the house causing chaos again. Regardless of their quick recovery time, a sick child is anxiety- inducing, especially when they get sick often. During one par- ticularly abysmal winter, when my daughter first started daycare, I began referring to her as “the cutest nidus of infection to ever exist.” She brought home EVERY NASTY BUG that was around that season, and more than once took the whole house down with her. The thing is - as the winter progressed, I continued to get sick, but she didn’t. While I sat at the kitchen table, miserable, a box of tis- sues nearby and a mug of warm chicken broth in my fist, she swung her feet happily and plunged pieces of baked pear into her satisfied, chubby, pink face. This continued for much of the winter. She was mostly well,
and my husband and I were…well, mostly sick. I began questioning whether my immune system was functioning at all…and concluded that it was not. Then it dawned on me. When my daughter got sick for the first time that winter (just a common cold, but one that seemed to last too long), I ordered a book on Pediatrics and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). That week I began taking the advice I had gleaned, which was relatively simple, seeing that it pointed to one major culprit as the source of most acute childhood illness. In the world of TCM, children are not thought of as “smaller”
versions of adults. Their bodies and organ systems are still develop- ing long after birth, which means that their major organ systems are still considered “immature.” This is why it is commonly said in TCM that “children are easily susceptible to diseases which transmit and change rapidly.”
Children are also especially sensitive to diseases associated 22 Essential Living Maine ~ August 2014
with the Spleen (think of the Spleen as the digestive center) and the Lung. This made sense to me, seeing as the most common issues that affect children are upper respiratory complaints (coughs, colds, allergies, and asthma) and gastrointestinal complaints (colic, reflux, diarrhea, indigestion, and stomachache). But why was it that they got sick so often, yet recovered so quickly? The answer – since their bodies and organ systems aren’t as developed as an adult, their “newness” means that their bodies haven’t faced the years of “insult and injury” of an adult; therefore, they bounce back to health in no time.
Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pediatric Illness
“Chinese Medicine is the oldest, continuously practiced, liter- ate, professional medicine in the world. It is used by one quarter of the world’s population, and it is quickly establishing itself as the world’s most respected professionally practiced alternative medi- cine.”
- Bob Flaws, Keeping Your Child Healthy with Chinese Medi- cine
In the world of TCM, a central belief is that the practitioner should treat the patterns of disharmony, not the disease itself. To put it simply; what might work for my kid might not work for your kid. For instance, a child with a dry hacking cough would not be given the same treatment as a child with a wet, phlegmy cough – they’d be treated according to the unique pattern of their signs and symptoms. So, what is the ‘issue’ underlying most acute illnesses in chil- dren, according to the book I read? Diet. In TCM, the Spleen represents the “digestive center.” It is the
organ in charge of transforming the food we eat into vital energy (i.e. how efficiently do we absorb our food and drink?). The Spleen also has a very close relationship to the Lungs, and the Lungs have
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