Acupuncture for Kids

I recently came across this article on acupuncture and kids. It was posted on the ABC News site and was a feature that appeared on Good Morning America on April 5, 2009. I encourage you to watch the full 6 minute video by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post.

In my practice, I use non-needle techniques to stimulate the acupuncture points in younger kids and I have found that this works just as well as using the needles on older kids and adults. I view the acupuncture point locations as being “hard-wired” into our body’s natural system of energy pathways already in place.

“More than 3 million adults and 150,000 children have used acupuncture for ailments like headaches, back and neck pain, anxiety and ADHD over the past year, according to the 2008 report published by the National Center for Health and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.”

In addition, my experience is that the younger the child, the more easily they seem to be able to assimilate the information and input being given to them as part of the treatment process. It is very gratifying to see these stories appearing in the media and to see respected institutions doing research and promoting these complementary and alternative modalities as options for parents and their kids.

You can read the full article here:
Kids Receive Acupuncture for Ailments When Medicine’s Not Enough

Or you can watch the video clip from the Good Morning America show here.

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What’s Age Got To Do With It?

I’ve started to put up pages on my website Principles for Parents that address the different age ranges that your child is likely to be in right now.

One of the things I have learned in my practice is just how important your child’s age is as far as how they view the world, themselves, and their life experiences. I’ve started with the prenatal time period and I’m now moving into the toddler age range.

The most important concept I want to convey to you is that we have to take into account your child’s age both currently and historically. What I mean is: the age your child was when some significant event or experience took place has a tremendous influence on how they have stored the memory of that event. An even more crucial point is that their brain is likely to associate many varied factors along with the event or experience and this can lead to misconceptions and beliefs about the world that may not be true. This in turn can cause energy expenditures on your child’s part that will interfere with how their body and system functions as a whole.

Here’s an example. Let’s say your child was in the car when you had a minor car accident. Everyone was fine afterward but it left you and your child pretty shaken up. If your child is less than 5 years old, it is very likely they will interpret this event as kind of a surprise or shock to their system. However, the end result may be to associate being in the car with ongoing or imminent danger. This can lead to inordinate amounts of energy being expended by your child whenever they are in the car. Since this kind of experience is equated with survival, you can see how difficult it can be for them to resolve or reconcile the need to expend energy on this versus other needs of their energy system.

I think it is well worth the time to explore this with you as the parent because you are the one who can most help and influence your child. As with many other things, the earlier one intervenes and corrects an energy imbalance the sooner and more complete the resolution will be for your child.

You can read more about this topic of how I relate the importance of your child’s age in the context of their overall evaluation on the age ranges page on my website.