I rely heavily on the Chinese medicine system to help explain conditions and particularly the timing of when and under what circumstances symptoms develop. In the case of constipation occurring in childhood, parents often ask why is this happening to my child? I think this is a very valid question, especially because most kids have had normal bowel movement habits at some time in their lives.

For example, babies whether they are breast fed or bottle fed, generally have multiple stools per day. The question should be asked then, as to why constipation develops in a child who previously had no problems with bowel regularity. I have learned that the Chinese medicine system of organ and meridian energy pathways can explain much of these changes that happen, using energy as the term used to describe what is going on.

The large intestine or colon is the organ responsible for passing stools and eliminating wastes from the digestive process. If we only focus on the physical organ itself, we will miss a significant proportion of the causative factors at play in the child with constipation. There are very few cases which are attributable to physical problems like blockage, abnormal formation of the digestive tract, or inherited disorders like Cystic Fibrosis or Hirschprung’s Disease. These conditions generally present early in life and fortunately can be diagnosed and treated when found. However, in the vast majority of cases, children develop constipation with no known obvious cause and then we are left to recommend symptomatic care.

There is nothing wrong with treating the symptoms of constipation to provide relief, but we should not mistake the temporary alleviation of symptoms with actual resolution of the problem. It goes without saying, that prune juice or mineral oil is not the “cure” for constipation, although they can be helpful along with other measures like keeping well hydrated with fluids or avoiding too much dairy products. My point is that no child is “destined” to have constipation as part of their natural pattern of existence. We must be much more diligent in looking for and uncovering the cause, not limiting ourselves to a few diagnosable conditions only.

This graphic depicts the inter-relationship between the large intestine, the spleen, the stomach and the lungs in the Chinese medicine system.

I have found that in the Chinese medicine system there are multiple correspondences with the large intestine energy circuit that can readily explain many of these cases of constipation in children. For example, if your child has had any respiratory illness in the past like a pneumonia, bronchitis, upper respiratory infections, ear infections, etc., this will predispose them to preferentially send more of their available energy to the lung circuit instead of the large intestine. You can ask yourself the question, which do you think your child’s system deems as more important to take care of, the lungs and breathing or the large intestine and regularity of bowel habits?

As they say, this is a “no brainer”. There would be no problem with this energy redistribution if it was just temporary. However, in young children especially, these energy changes can become a set pattern which is difficult to unwind. Fortunately, kids are very amenable to energy inputs like the BodyTalk system which I use extensively in my clinical practice. Often it only takes gentle energetic encouragement, focus and awareness to help your child’s system to revert back to its more normal and balanced settings.

You can read more about the large intestine energy circuit on my website and more general information about how I use the Chinese medicine system and the energy medicine paradigm as part of my practice. As always, I encourage you to find the approach and modalities that fit with your child’s individual needs, not some ready-made formula. And finally, be open to new ideas and new information. This strategy has worked well for me as a doctor and I’m sure it can work for you, too.

In my practice I like to use the saying, “The more information, the better”. What I mean is that we can gain a lot more ground by being open to different systems, interpretations, and models of explanation, rather than just relying on one single description.

If we are evaluating a child with stomachaches, we must address the symptom and condition and try to elucidate the likely causes. However, often there is no discernible cause from a physiologic or anatomic standpoint. Then what do we do? I have stated in other places how I am in agreement with doing testing to make sure there are no obvious or hidden physical problems, like blockages, ulcers, growths, appendicitis, inflammatory bowel disease, etc. In the vast majority of cases, however, none of these are identified as the cause and we are left with no answers.

This is the situation where I believe a broader more holistic and energy derived description and evaluation comes in very handy. On my website I have given more information about the Chinese medicine system and how it addresses conditions found commonly in kids. There are specific groupings which bring together body organs and energy pathways in a coherent and clinically significant way, which I find extremely useful as a physician and I think can be very insightful information for parents to know.

In the Chinese medicine system, the stomach organ and channel are grouped with the large intestine, the lungs and the spleen. These four organs and channels essentially work together on the same circuit, and your child’s energy system must distribute or parcel out its energy in the most efficient and beneficial manner that it can in the context of your child’s daily life and experience.

I have found that when we open up the breadth and scope of our questioning and increase the potential topics of inquiry, our chances of finding the right causative explanation for something like stomachaches goes up dramatically.

So, the bottom line is this: Get an evaluation done to look for treatable and serious problems that could be going on with your child. But don’t stop there if those lab tests and procedures don’t reveal anything. It is important to keep looking for the causes, even if it takes you beyond the physical realm and into the arena where energy becomes the more useful explanation.

In my practice, I use a consciousness based system called BodyTalk which allows us to have access to those things which are only accessible through the energy medicine or consciousness based paradigm. I discuss these concepts in more detail in my ebook called Energy Medicine Principles for Parents and you can read more about the Chinese medicine system and your child on my website called Principles for Parents.

Learning how to manage emotions like anger in constructive, natural and acceptable ways is one of the ongoing processes of childhood and beyond.

Here is a site and a book I came across which specifically deals with anger in children and gives some great alternatives to medication and the conventional approach, while respecting the individual variations that children inherently have across the spectrum of the population.

Dear Sebastian was written by Bianca Tora, a grandmother and writer who put together this book and the website called Help-Your-Child-With-Anger.com.

The following is a quote from the author:

“Thanks to recent research on brain neuroplasticity, exercise-induced brain stimulation, psychoenergetic science, the power of intention and attention, we knew we could help our grandson manage his anger without relying on drugs or institutional care. And that’s what we did–helped him manage his anger–with love, patience, belief and brain-building exercises. This website is the result of our encounter with anger. We decided to turn what we learned from it into anger management tips and resources that can help others like us.”
- Bianca Tora

In Chinese medicine, anger is under the functional category of the liver and gall bladder sub-system. What this means is from an energy perspective, children (and all of us) must use some of their allotted liver gall bladder energy to deal with anger as an emotion, either in the expression of it or the inhibition of it. Both outward expression and inward repression require energy from the liver and gall bladder system.

Not surprisingly, this same sub-circuit is in charge of dealing with stress (both internal and external) in addition to many other categories. It is no wonder then, that stress can increase the chances of a child having anger episodes more frequently or more pronounced as a result of stress provoking events and experiences.

In my practice, I have learned that I must look for additional pieces of information when investigating the causes of anger and the Chinese medicine system is a very useful framework in this regard. At the same time, it allows us to look for individual differences in order to come up with a strategy that will work for your child, not anyone else’s and not based solely on statistics and numbers.

Here is a short video that highlights this site called Help-Your-Child-With-Anger.com.

If you have a child who is having difficulty with anger as an emotional state, go to this website and read more about the many techniques available to address it. You may also leave a comment on this post or submit a question through my contact form.

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.

As always, please leave your comments below. Thanks!

I recently put up a page on PFP called Symptoms and Your Child.
This generally outlines the Chinese Medicine approach I use when
evaluating kids and their symptoms. To me, it is a much more
holistic way of categorizing what’s going on with your child.

Over the years I have been amazed at the consistency and the
remarkable accuracy of this energy system when I use it to try and
decipher the meaning of symptoms affecting a particular child.

Go ahead and visit the page and let me know what you think. I’ll be
adding more details in the coming weeks and months in this section
of the website.