Acupuncture for Children

Acupuncture is not just for adults, and it’s not just a pain remedy! This article explains how acupuncture can help children.

Chinese Medicine is not just a pain relief method. It’s actually a pretty complex medical system that includes pediatric care for infants, toddlers, and small children. Instead of simply being treated like small adults, children are treated with a different system of therapies and methods than adults. What is acupuncture for children? Different methods of acupuncture for children include the use of shonishin, which is a non-insertion method of acupuncture that uses a special tool. Chinese Medicine pediatrics also includes tuina (therapeutic massage) and herbal medicine.

Shonishin literally translates to “little children needle” in English. This method originated in Osaka, Japan in the 17th century for the treatment of infants and children up to the age of seven. Shonishin is a pediatric method of acupuncture in La Jolla, CA that is known to treat children with heartburn (GERD), indigestion, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), constipation, diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, allergies, eczema, hives, bedwetting, and even speech problems. The acupuncturist uses a shonishin tool by stroking, tapping, rubbing, and pressing the skin to create a variety of sensations over the acupuncture meridians. The entire treatment process can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the strength of the child and his or her age.

Tuina massage, on the other hand, includes traction, motion, massage, and stimulation of the different acupuncture meridians at specific points. Both chronic and acute musculoskeletal conditions can be treated with tuina. Internal conditions such as digestive problems, difficulty sleeping, chest congestion, colds and coughs, and even anxiety-related disorders may also respond well to tuina treatment.

Most acupuncturists will show the child’s parents different shonishin and tuina techniques that the parent can do at home between visits with the acupuncturist. An ordinary soup spoon can be used in place of professional tuina and guasha tools for “maintenance” to keep children’s conditions under control.

It’s important for parents to utilize therapeutic physical touch with their children. This plays a crucial role in the development of a child’s nervous system, providing a healthy balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, the immune system, the digestive system, and the musculoskeletal system. Oftentimes physical and behavioral problems in children are simply manifestations of a lack of therapeutic touch and the usage of inappropriate physical touch (spanking or hitting).

Physical touch teaches children body awareness. This helps them to understand that if they are hungry, thirsty, hot, cold, tired, sleepy, hurt, or sick; they can either utilize some self-care by using self-massage, or asking for help. Children without such awareness may act out, scream, or be mean to others because they don’t understand what is going on inside their bodies and they don’t know what to do about it.

Herbal medicine is another forgotten remedy of Chinese Medicine that is relied upon when you get acupuncture in La Jolla, CA. Instead of using Tylenol, Ritalin, Nyquil, or other potentially dangerous over-the-counter and “prescription” drugs, Chinese herbalists rely on natural remedies that have been used for centuries without causing unwanted side effects. Herbal medicine treats the root of the disease, rather than treating the branch or symptom only. For this reason, symptomatic relief may not come immediately after using an herbal formula. However, the disease process itself will be over much more quickly.

 

Acupuncture for Fertility

Research and anecdotal reports both suggest that acupuncture is a useful form of fertility enhancement and may improve outcomes of IVF.

Do you know any recent parents who say that acupuncture helped them conceive -- after years of trying to get pregnant? If you’re part of a growing population of Gen-X and Gen-Y who has sought out methods to enhance fertility, then you probably do have a few people in your social network who can attest to the powers of Traditional Chinese Medicine for helping couples to conceive.

A growing number of people trying acupuncture in San Diego are requesting acupuncture treatment for fertility enhancement. Some are actually using acupuncture as part of Western Medicine to help with the success of in-vitro fertilization (IVF). There are reported success rates of up to 70% for acupuncture assistance with IVF, which is greater than the success rate of IVF alone.

There was a scientific meta-analysis of the usefulness of acupuncture for IVF success, which was published in the Oxford Journal in 2013, and the conclusion of the large study was that acupuncture was not effective. The study’s authors actually said that acupuncture decreased the chances of IVF being successful. This was an alarming conclusion for many patients who had achieved success with acupuncture. Clinicians had witnessed great success using acupuncture in their IVF clinics. So why the discrepancy? It turns out that this study was funded by a drug company that makes fertility drugs and anti-depressants!

This is one reason why it’s so important to look at the source of anything you read nowadays, whether it’s a news-related article, magazine article, or scientific journal. Everyone has their own bias, and it’s impossible to be completely neutral when writing anything, but consumers should still be aware of the source and potential biases. Who do you trust the most? Your best friend who just got pregnant because of acupuncture? Or a scientist working for a drug company, who has a vested interest in “proving” that acupuncture doesn’t work?

Some acupuncture for fertility studies compare “true” acupuncture with “sham” acupuncture. Sham acupuncture often involves the use of special fake acupuncture needles that are placed at the acupuncture points and appear to get shorter as they’re “inserted” into the body. They don’t stimulate the acupoints in the same way as an actual needle that penetrates the epidermal layer of the skin. Many studies show that even the sham acupuncture enhances fertility and the success rates of IVF. Many suspect that the reason for this is that the acupuncture point is stimulated regardless of whether the needle actually penetrates the skin or not. In fact, some modalities of Japanese acupuncture actually use the non-insertion technique, in which acupuncture needles are held on the acupuncture points, but not inserted. Therefore, “sham” acupuncture is not really a sham. Some patients -- especially those who may have a deficiency condition -- may even do better with the “sham” or non-insertion technique. Ask your acupuncturist in San Diego about Japanese acupuncture or the non-insertion technique if you are needle-sensitive or deficient.

Another issue to keep in mind when reading the news about scientific studies concerning the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment for various conditions is that each study typically tests only one acupuncture protocol to gauge the effectiveness of acupuncture as a whole. If one protocol appears ineffective, and the study concludes that acupuncture as a whole is 

ineffective for a particular condition, this is synonymous to saying that Western Medicine is ineffective if aspirin fails to treat H.pylori infection (stomach ulcers). Obviously some antibiotics can treat H. pylori, but aspirin does not. No researcher or doctor would discount the effectiveness of antibiotics -- or Western Medicine as a whole -- simply because aspirin does not treat H. pylori (and may even exacerbate a stomach ulcer).