Chinese medicine believes that the spleen and stomach is the main organ of the body to digest, absorb and transfer its essence to the diet, as the saying goes, “the spleen is strong in all seasons and not subject to evil”, which means that babies with strong spleen and stomach function have strong resistance and are less likely to get sick. How to take care of the stomach and intestines is a must for parents in the process of raising their babies.
[Physiological characteristics]
The stomach and intestines have the physiological functions of ripening, transforming, transmitting and absorbing water and grain essence, which is the main source of nutrients needed to sustain life activities since birth and the main material basis for the production of Qi and blood. If the spleen and stomach are injured, the transportation and transformation will be out of order, and the source of transformation will be insufficient to produce qi and blood, the person’s qi, blood and fluids, organs, muscles, limbs and bones are all displaced, and all diseases peak. Therefore, Li Dongyuan said: “all diseases are born from the spleen and stomach failure”.
In childhood, because the internal organs are delicate and not yet developed, the body of the spleen and stomach is not yet complete, and the qi of the spleen and stomach is not yet strong, so it is easy for the parents to improperly feed the child, and the child’s diet does not know how to self-regulate, so there are abnormalities in the intake, ripening, and transfer of the essence. As the body of a child is in a stage of rapid growth and development, the spleen is the source of Qi and blood biochemistry and needs to provide the material foundation for the rapid growth of the child. Since the child
The physiological characteristics of the “spleen is often deficient,” and its incidence ranks second.
[Common diseases]
I. Anorexia
Anorexia is a common disease in pediatrics, characterized clinically by a longer period of aversion to eating and reduced food intake. It can develop in children of all ages, and is more common in children aged 1-6 years. The incidence is higher in urban children.
1.Consequences
If anorexia is long-term, the resistance to disease can be reduced, and other diseases can easily develop.
2.Home care
Children are often deficient in spleen, and they do not know how to regulate their diet, so they are easily injured by breastfeeding. Children’s milk food is important in order, sometimes, there are sections. Due to improper feeding of parents, or too much cold food injures Yang, too much hot food injures Yin, too much fat, sweet, thick and greasy food injures the spleen, etc., and makes the appetite poor, see the meal is not fragrant. This requires us to cultivate healthy eating habits in children.
(1) Small infants should add complementary foods on time, and older children should eat meals on time without snacks.
(2) Do not eat fruit, yogurt and drink half an hour before a meal.
(3) do not watch TV during meals do not drink water and drinks
(4) Do not criticize and blame the child at the table, because the bad mood will also reduce appetite.
3, home countermeasures.
(1) Try to encourage children to eat by themselves, which can increase appetite.
(2) food as diverse as possible, so that the color and flavor to improve appetite.
(3) Massage therapy can be carried out to improve the digestive function of the spleen and stomach.
(4) Chinese herbal medicine can also be taken to treat the symptoms.
Vomiting
Vomiting is also a common symptom in pediatrics, more common in infants and children and in summer and autumn, and can be accompanied by nausea, loss of appetite, sour breath, bloating, abdominal pain, diarrhea and other symptoms.
There are many causes of vomiting in babies, the common causes are: (1) improper feeding or eating: such as feeding too much milk, swallowing a lot of air when eating milk. (2) abnormal digestive function: systemic infectious diseases, such as babies suffering from upper respiratory tract infection, bronchitis, pneumonia and sepsis. (3) infectious diseases of the digestive tract: when suffering from gastritis, enteritis, dysentery, appendicitis and other diseases, local irritation can cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea and other symptoms. (4) Neurological diseases: encephalitis, meningitis, intracranial hemorrhage or tumor and craniocerebral trauma and other central nervous system diseases can also cause vomiting, characterized by no nausea and ejection before vomiting, often accompanied by other symptoms of the nervous system, such as headache, depression, drowsiness, and even convulsions and coma.
1.Consequences
Vomiting caused by overfeeding can be relieved by itself after reducing the amount of food eaten. If repeated, frequent vomiting or with diarrhea, fever will appear water, electrolyte, acid-base balance imbalance; if it is dysentery or poisoning, serious cases will cause toxic shock; if it is a neurological disease, it can cause seizures, coma, and even life-threatening. So you should closely observe the baby’s mental state and vomiting, dehydration, so that you can seek medical attention in time.
2.Home care and treatment countermeasures
(1)Home care
The vomiting baby should lie on his side to prevent aspiration pneumonia or asphyxia caused by vomit accidentally inhaled into the trachea. Vomiting caused by improper feeding too much, to reduce the amount of food, vomiting lighter can eat easily digestible liquid food or semi-liquid food, a small number of times to give, vomiting heavy temporary fasting 4 to 6 hours, can be given a small number of times of light salt water or rice soup. If there is no obvious nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension, you can give light food such as thin rice, dry rice, bread, buns, but should avoid dairy products, greasy diet for 2 to 3 days, forbidden to eat cold, fried, spicy food, drinks, etc..
(2)Home treatment
After the baby has eaten water, drugs can be given orally: poor appetite, sour breath is indigestion, can take Jian’er anti-food oral liquid, lactase tablets, lactobacillus tablets, etc. to help digestion. If the vomit is clear and cold without sour odor, accompanied by nasal congestion and runny nose, caused by external wind and cold, you can take Huoxiang Zhengqi liquid. In addition, regardless of the type of vomiting, can take vitamin B6 or domperidone tablets to stop vomiting and promote gastric power.
3, can also take some external treatment massage therapy. For breast food stagnation caused by parents with two thumbs from the epigastric to the umbilicus to the two sides of the push 30 to 50 times, or clockwise abdominal massage for 1 minute, the end of the thumb to rub the foot San Li, Nei Guan points for about 1 minute each also help food digestion.
4, small food therapy recipes
Orange peel porridge: 3-5g of sun-dried orange peel grind, 50g of round-grained rice poured clean. Pot on the fire, add an appropriate amount of water, put the orange peel powder, round-grained rice, porridge, boil with a high fire, change the fire to cook porridge, wait for the orange peel rotten, rice cooked, can be eaten. Drink once a day in the morning and once in the evening. It is suitable for children with injury and vomiting caused by spleen and stomach gas stagnation.
Third, abdominal pain
Pediatric abdominal pain has a complex etiology and can be caused by systemic diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, malnutrition, etc. It can also be caused by gastritis, enteritis, peptic ulcer, ascariasis, constipation, intussusception, appendicitis, hernia and other diseases of the abdomen itself. In children, there is also a common functional disease – intestinal spasm, because of the unstable regulation of children’s plant nerve function, uncoordinated excitation and inhibition of the intestinal wall nerves, under the action of certain factors (such as cold, drinking cold, anger, etc.), the smooth muscle of the intestinal tube will be strongly contracted spasm and cause pain. Small infants may suffer from abdominal pain due to excessive consumption of milk and sugar or intestinal flatulence caused by swallowing a large amount of gas in the abdomen.
Home care and treatment measures
(1)Home care
Pay attention to the warmth of the baby’s abdomen, especially at night to avoid aggravating abdominal pain by catching a cold. Overeating and unclean eating are important factors that cause and aggravate abdominal pain. Parents should pay attention to the moderation and cleanliness of children’s diet.
(2) Home treatment
If the baby’s abdominal pain is diagnosed by the doctor as intestinal spasm, but the abdominal pain is light or only occurs occasionally, it can be treated without medication first, and the abdominal pain will often be relieved naturally; for those children with paroxysmal abdominal pain, if the pain location is fixed, abdominal muscle tension, or abdominal colic accompanied by abdominal distension, vomiting, or abdominal pain lasts for 2 to 3 hours, while there is full abdominal pressure, it may be a surgical emergency abdomen, and the child should be sent to the hospital immediately.
Acute severe abdominal pain that the baby cannot tolerate and accompanied by other symptoms such as vomiting, blood in stool, pallor and change in consciousness may be acute abdominal disease such as intussusception, intestinal obstruction, intestinal perforation, allergic purpura, gastrointestinal torsion, pancreatitis, etc. The baby should be immediately fasted from food and water and quickly go to the hospital for treatment.
If a baby hernia cannot be returned to the abdominal cavity, the swelling does not disappear and is accompanied by abdominal pain, crying, abdominal distention and vomiting, an incarcerated hernia must have occurred and must be sent to the hospital for treatment in time. If the abdominal pain is accompanied by vomiting and diarrhea, it may be gastroenteritis. If the diarrhea and vomiting are severe with symptoms of dehydration such as poor skin elasticity and weakness, the baby should be sent to the hospital immediately to avoid delaying the condition.
Warm tips]
(1) Feeding small babies should be done regularly.
(2) Use the correct method of breastfeeding. When feeding manually, let the pacifier be full of milk, and when breastfeeding, the mother should take a standing or sitting position, not a lying position, to avoid the baby inhaling a lot of air and thus causing intestinal spasm.
(3) Each feeding should not last more than 20 minutes. After breastfeeding, the baby should be held upright, leaning on the mother’s shoulder and gently patted on the back so that the swallowed air can be expelled quickly.
(4) Babies with abdominal pain should not take painkillers casually, as this will cover up the condition, interfere with the diagnosis and delay the time of treatment.
(5) baby abdominal pain do not just do local hot compresses, if the child’s abdominal pain is organic lesions, at this time, if you press the children’s stomach, or may promote inflammation of the septic place broken perforation, the formation of diffuse peritonitis. Press the abdomen, can stimulate the worm body, and even cause biliary ascariasis; roundworms may also penetrate the delicate intestinal wall of young children, causing diffuse peritonitis; and blindly press the rub, can also cause deepening of the set into the site, aggravating the condition.
Fourth, diarrhea
Diarrhea refers to an increase in the number of stools and/or thin stools, which can be accompanied by vomiting, fever, abdominal pain, abdominal distension, mucus stools, blood stools and other symptoms.
There are many causes of pediatric diarrhea, which can be summarized into two categories: infectious and non-infectious factors. Infectious diarrhea includes: infection with bacteria or viruses in the intestinal tract. Long-term use of broad-spectrum antibiotics can directly stimulate the intestinal tract and cause diarrhea, and can also cause diarrhea due to dysbiosis of the intestinal flora. Non-infectious factors: (1) The infant’s immature digestive system cannot withstand large changes in the quality and quantity of dietary items, and diarrhea can be caused by improper diet or feeding practices. For example, eating too much, irregularly, changing the composition of food, adding too much sugar; adding supplementary food too early, making it difficult for the child to digest; weaning the child on a hot day, suddenly changing the content of the diet, etc., can cause diarrhea. (2) Changes in climate can also cause diarrhea, such as cold can make the intestinal tract dysfunction; hot climate can make gastric acid and digestive enzyme secretion decrease and cause indigestion, forming diarrhea.
If the diarrhea is serious or with severe vomiting, there will be water, electrolyte, acid-base balance imbalance, if it is dysentery, serious people can cause toxic shock, so you should closely observe the baby’s mental state and diarrhea, dehydration, and seek medical attention in a timely manner.
1.Home care
The baby with diarrhea should reduce the amount of food in moderation and forbid eating cold and greasy food. In case of loss of appetite or early fever, reduce the amount of milk and other foods for children and replace them with sugar saline to reduce the burden on the gastrointestinal tract and avoid overfeeding or feeding foods containing more fat. Pay attention to the warmth of the baby’s abdomen to avoid the aggravation of diarrhea caused by cold abdomen and accelerated intestinal peristalsis.
2.Home treatment
Children with diarrhea can take oral intestinal mucosal protective agents to help restore the normal ecological balance of the intestinal flora. Baby diarrhea such as watery stool or egg-flake soup-like stool, usually mostly viral infections, to the baby to take intestinal mucosa protector and micro-ecological preparations, without antibiotics, Similac (montelukast) to adsorb pathogens and toxins, can also take micro-ecological preparations such as Mamie Ai, etc. At the same time to pay attention to the prevention and correction of dehydration, commonly used oral rehydration salts to water feeding; such as mucus, pus and blood stools are mostly bacterial infections, plus the use of cephalosporin class antibacterial drugs.
3, food therapy small magic formula
(1) white lentil porridge: 100g of fresh white lentils or 50g of dried lentils, cooked with 100g of round-grained rice as porridge, served warm every morning and evening, suitable for spleen deficiency type diarrhea longer babies.
(2) Apple puree: wash and slice apples, put them in a bowl with a lid, steam and mash them as puree, and feed them 2-3 times a day.
(3) lotus seeds porridge: grind 20g of dried lotus seeds into powder, add 200ml of rice broth and boil to about 100~150ml 3 times a day, 25~50ml each time. It is suitable for children within 1 year old with prolonged diarrhea.
[How to take care of the spleen and stomach]
1. Pay attention to dietary regimen
Parents should pay attention to the dietary conditioning of children, reasonable feeding and care for infants and young children. Advocate breastfeeding as an infant. In early childhood, the milk teeth gradually come out, but the chewing function is still poor, the spleen and stomach function is still weak, food should be fine, soft, rotten, broken.
Food varieties should be diversified, meat and vegetables with the ancient saying “five grains for nourishment, five fruits for help, five animals for benefit, five dishes for the full, the smell combined and served to replenish the essence and benefit the qi.” Three meals a day, meals on time, relatively quantitative, for children’s diet and living, should follow the ancient teaching
“If you make a child safe, always suffer three parts of hunger and cold”. Do not damage the spleen and stomach by over-starvation and over-filling.
2, treatment of disease and care for the spleen and stomach
In the process of treating various illnesses in children, it is stressed that the spleen and stomach must be taken care of at all times, do not think that children are weak after illness, delusional use of creams and thick flavors or blind tonic eating sea cucumbers and bird’s nests or even winter wormwood and summer grass type of minerals. In the early stage of recovery, it is advisable to choose rice porridge, fruits and vegetables, which are light products to nourish.