How to treat pediatric cough in Chinese medicine

  Shao, male, 4 years old, from Hebei, was first diagnosed on July 16, 2013.  He has been weak since childhood and has frequent colds, fever and coughs, and each attack must be injected with fluids, and often lasts for more than half a month before getting better. The following symptoms were observed: yellowish face, faint greenish color, mental lethargy, sleepy and active, yawning constantly, more nasal discharge, clear and thin, coughing continuously, dry throat without phlegm, finger sucking from time to time, eating poorly, sleeping okay, normal bowel movements, light red tongue, white fur, sunken and thin pulse. The prescription is as follows: 5g of roasted fenugreek (first decoction), 8g of dried ginger, 10g of jujube, 3g of orris, 3g of peel, 7 doses of decoction with water, 50ml 3 times a day, less ice cream and iced drinks.  Second consultation: After 14 days, the cough was significantly reduced and the child was more energetic than before. A few months have passed, and the child is eating better, in better spirits, and has been in great health, and has fewer colds than before.  Note: Chinese medicine says that children endowed with “pure yang” body, refers to the child’s Yang Qi is not full, rapid development, like the four seasons of spring, a thriving image, not refers to the child’s Yang heat hyperactive, the disease needs to use bitter cold drugs. This child is clear evidence that children’s bodies are weaker, and most of the injections and infusions are cold medicines, which tend to block Yang Qi, and when Yang Qi is damaged, resistance will decline, so it is easy to repeatedly catch colds and lingering.  The cough without phlegm should moisten the lungs and stop the cough, but this treatment is only a symptomatic one, because coughing is a sign of Yang Qi moving outward, and the body wants to expel the evil of Yin and cold from the body with the help of coughing, and combined with the overall situation of the child, the treatment should support Yang Qi, so that Yang Qi can rise well and the disease can be cured naturally. Therefore, I used Radix et Rhizoma, Dry Ginger and Jujube to warm and invigorate Yang Qi, and Radix Platycodon and Chen Pi to open and promote Lung Qi, and achieved better results by treating both the symptoms and the root.