Pediatric anorexia nervosa is a chronic appetite disorder in children (mainly 3-6 years old) with a long-term loss of appetite or lack of appetite, or even refusal to eat, and is one of the common diseases in pediatrics. It is mostly seen in urban children and can occur at any age, with 1 to 6 years old being the most common, and can extend to school age.
According to Chinese medicine, anorexia can be caused by poor diet, congenital deficiencies, multiple illnesses and prolonged illnesses, summer and humidity fumigation, and environmental and mental factors. Ancient medical practitioners believed that the main cause of this disease is uncontrolled diet. If you eat more, you will be full, and fullness hurts the stomach. Less food is hunger, hunger hurts the spleen. Children do not know how to control their diet, and parents are afraid that their children are hungry, so they eat too much. After the disease, the spleen and stomach qi is damaged, can not be consumed and cooked food, can also lead to see food is not thought, the grain is not fragrant.
Western medicine believes that most of the causes of anorexia in sick children are
1, unreasonable eating habits, such as picky eating, partial eating, and love of snacking.
2, low blood zinc.
3, insufficient gastric power.
4, Helicobacter pylori infection.
5, mental factors such as strong fright, excessive excitement, change of living environment, can cause emotional changes, so that the excitability of the food center is reduced, or even from excitement to inhibition, causing loss of appetite or refusal to eat.
The main symptoms caused by anorexia include loss of appetite, refusal to eat, overeating, constipation, intermittent abdominal pain, night sweats, emaciation, and recurrent colds. It can lead to diarrhea with insufficient nutritional intake, digestive disorders, poor body defenses leading to bacterial and viral infections or dysbiosis in the intestinal tract. Also susceptible to respiratory diseases such as upper respiratory tract infections, pneumonia, etc. If anorexia develops for a long time, it can lead to malnutrition, as well as various vitamin and trace element deficiencies, and low immunity, which can seriously affect the growth and development of children and predispose them to various diseases.
Chinese medicine is widely used in the treatment of pediatric anorexia, reflecting the complexity of the evidence of pediatric anorexia and the diversity of the prescriptions. The core drugs used in modern clinical treatment of pediatric anorexia are: malt, hawthorn, atractylodes, hen’s nest, poria, Chen Pi, Shen Qu, yam, sand, and codonopsis. The formula is focused on eliminating deficiency, tonifying deficiency, promoting qi, resolving dampness, and nourishing yin. In addition to taking Chinese herbal medicine to treat anorexia in children, it can also be treated by external treatment methods, such as acupuncture treatment and chiropractic treatment.
The acupuncture point SiSiu is more effective in treating anorexia in children. Location: The Sijian point is located on the palm surface of the second, third, fourth, and fifth fingers, at the midpoint of the transverse stripe of the proximal phalanges. Needle technique: Sterilize the trigeminal needle with an alcohol cotton ball and puncture the SiSiu point, squeezing out a small amount of yellow-white transparent mucus.
To prevent bleeding, the child may be asked to bend his or her fingers. Acupuncture of specific acupuncture points in the body can cause significant and sustained release of plasma gastrin, and acupuncture of the four suture points has an important role in adjusting the movement, secretion, and digestive and absorption functions of the digestive tract, which can effectively improve gastrointestinal dysfunction and has a definite effect on the treatment of anorexia nervosa. It has been reported that acupuncture at the four suture points can increase blood calcium and phosphorus levels and decrease alkaline phosphatase, resulting in a higher calcium-phosphorus product, which helps children’s bone development and growth.
The chiropractic treatment, by massaging the acupuncture points on the back of the spine, invigorates Yang energy and helps the spleen to move, thus regulating the qi and blood, and the internal organs, opening up the meridians and cultivating the vital energy, and is safe and effective, eliminating the pain of taking medication for the child. The operation is as follows: adjust the room temperature, the child remove or loosen the top, expose the entire back, take a prone or semi-prone position, so that the back is flat and relaxed. The chiropractic area is the midline of the spine.
First, the child’s back from top to bottom gently pressed to relax the muscles, and then from the sacro-caudal long strong points, the two thumbs finger belly and show, the middle finger belly together, holding the skin, show finger, middle finger in front, thumb in the back, while lifting the skin, show, middle finger back twisting, thumb forward to push, from bottom to top, continuous hold lifting the skin, until pinching to the neck occipital (generally to the large vertebrae point, can also be extended to the Fengfu point), and so on 3 times. Repeat this 3 times, in the 4th and 5th time, every 3 times pinch the skin upwards with force 1 time, the technique should be gentle, gentle, flexible, natural, both hands force uniform, forward speed and frequency should not be too fast.
Finally, use your thumbs to rub the stomach, spleen, liver and kidney on each side 10 times, and then put on your clothes.
For children with less serious anorexia symptoms, they can be treated with the method of medicine and food with tonic. If there is anorexia, food does not know the taste, often accompanied by belching pangs, chest tightness and cachexia, bowel irregularities, or occasionally more food, then the cavity and abdomen fullness, can be used.
1. 10g of fried Atractylodes macrocephala, 20g of coix seeds, 50g of round-grained rice. wash and slice the fried Atractylodes macrocephala, add it to the pot with coix seeds, add water and boil for half an hour, remove the dregs and add cleaned round-grained rice and cook the porridge, season to taste.
2. 10g of hawthorn, 10g of fried atractylodes, 50g of round-grained rice, add hawthorn and atractylodes into the pot, add water and boil for half an hour, remove the dregs and add cleaned round-grained rice to cook the porridge, and take the porridge. The above 2 recipes have the function of strengthening the spleen and helping to transport.
If there is a lack of food and drink, and the face is less florid, the spirit is weak, less food and more stools, the stools are easily dispersed in water, there is undigested food, or easy to sweat, easy to catch a cold, can be used.
1, 20g of barley malt, 15g of Liu Shen Qu, wash the above two flavors together into a pot, add an appropriate amount of water to cook the porridge, the porridge is ready to eat.
2. 10g of prunus ginseng, 20g of Chinese yam, 2 chicken gizzards. Put the ginseng and yam into a casserole, add ginger, onion, wine and water and stew, add a little salt, then eat. This product has the function of nourishing the spleen, benefiting the qi and nourishing the stomach.
Prevention of anorexia in children first of all, we must have a reasonable diet. Food nutrition with scientific diversification. Try to achieve the best color and flavor, control snacks before meals, diet in moderation. Secondly, we should guide children’s interest in eating. When children do not want to eat a certain food, adults should consciously and step by step to guide them to taste this food, neither unprincipled accommodation, nor overly forced. Create a good atmosphere for eating, to make the child in a happy mood ingestion.
For long-term anorexia, poor appetite, and micronutrient deficiency can be supplemented with zinc, calcium, and iron preparations as appropriate. For children who clearly have H. pylori infection, they can be treated by triple therapy (the more commonly used triple therapy in China is bismuth + amoxicillin (hydroxybenzyl penicillin) + metronidazole) and share meals with parents to avoid repeated cross-infection.