Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine for Babies and Kids
Children of all ages can be treated and respond well to acupuncture and Chinese herbal treatment. Parents are turning to acupuncture because it offers a safe, natural and effective approach to pediatric care.
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Pediatric medicine has always been a part of the Chinese Medicine/Acupuncture paradigm. Our methods are trusted and time-tested. Whether we're working on infections, rashes, allergies, joint or muscle pain, headaches, sleep issues, digestive discomfort, mood disorders, developmental delays or any other ailment that children experience, Chinese Medicine has a lot to offer.
In western medicine, many pediatric conditions are treated with antibiotics and harsh pharmaceuticals, which over time can lead to a high incidence of digestive problems, immune system depletion, and many other unwanted side effects. Acupuncture and herbal medicine, while recognizing the importance of antibiotics as an option in extreme cases, offer effective alternatives that simultaneously heal harmful infections and restore the body's terrain at the root level so that infection is less likely to return.
If you or your child has undergone multiple courses of antibiotics for a history of ear infections, respiratory infections, and other similar conditions, reestablishing a healthy balance of gut flora (the naturally-occurring, helpful bacteria that aid us in digestion and immune defense) is often central to restoring health. This can be done most efficiently using acupuncture and herbal therapies, and with dietary adjustments and supplements such as probiotics. Acupuncturists are thoroughly trained in nutritional counseling, and can help you choose the right foods (and if necessary, supplements) to encourage health in the body.
Additionally, as children are very sensitive to their environments as well as their parents' and caregivers' health, it is often very beneficial for parents and children to be treated together. This can be a crucial element to the treatment process for children who are prone to anxieties, phobias, and emotional/behavioral outbursts. Parent-child co-treatment is one aspect to consider while planning your family's healthcare.
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Pediatric Acupuncture has been shown to help with:
colds / flu

asthma

seasonal allergies

hyperactivity / behavioral stabilization

digestive / gastrointestinal difficulty

skin conditions (rash / eczema / hives)

developmental delays

anxiety / phobias / night terrors

bedwetting / trouble sleeping

ear infections
Read Below to Learn More About How We Work with Babies and Children
Shonishin Pediatric Acupuncture
The technique we use with children is called Shonishin Pediatric Acupuncture (sho = little, ni = children, shin = needle). It is a specialized form of treatment for infants and children that became popular for its success in the 1700s, in the Osaka region of Japan. To this day, Japanese parents regularly bring children for Shonishin treatment, and this approach is increasing in popularity around the world. The Shonishin method involves using small metal instruments designed for children to painlessly stimulate acupuncture meridians and points in order to reestablish proper energy flow to areas of the body with stagnation or weakness.
Shiatsu and Tui Na (types of massage), and acupressure are great for kids and babies too!
According to classic texts on Chinese medical physiology and hundreds of years of clinical evidence, children’s meridians are not fully formed until around puberty, so using specific acupuncture points is often not necessary until then. Because of this, children also typically have a more rapid progression of and recovery from illnesses, and more brief courses of treatment as compared with adults. This is also the reason we can often treat children under 7 years old for developmental delays and other constitutional or genetic issues with good success.
Contact Needling
For children and teenagers who have an aversion to needles, we offer contact needling. Contact needling is a technique in which blunt pen-like instruments made of copper, silver, or gold are held to the skin, and the selected acupuncture point is stimulated without actual penetration of the skin surface. This is a very effective and entirely painless method of acupuncture. The ancient medical classics of China, such as the Ling Shu, describe nine types of needles, several of which were never intended to pierce the skin. Three of these non-insertion needles – the Enshin, the Teishin, and the Zanshin – are considered, for those who know how to wield them, basic to the practice of acupuncture.
If your child is interested in receiving contact needling in place of traditional needle insertion, please discuss this with us before or during the first treatment.