Pediatric Tuina You Can Try at Home

The organs as they exist on the hands of babies and small children.

In Chinese medicine there are many microcosms, reflections of the entire body and/ or universe in the smaller parts.  On children up to the age 8, roughly, the channels and points are not fully formed, so there are many special ways to work with broader areas of the body. Developmental or emotional ages are sometimes younger, and often we find that in these situations, child tuina (massage) techniques can work for longer. 

The hand is a great place to start, because it is the least invasive. Here are reflected all of the solid (zang) organs, and some of the hollow (fu) ones. 

To tonify one moves towards the body, to sedate one moves away.  So for example, if you're little one is a picky eater, or is colicky, or sleepy and chubby, you can tonify the spleen by stroking the outer edge of the thumb from the tip to the 2nd knuckle.  Do this at a brisk pace, with a firm and gentle touch, 20-30x.  Or perhaps your child has difficulty going number 2 and has a full round belly, suggesting some large intestine stagnation.  Then you could stroke the outside of the first finger from the base to the tip, also at a brisk pace, 20-30x.  

Perhaps your child has pink eye, or a tendency towards a dry sore throat, or gets especially frustrated easily.  You can sedate the liver, by stroking the palm side of the first finger from the base to the tip in the same manner. 

For an acute cough, sedate the lungs by stroking from the base of the ring finger to the tip on the palmar side, but for child who gets sick often and easily, tonify the lung by stroking towards the body when they are not experiencing illness. 

If your child is constitutionally weak, you may try tonifying both the kidneys and the spleen, by stroking the first and last finger from the tip to the base.

Try these strategies daily for a week and see what you notice. 

Make these concepts your own by integrating them into your daily parenting and see how the simplicity and wisdom of East Asian medicine can benefit you.

For those of you who already know East Asian medicine, you may be surprised that the zang organs do not follow the sheng or the generating cycle.  If you imagine a fetal fist, with the thumb folded into the middle, you will see that Earth is in the right position in the center.  Perhaps the thumb leaves that position for the baby to suck its thumb, but even then it is exercising the prenatal spleen.  The zang organs after that start in the spring and follow the order around the circle.