Hi I’m Janet with Janet Thomson Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine here in Oakland California and I specialize in Pediatrics & Women’s Health.
I get a lot of questions from parents wondering how I work with children because one of the conceptions about acupuncture is that it might be painful or it might be scary and a lot of parents know that their children don’t sit still and their children don’t really enjoy going to a medical office. So the question is — how are you able to actually create change with my child if I feel like my child’s not able to sit still and certainly is not interested in needles? I explain to them a little bit how I treat children.
With children often you do not need to use acupuncture needles, that’s actually too much stimulation for the child and can create sort of an opposite response for what you’re looking for. What I tend to use is a Japanese style called shonishin and it’s a style of treatment that was developed specifically for children because it’s light touch, it feels good for children, and it’s effective.
So I’m going to show you a little bit about some of the tools I use for kids so you get a sense of what this looks like and feels like. One of the first tools I use is this one, it’s a metal tool and I usually use the broad side for rubbing some of the acupuncture channels. For example on the arm this is one of the digestive channels and in order to stimulate the channel I can just softly rub and I’ll be feeling on the skin for changes of the skin texture and feeling whether the child is sweating or not, whether there’s heat coming off or not, and that will tell me when the child has had enough stimulation. I can also use the pointed edge on an angle to use pressure on some of the acupuncture points so this is one tool.
Another one to use is this one that’s a little bit smaller and this one has a rounded edge that I can use for acupressure so it’s nice and soft. Then I have a slightly more pointed edge if I want to use it for acupressure or for tapping along the channel. Again this feels really massage-like, it’s comfortable, and it’s it’s easy for the child to relax and settle into the treatment and these kinds of tools help the child actually enjoy the treatment and want to come back for follow-up visits. It’s really important that they actually enjoy their healing.
Now for some children they have been through a lot of medical procedure where they may have gone to 628 different doctors for diagnostics and treatments, they may have had surgeries, so for some children there’s a real fear of anything metal anything that looks invasive. In those cases I’ll use rose quartz stones in order to deliver the treatment in a way that feels friendlier for the child. Especially if it’s a young child I’ll give them a rose quartz heart to play with a little bit and then I’ll gradually start to use it on their body and they are often more tolerant of this than if they have some fear around some of the metal object. I can use acupressure with the edge of the heart or I can use stroking with a broad side of the heart again to create change. I know that it doesn’t look like a lot of intervention.
Children’s bodies are actually really receptive and they create change really rapidly so even for children who may have had quite a chronic condition or seem pretty run-down using stroking on different parts of the body and focusing on specific acupressure points can really create a lot of change for the child. If you have additional questions about what pediatric treatments look like or whether it’s right for your child feel free to contact me directly— my phone number is 415-652-4096 and you can always contact me directly through my website www.janetacu.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
