According to Chinese medicine, all children are born with an immature digestive system. This is why only breast milk or formula can be used in the early months and why spitting up is common for babies. In the early months and in fact the first several years of life, children tend towards digestive difficulty. Do you know if your child has digestive difficulty? In babies, digestive difficulties could be any of the following:

• Spitting up curdled milk
• General discomfort
• Gas and burping
• Sour breath
• Diarrhea and/or constipation
• Smelly and darker stool
• A large and firm abdomen
• Difficulty with feeding
• Reflux
• Insomnia
• Skin rashes

A colicky child may be having digestive difficulty, so if your baby is crying incessantly, getting digestive support can often help. If your child is older, digestive difficulty looks like:

• A large and firm abdomen
• Diarrhea and/or constipation
• Gas and burping
• Smelly stools
• A thick coating on their tongue
• Bad breath
• Poor appetite
• Pain
• Reflux

If your child is having these symptoms, how can you support them? Acupuncture, acupressure, massage, and herbal medicine are all ways that you can improve your child’s digestion. Regular treatment will help to improve peristalsis (movement of food through the digestive tract) and should regularize digestion and stools. If anxiety, stress, or worry is creating digestive difficulty for your child, these modalities can also help to reset the nervous system and thereby ease digestive concerns. Changing your child's diet (if they are beyond the first year of life) may also help to support digestion. Warm, cooked foods are preferable for children. Limiting dairy and rich/fatty foods will cause less of a burden to the digestive system. Adding carminative herbs (herbs that soothe the digestive tract) such as peppermint, clove, allspice, thyme, basil, sage, garlic, ginger, and others, to your child's food will help with digestion. Furthermore, making sure that your baby or child is not eating constantly will aid digestion. The digestive organs are meant to empty out before adding more food, so make sure your child is getting 2-4 hours between meals and snacks during the day. If you're ready to seek help for your child's digestion, give me a ring or book an appointment online so we can help your little one eat more easily and feel more comfortable!