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Quote from a popular Slovenian post, “Children become too dependent on paracetamol to compromise the heat while fever is a natural reaction to infections. This popular medicine has even been linked to the onset of asthma, with problems with the heart, liver and kidneys.” [1]
Since the fast development of modern medicine and booming sales of over the counter drug for the past few decades, many people are too “spoiled” by the convenience of medication. Medication are indeed serving people’s desire rather than curing diseases. Take fever as an example, even though persistent high fever could be life-threatening, most fever are just normal immune response. Stopping the fever in a wrong way would actually slows down the whole recovery or make long term problems.
TCM has long history of understanding and actual experience with fighting infectious diseases. Shanghan Lun is a classics in treating common cold and flu and its complication. There are six stages of reaction when our body encounter an “external pathogen”, i.e. an invader to our body. The very first response when our body is infected is:
fever, slight chills, sweating or
headache, neck stiffness, chills.
Sometimes there could be also other presentation of illness like:
heaviness of body and nausea,
dizziness, bitterness in mouth, dry throat.
So getting a “cold” could be more than just running nose or sneezing. This is the reason why when people come to us with migraine, abnormal sweating or muscle pain, and we tell them that they got a “cold”. [Read more: How viral infection like Cold and Flu Develop in the view of Traditional Chinese medicine]
The understanding of a “cold” in TCM is much wider than the modern perspective, and of course, we have more solution to calm the symptoms by boosting the immune system, some of them are very easy to do at home. [Read more: Strengthen your Wei Qi for better immunity]
Get rid of unnecessary use of fever medication by pediatric massage demonstrated in this video: Fever-Reducing Massage for Children.
Do also this massage with your child daily to improve sleep and concentration also to let them get used to massage so when you need to use the massage for fever, no arguing and fighting with your child.
Most fevers are a normal response of the immune system. Intervening with medication too quickly can slow recovery and increase the risk of chronic illnesses. That’s why you should learn this simple TCM massage for children and follow the advice to help your kids from birth to age 6. Please pay attention to the direction of movement.
Physical cooling Do not use ice packs or cooling agents to lower your child's body temperature, as the skin will react to the cold as a protective reflex and close the pores, which actually slows down the cooling process. Instead, use a warm towel heated to 38°C. Gently clean your child’s back and armpits with the warm towel, then wrap it around their legs. Change the towel every five minutes. Repeat this process several times while performing the following massages.
Strengthening the body’s defense system Gently but quickly slide along the outer side of the thumb on the forearm, from the wrist towards the elbow. Perform this sliding or pressing motion several times for about 2 minutes, always in the same direction.
Cooling the meridian Gently but quickly slide along the center of the forearm, from the wrist towards the elbow. Perform this sliding or pressing motion several times for about 2 minutes, always in the same direction.
Eliminating infection If your child also has trouble sleeping, you can perform the following massage.
Find the spine on your child’s back and gently press along the vertebrae from the neck to the hips for 2 minutes. The pressure should always move in the same direction: neck to hips.
Natural detoxification Perform this massage only if your child has a high fever that persists for a long time.
Gently but quickly slide along the pinky side of the forearm, from the elbow towards the wrist. Perform this sliding or pressing motion several times for about 2 minutes, always in the same direction.
A child with a fever should drink as much warm water or rice congee as possible.
If your child is having trouble sleeping, also perform a calming massage, which you can find in this video: Basic Children's Massage for Better Sleep and Immune Support.
Use TCM herbs to boost energy. They are completely natural and effective. For more information, please contact us.
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