Spleen Energy and Your Child

The Chinese medicine concept of spleen energy and your child is quite likely something most of you as parents have never thought about . As a reminder, I am referring to your child's energy devoted to the various functions of the organs and channels, not just one physical organ like the spleen itself.

As you learn about this system you will see why this distinction is so important. The spleen energy circuit or reservoir of energy is in charge of the digestive system, primarily, but it has many other jobs to perform as well.

The spleen energy available to a newborn and young child is quite low, and therefore it is up to the parent, typically the mother, to provide some of her own spleen energy to help out this vital function in the baby. This is another very important aspect of the spleen energy that correlates with the age of the child and the family energetics as you will see.

In the energy medicine system, all of the subcircuits or parts are interchangeable. This means that energy can move and be "donated" to help carry out the functions of another organ and channel, in such a way that the whole system benefits and optimizes its function.

The spleen energy and your child encompasses a vast array of real life experiences and it is up to your child's system to balance and regulate this subsystem in order of priority.

The following functions are mostly the responsibility of your child's spleen energy circuit according to the Chinese medicine system:

What strategy do we use to evaluate the common scenario where problems come up related to the spleen energy and your child?

Because the health of your child's spleen system is dependent on the age range from birth to around 5 years old, I typically will concentrate on this time period to get more information.

How the mother's energy system is operating during this critical period is of paramount importance. Even prenatal influences can play a role in how a child's spleen energy settings are operating.

Historical influences must be taken into account as this lays the groundwork for how your child's energy system responds to current situations. Your child must make the best choices possible given the current situation and the historical experiences they have had.

Let's look at the common example of a child with spleen energy related issues. Many kids develop stomachaches, nausea, queasiness seemingly with no set pattern or triggers.

Often these symtoms can be traced to a particular event, time frame, experience or family circumstance if we only look closely and ask the right questions. Worry is the particular emotion that corresponds with the spleen energy and your child, and therefore anything that causes worry in a child or parents or even other siblings can have an effect on the spleen energy and your child.

As I mentioned, because a child is inherently low on spleen energy for the first 5 years of life, the mother's spleen energy contribution must be looked into and included in the overall evaluation of a child with spleen related symptoms.

This is not to blame parents in any way, it is simply to understand the reality of the experience the child (and parents and family) had during those early years.

Commonly, the young child's system equates the emotion of worry with stress, but often goes to the extreme of categorizing this experience with survival.

Imagine a young baby or child sensing worry and stress in the parent or other caregiver. Is it no wonder that they will feel distress and probably store the feeling and experience as important and possibly necessary for survival?

This over-reaction is further complicated by the underlying immaturity of the child's system. If a parent needs "permission" to take care of themselves for the betterment of their kids, the effect on spleen energy and your child is one of the best reasons I can think of to do so.

In my practice, I spend a lot of time relating this to parents because it is so important and because a parent's awareness of this contributing factor can lead to much quicker resolution to problems in the young child than many other interventions.

Very often when spleen issues come up for a child, the parents become aware of not only how their own energy system affects their child, but they are also made aware of how their own childhood experience plays a role in their own spleen energy settings.

This concept of working backwards in time to uncover patterns in the parents or the family they grew up in is a key component of the energy medicine evaluation.

The use of energy as our term and common denominator makes this discussion more relevant and understandable, rather than just using general terminology like family history and inherited conditions.

The energy medicine way of looking at spleen energy and your child opens the door to explanations and understandings which are difficult to pinpoint in other systems that tend to ignore energy as the important contributor it is.