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"In this next video which is part of the Chinese medicine and your child series, we are going to explore the stomach energy system of your child.
The Chinese medicine description of stomach energy and your child is foreign to most people. Remember, in any energy medicine system we must take into account all of the functions of an organ like the stomach, not just its physical, digestion related jobs.
As you become aware of what is included in this way of looking at your child, you will see why this is so important.
The stomach energy circuit or reservoir of energy is in charge of the digestive function of your child before, during and after eating.
But it is involved in much more than that!
In a few minutes, you will come to understand why I value this perspective so much and why many other parents have found this explanation so helpful.
This figure shows the interdependence of the stomach energy and your child with the other three contributing circuits, the large intestine, the spleen and the lungs. According to Chinese medicine, the topics and symptoms shown above relate to the collective functions of these four organs and energy circuits as a whole, not individually.
Therefore, we must look at the stomach energy and your child as part of the whole system.
This subcircuit of energy encompasses real life experiences, events and challenges, and it is up to your child's system to balance and regulate itself.
The following functions of your child's stomach energy are given according to the Chinese medicine system:
stomach-energy-functions: digest and breakdown food, transports food derived energy, controls downward energy movement, origin and formation of body fluids, linked with the spleen, passes food on to the small intestine, thinking and processing ones experience, accept input from the outside world
These varied functions lead to a variety of symptom patterns and conditions that can arise when the stomach energy is out of balance.
Stomach energy related conditions and symptom patterns commonly found in children are:
stomach-symptom-patterns: vomiting, heartburn, nausea, anxiety, belching, hyperactivity, hunger, hypomania, distension, over-thinking, weak arms and legs, confusion, stomachache, fatigue, lack of mental stability, altered dreaming
What strategy do I use to evaluate the presenting condition of stomachaches as they relate to stomach energy and your child?
Because kids of school age are commonly afflicted with stomach problems I must take into account their specific age, grade in school, environmental influences, family situation, etc.
All of these factors can play a role in stomach issues, and when we use an energy medicine approach, the dynamics become more clear and understandable, both to me and to the parents and families I work with.
Let's look at a specific example to illustrate this point.
If we look at the scenario where an 8 year old has chronic stomachaches, we will find that many kids develop stomachaches with no clear reason or trigger for them.
If we investigate their history closely, often the onset of stomachaches can be traced to a particular event, time frame, experience or even an illness in the past.
Stress can influence digestion, and we all have had the experience of fealing queasy, achiness or fullness before, during or after experiencing some stressful event.
The immaturity of your child's system is what can explain why the pattern may continue, even long after the initiating event has passed.
Another part of this equation is the multidimensional nature of the function of the stomach energy and your child.
What I mean is that while digesting food is of paramount importance to your child, the digestion of or the taking in of his or her experience is also very important.
In other words, if your child is having trouble coping or adjusting to what is happening with them in school as they interact with other students or the teacher, or how they interact with other family members, these experiences can have a direct effect on the function of the stomach energy system within their body.
Another avenue for investigation would be to look at how your child feels individually about exerting their own willpower.
Are they capable of standing up for themselves?
This is another aspect that energetically comes from the energy center right where the stomach is located (the solar plexus) and an imalance in this area can result in stomach symptoms and issues.
This can only be explained rationally using the energy medicine approach and energy inclusive language to define this relationship.
This is the reason I believe this perspective is so useful. It allows us to make correlations from among seemingly unrelated topics and to put them together into a cohesive, whole explanation.
This does not mean that all the answers come to light immediately, it just gives us more to work with and ponder as we try to decipher the extremely unique and varied characteristics of your child.
As you can see, the example of stomachaches shows that the symptom is only the starting point of our evaluation. We must dig deeper to find the underlying cause.
In fact, in my experience, your child's own system holds the answers, not some external test or procedure.
It is actually quite rare for a condition or symptom to show up without some historical information that lends itself to uncovering the cause. We just have to look closely for it and be open to more than one explanation that will fit your child's situation.
You can actually start this process on your own by looking at the puzzle figure above again, and start asking yourself what other jobs the stomach energy and your child might be attending to in addition to the stomach itself.
Your exploration of these questions can lead you and your child to new undertandings about how your child's system works, and how the holistic philosophy of energy medicine can be an asset for your child's health and wellbeing.
Thanks for watching this episode on the stomach energy and your child. For more information, visit my website at www.principlesforparents.com I'm Doctor Peter Hanfileti, and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode."
If you'd like to leave me feedback or a comment, you have three choices:
1. Go to my blog and leave a comment.
2. Go to my Contact page either on the website or blog.
3. Email me at DrPete at Principlesforparents.com
Thank you,
- Peter Hanfileti, MD
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