What to do if your child has indigestion

Food accumulation means that children consume too much food, which exceeds the spleen and stomach's ability to transport and transform food, and the food accumulates in the gastrointestinal tract. For mild indigestion, you can use 6 grams of each of the three fried herbs and 6 grams of fried chicken gizzard lining, boil them in water and give them to your child to drink; for severe cases, you need to seek treatment from a Chinese medicine doctor.

It is common for people to encounter a situation where a child has had a fever for several days. Examination shows that there is nothing wrong with the internal organs, but the high fever does not subside. Antipyretics can only reduce the temperature for a few hours, and then the temperature goes up again. What is going on? What should I do?

Food indigestion caused by excess digestion capacity of the spleen and stomach

This kind of fever is often caused by food accumulation. Using some medicines that can help digestion and relieve constipation, such as Jiao Sanxian and Chicken Gizzard Stone, will have a very good effect.

So, what is food accumulation? Children are in the period of growth and development, their spleen and stomach are weak, and their digestive function is not as strong as that of adults. We feed them a lot of delicious food, which piles up in the gastrointestinal tract and causes indigestion. For example, cream cake contains a lot of fat. If you eat a lot of it, you will easily suffer from indigestion.

Food indigestion means that children consume too much food, which exceeds the ability of the spleen and stomach to transport and transform food, resulting in weakened spleen and stomach function. When children see something they like, they will eat it endlessly. At this time, parents have the responsibility to stop them, which is to protect the children. However, some parents think that because they love their children, they should provide them with their favorite food and let them eat as much as they want. As a result, this actually hurts the children.

There are many types of indigestion. Some people don’t want to eat anything and have no appetite. This is food accumulation in the stomach because the stomach cannot accept it. Some people can eat a lot but are still very thin. This is food accumulation in the spleen. The spleen is unable to transport and transform food, and the body lacks nutrition. The children eat a lot, but the more they eat, the more their spleen is unable to transport and transform food, and finally everything is discharged.

Food accumulation can be divided into cold and hot. If the child's body tends to be yin deficient, the food accumulation can easily turn into heat, leading to damp-heat accumulation. If the child's body tends to be yang deficient, food accumulation can easily damage spleen yang, leading to the child's insufficient yang, cold body and limbs. This situation is more serious and may even affect the child's development.

Food accumulation can be divided into visible and invisible. Sometimes there is still tangible stagnation, which is often caused by just eating and is an emergency. For example, a child eats too much cream cake and eats half of it, and then has a fever the next day. This is tangible food accumulation and you just need to clear away the stagnation. Another type is invisible, which is often chronic. It is caused by eating too much of a certain food, which damages the spleen and stomach's transportation and transformation functions. At this time, there is still some tangible substance, which is called spleen deficiency and accumulation. Others are that the stagnant food is long gone, but the spleen and stomach still cannot work normally. Such children lack positive energy, which is often prone to repeated external infections. This situation is "invisible accumulation." If not treated in time, it will gradually turn into "malnutrition", which is a serious nutritional disorder caused by improper feeding or long-term illness.

Various manifestations of indigestion

So what are the symptoms of indigestion? In children with indigestion, the tongue coating will begin to thicken in the middle. In some cases, the entire tongue coating will become thicker, while in others, the coating will only appear in the middle of the tongue, forming a thick circle the size of a coin.

At the same time, the child's mouth begins to have a bad smell. Some parents will be sensitive to the bad smell in their child's mouth, which is due to the failure of stomach qi to descend. Some children may also experience belching with a sour smell, and in severe cases, they may even vomit. Some children may have particularly smelly stools, with a sour and rotten smell. The ancients described it as "stinking like rotten eggs", which is also one of the symptoms. Most children do not want to eat or drink milk at this time. They are easily irritable and cry, and sleep restlessly at night.

Digestion and stagnation

For tangible food accumulation, we can use 6 grams of each of the three fried herbs and 6 grams of fried chicken gizzard lining, boil them in water and give them to the child to drink. The three immortals of Jiao refer to burnt hawthorn, burnt malt, and burnt Shenqu. Among them, the burnt hawthorn can remove the accumulation of meat, while the burnt malt and Shenqu can clear the accumulation of grains and noodles. Fried chicken gizzard lining can remove blood stasis and eliminate accumulation, which is very beneficial for promoting spleen and stomach function. Boil them in water and drink it after two or three times, and the child’s indigestion will be eliminated immediately, and his health may be fine. If it is not removed, it can become a serious problem.

For the type of spleen deficiency with accumulation or even invisible accumulation, we usually add some spleen-tonifying and spleen-regulating medicines such as Pseudostellaria baicalensis and Atractylodes macrocephala on the basis of the previous Jiao Sanxian and fried chicken gizzard lining.

However, drugs that eliminate accumulation should not be used frequently. If a child has indigestion, give him some medicine to help digest the food for two days. Stop giving him the medicine after the food has been digested. If he is given this medicine every day, his spleen and stomach functions will be weakened, so stop taking it immediately once the food accumulation is eliminated. This is the treatment method for children in the early stages of indigestion.

If the child's food accumulation is quite severe, you need to see a doctor. Generally, it is necessary to add some medicines that nourish the spleen and stomach on the basis of digesting food and relieving stagnation, so as to help the child recover.