Chinese Medicine Notes

Baby Healing

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Yael

I am writing this post on very few hours of sleep, sour throat and an over-all fuzzy feeling in the brain.
Therefore, this post might come out a bit different than usual.

My son is 18 months’ as of last week.
He was having a very bad birthday week, and the worse part of it all was being infected by a virus while waiting at the doctor’s office (how I hate when that happens!).
So what started with general discomfort bloomed into mouth ulcers, low fever and pain.
Poor babe!

Mouth ulcers
There are different kinds of mouth ulcers, we were “blessed” with aphtous ulcer on the tongue.
What does this mean in real life?
1. It’s very difficult to eat. Baby thinks “we’ll give that up”.
2. Drinking from the bottle is no fun either. Baby thinks ” we’ll give that one up as well”.
3. No way can the pacifier help as it hurts the tongue.
4. Sleeping is difficult. Very difficult. Can’t sleep for more than 40 minutes straight during the day and waking up every 2-3 hours at night.
As you can see, this condition doesn’t leave much for the child to work with.

Treatment
Our doctor gave him a steroid ointment.
I like this doctor. He loves his job, very dedicated and has good observations, but this time?
Big mistake.
As you know, steroids hold back the immune system from doing it’s work. While sometimes you really need that, with mouth ulcers you just help new ulcers to appear- the immune system is down so no one’s fighting them off.

Come on, you’re a doctor, you have so much experience, this can’t be a new thing to you!

Our boy has been receiving acupuncture on a regular basis since he was 4 months old.
Acupuncture has been doing a great job since, and so when ever there’s a health problem we do two things:
Go to the doctor, and then immediately go to the practitioner.
I like this practitioner. He is very well educated in Western medicine, has a good ability to diagnose things from the pulse and choose good points. Granted it doesn’t always work as we’d like to, but in the long run, I know we’re doing our boy good with these sessions.
We saw our practitioner on Sunday and then again on Wednesday.
On both times, we walked away with literally a new boy in our hands- happy, able to sleep for a long period of time during the day, able to eat, able to drink and in general a more happy camper.
On Sunday it lasted half a day. It didn’t really make a difference on the following days, unless of course it prevented the ulcers getting worse (but we’ll never know)….

Both doctor and practitioner assured us that this will pass in 2 days.
This has been going on for a week. Or maybe I forgot how to count?
The problem is that they don’t offer anything else that we can do if the treatments suggested don’t work.
How can I help my boy if he’s in pain?

Mommy almost cracks under the pressure
For me, the worse thing about being a mother is hearing my child cry, holding him in my arms and not being able to help him.
This is a very new experience for me and one I would gladly get rid of and never go through again.
How can I not help my child? Me, who studied Chinese Medicine, this wonderful art of healing that can help even where western medicine can’t?
I was googling the issue, trying to find something that would help, and then it hit me- goat’s milk.

Goat’s milk
Goat’s milk, straight from the goat, no process what so ever and not even letting it stand outside for a few minutes, that is supposed to do the trick.
I don’t know the origin of this treatment, but I heard about it before, mainly from mothers who used it with their suffering babies- all of them reported that it works.
Sometimes one time is enough, sometimes you need more, but the main thing- if you do it in the morning, by the afternoon your child is eating and happy and forgot all about ulcers.

The problem with goat’s milk is that it hasn’t been pasteurized, so it can contain bacterias and germs.
But here’s the thing- you’re not supposed to drink it, and maybe you’ll need to do this again and if you do, we’re talking about 2-3 times and that’s it.
May I remind everyone of the number of objects that go into the children’s mouth that contain bacteria and germs?
And when you let them drink cow’s milk, can anyone even remember the number of antibiotics and steroids that are being poured into or body along with the milk?

Our doctor was of course against it.
He says that there are a number of diseases that can occur as a result of using goat’s milk, for example an intestine disease that they can not treat.
Isn’t it just lovely how doctors love to intimidate the parents with awful diseases?
Many would answer to that saying simply by saying- if you get the milk straight from the goat without letting it stand for a bit- you’re safe.
But the chance you take… The tiny chance that your child will get the disease….
Who wants that blame over their heads? Certainly not parents who have been losing sleep for the past week.

Mommy finally cracks
So I cracked.
My boy was crying and I was crying along with him, unable to hear the screams anymore, feeling powerless to the state of self-blame (which is pointless of course).
But then I bounced back.
I realized that I need to do something, even if it is just a bit.
Both practitioner and doctor keep telling me there’s nothing much I can do and I don’t buy that. There MUST be something I can do to help the poor kid- even if it is just a bit.

I didn’t find much, except using a gel we use if there are teething aches called Teejel Gel (I think it’s a gel used in Israel alone, but around the world there are different products with the same affect, I’m sure).
I took some gel and rubbed a thick layer on the pacifier and that seemed to help, as it numbs the tongue for a while.
I didn’t find much because the 2nd acupuncture sessions, the one Wednesday, helped my boy recover in a very dramatic way. Granted, he was almost over it, but I’m sure the session gave him the boost he needed.

After thoughts
As I wrote above, as I started this post, about a week ago now, I had a sour throat and a fuzzy feeling.
This burst out into a severe attack on my health- the virus that caused the mouth ulcers, along with strep-throat.
I was down and out, fever and aches and everything, and only today I’m better to the state of writing something. The fever is still going up and down, not high, but enough to be considered as low fever.
Don’t even get me started about antibiotics.

My boy is now dealing with his usual shortness of breath, which he’s dealing with wonderfully by the way, also because mommy helped with acupuncture (my very first time with my boy! More about it on the next post), but mainly because it’s just getting better and better with the correct nutrition.

And the most important thought of them all
I just might start studying about treating children with Chinese Medicine.
Not as my day job.
Just to be able to help my child with this powerful smart healing art that is Chinese Medicine.

Over to you
I would love to read your comments- once I’m all better…