Have fun eating and playing during the Chinese New Year, but be careful about children's indigestion

Have fun eating and playing during the Chinese New Year, but be careful about children's indigestion

Chen Zijia, deputy chief physician of pediatrics at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Oriental Hospital

The annual Spring Festival is coming soon. When the family gathers together, they will inevitably eat more than usual. In addition, the children will have more opportunities to eat various snacks at home during the holidays. During this period, many children suffer from vomiting, abdominal distension, abdominal pain, and diarrhea due to eating too much. In traditional Chinese medicine, this situation is called "stagnation", which is commonly known as "food accumulation".

Stagnation is mainly caused by improper feeding or excessive consumption of raw, cold, greasy and indigestible food in children. It is mainly manifested by loss of appetite, abdominal distension, bad breath, sour and smelly stools or undigested food residues. Babies may show symptoms such as irritability, crying at night, sleeping on their stomachs or vomiting. Children grow and develop rapidly, and the nutrition they need depends on the digestion and absorption of the spleen and stomach. Once they eat too much and exceed the transportation and transformation capacity of the spleen and stomach, it is easy to damage the spleen and stomach, causing the spleen and stomach to "strike" and food accumulation. Some children eat about the same as other children of the same age, but they also have food accumulation. The reason is that they usually have spleen deficiency. Although they don't eat more than others, they exceed the amount that their spleen and stomach can digest, which naturally causes food accumulation. Therefore, when parents get together during the Chinese New Year, there is no need to compare with each other, and there is no need to require children to eat the same amount as other children. They should also control their children's snacks. The ancients said: "If you want your child to be safe, keep him three parts hungry and cold." The amount of food that suits the child's spleen and stomach is the appropriate amount of food. Correct feeding and the development of good eating habits are the fundamental ways to avoid food accumulation.

When children have indigestion, many people know to use Da Shanzha Pills, Baohe Pills, Xiaoshi Tablets, etc. However, parents should be reminded that before giving their children this type of digestive medicine, they must clarify the cause of the disease, especially for children with vomiting, diarrhea, and fever. They need to rule out the possibility of infectious diseases such as acute gastroenteritis and dysentery before taking it on their own. If the child's symptoms do not improve after taking the medicine for 2 to 3 days, or if there is obvious abdominal pain, they must go to the hospital for treatment in time. In addition, if Da Shanzha Pills taste sweet and sour, some parents will think that Da Shanzha Pills are just for digestion and have no side effects, so they let the baby eat more. In fact, this is wrong. Some babies have weak spleen and stomach, long-term loss of appetite, but no stagnation. The treatment should be based on spleen and appetite, rather than digestion and transportation. Moreover, after normal children take Da Shanzha Pills frequently, the spleen and stomach will be lazy and reduce peristalsis, which will cause anorexia and stagnation over time.