How to take care of children during summer time

The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine says, "In spring and summer, nourish yang, and in autumn and winter, nourish yin." This is in accordance with the four seasons, but clinically, it is found that many people do not do so. In recent clinical practice, many children with abdominal distension, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, nasal congestion, runny nose, and cough have been seen.

In the hot summer, the heat is unbearable, and children prefer cold food and environment. Little do they know that in summer, the yang energy floats on the surface of the body, and the body is relatively cold. At this time, you should eat more warm food to warm the body and protect your stomach more to achieve a balance between the inside and the outside. As the saying goes, "When the righteous energy is inside, the evil cannot enter."

The spleen and stomach are the foundation of the acquired constitution. They like dryness and hate dampness. Eating too much cold food or being affected by cold evil can easily damage the spleen yang and affect the spleen and stomach's function of raising the clear and lowering the turbid. If the spleen does not raise the clear, the clear air will be in the lower part, which will cause diarrhea; if the stomach does not lower the turbid, the turbid air will be in the upper part, which will cause bloating. Therefore, after craving for cold, it is easy to have a series of gastrointestinal discomfort symptoms such as abdominal distension, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, etc.

The lungs are delicate organs and cannot tolerate the invasion of cold, heat, dryness, dampness, and other evils, especially cold evil. As the saying goes, "cold body and cold drinks will hurt the lungs." When cold evil attacks the lungs, the lungs lose their ability to vent and clear, which will cause clinical manifestations such as nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, and coughing. This is also the main reason for the high incidence of respiratory diseases in winter and spring. At present, upper respiratory tract infections in children in summer are often contrary to the rules of the four seasons, and most of them are caused by cold air from air conditioners and cold drinks. Therefore, to maintain the health of children, you must protect the yang energy in summer, don't be greedy for cold, and prevent the cold air from the air conditioner from blowing directly or the temperature is too low.

But then again, which child hasn't been greedy? It seems incomplete not to eat ice cream in the summer, even if it makes you sick. What should you do if you have the above symptoms due to greed for cold?

Here are some simple and effective suggestions for parents: moxibustion the navel to warm the middle and drive away the cold. If there is no moxibustion equipment, you can use a hot water bag to warm the navel area; at the same time, take Huoxiang Zhengqi pills or soft capsules orally to dispel dampness, regulate qi and harmonize the middle, and wake up the spleen and appetite. If the coldness hinders the spleen and stomach and causes stagnation, use Wushi tea instead of Huoxiang Zhengqi agent, and combine it with a mild and light diet. Even if there is a fever at the same time, there is no need to be overly anxious. According to the above treatment method, it can often be solved together. It only takes time, generally about three days, to fully recover.

After the child recovers, he should learn a lesson. In addition to eating a mild diet and not craving for cold, he should also cover his belly at night. The reason why many children get sick is that parents think they can sleep without covering their belly in pajamas at night. This concept should be corrected. The navel is also called the Shenque, which is the gate of life. The skin here is weak and the blood vessels are rich. It is most susceptible to cold evil. As the saying goes, "showing your head and feet is better than taking medicine", but the belly must be warm. In the past, when children made hats, they would deliberately leave an opening at the top of the hat to let the top breathe, but they had to wear a bellyband on the belly. This is also the reason.

In addition, I would like to share with you a few rhymes: "One meal of food will hurt you, ten meals of food will make you drink soup", "Six onions, five slices of ginger, and three jujubes are boiled into soup; after cooking, add a little vinegar to keep you healthy from colds and coughs", "Don't sweat in the wind, as it is easy to catch a cold; don't sweat too much and be too cool, as it will hurt you from cold and dampness." (Wei Lizhen, chief pediatrician at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine)