Feeding Children and Those with Digestive Sensitivities

Here is a simple picture of digestion as seen in oriental medicine:

Children are delicate. Their developing post-natal organ QI forms largely from nutritional status and everyday care. Having an immature system, a child’s state of health quickly manifests changes. Although it is the same with a person of any age, it is crucial to adjust factors that restore balance at the very first signs of a developing imbalance in children. If not, soon thereafter medicinal treatment is often needed.

The stomach and spleen (the earth element) are digestive organs. In conjunction they transform and transport essence and matter derived from the food we eat. The stomach can be regarded as a soup pot which must be kept warm to effectively break down ingested food. Food that is served cooked and warm is more nourishing to the stomach than food which is raw and cold. The spleen (in TCM) is the transporter of food’s ‘essence’. The lungs are the first to receive this digestive essence in the form of a ‘mist’. The mist is utilized by the lungs to support the QI of the lungs and to maintain the mucus membranes of the nasal-sinus cavity. The spleen’s function also facilitates transportation of the relatively ‘impure’ portion of the stomach’s digestate downward to the small intestine for further breakdown and elimination.

The two ways that diet can be problematic are as follows: A diet that promotes foods uncooked, cold or raw hinders the stomach’s digestive efficiency. Also, when heavy and dampening foods are consumed the spleen can only foster turbid fluid instead of mist-like essence. Dampness is a turbid substance. It is heavy and is obstructive to QI circulation which has measurable effects within the body. When QI flow which is yang in nature is impeded, heat is generated and typically presents as conditions with fever, flushed cheeks and rashes, persistent coughs and earaches; typical symptoms in children. Since dampness is heavy and descending it often interferes with the bowels causing looseness or constipation. According to TCM, dampness is always traced back to the digestive system and then stored in the lung. In children as well as in many adults, this simple pattern is the basis for so many preventable health complaints.

In children’s diets and others with delicate digestive systems, wheat, dairy, soy, corn, sugar, fruit juices, white potatoes, bread and large portions of meat are often foods that create “allergies” because they promote dampness and stagnation from their sweet and cooling nature and sheer density. Often introducing a wide variety of foods to be assimilated is more than what benefits the body. Begin simply, with plenty of cooked vegetables, steamed greens, soups, slow roasted stews with small amounts of meat. Cooked whole grains are recommended because they are usually easily digested. Accenting the cooking process with warming, aromatic herbs like cardamom, fresh ginger, black pepper and fennel are good catalytic heaters to support the spleen and stomach. A cup of miso, clear broth or herbal tea is also healthful with each meal.

Attention to healthy, particularly organic, foods is encouraged.

This overview presents a diet fairly neutral in thermal nature and nourishing for all ages.

A low-stress, happy life is not a concept; it is a practical intention & unfolding of every day.

It is so beneficial to break away to go for a walk or to share with family, friends & pets.

We all need time to renew our bodies and our sense of purpose; and time to dream, as children do.