Acupoint and Trigger Point Therapy for Babies and Children
A Parent's Healing Touch
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To those who preceded me on this wondrous chain of life
offering what they know,
and to those who follow who seek it.
With gratitude and love
Acknowledgments
There were many people involved in the conception and actualization of
this book, each in their own way. When Mark became a new parent, he
asked me to write up a few treatments so he and Claire could care for their
child the way I cared for him when he was growing up. Then he said, “That
could be your next book, Mom.” I was pleased about his idea for a book,
but I was far more appreciative that Claire and Mark, together, wanted to be
active participants in their daughter Megan’s health care. I thank them from
the bottom of my heart for that.
I wish to thank the many people who had a hand in the book’s actualization.
Jeanie Levitan, Managing Editor at Inner Traditions, has been a source of
clarity throughout this process; Susan Davidson, through her developmental
editing, did a great job of helping me to express my thoughts; Gretchen
Geller, who produced the initial renderings of the skeletal sketches of the
body, hands, and feet; Peri Champine and Carol Ruzicka, who refined the
initial images to accurately depict and clarify the treatment areas and
acupoints; Rachel Goldenberg and Priscilla Baker, for spending many hours
developing the layout of the text and images, and Chanc E VanWinkle, the
Project Editor who kept the many threads together.
And many thanks to the late Tina Sohn, my first teacher, who passed what
she’d learned from her teachers on to me.
Thank you all.
Contents
Foreword by Mark Finando
Introduction
PART 1. THE BASICS
Moments of Bonding: The Importance of Touch and the Use of Your Hands
An Introduction to Meridian Theory
PART 2 . TREATMENTS
Maintaining Good Health
Common Cold
Sore Throat
Ear Infection
Sinus Infection
Cough
Asthma
Conjunctivitis
Fever
Constipation and Gas
Diarrhea
Vomiting
Irritability, Fussiness, and the Inability to Sleep
Colic: Excessive Crying
Urinary Tract Infection
Aches, Pains, Bruises, Sprains, and More
Epilogue: The Ever-Flowing Fountain and the Four Cardinal Needs
Afterword: Memo from a Child to Parents
Appendix: Commonly Used Acupoints
Resources
Footnotes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
About Inner Traditions
Copyright
Foreword
Not so long ago I would climb onto my mother Donna’s lap when I was
feeling bad. At every ache, sniff le, and fever of my early childhood, I
would receive soothing touch from her trained hands. There were times
when the points she touched were sore, but still I returned to my mother
each time I was sick.
As the years passed, the ailments of childhood yielded to the injuries of an
athlete. As a wrestler I was plagued with strains, sprains, and allaround
pains, but I never missed a match thanks to Mom. There was an additional
benefit to these treatments that never occurred to me then; for the time that
my mother massaged my various shoulder, back, neck, and knee injuries,
we would talk. No modern distractions, just a mother talking to her teenage
son while practicing an ancient art and helping me heal. We talked about
any number of subjects—I am sure it is a rarity for teenagers to spend the
time I did talking with my mother.
In college, wrestling gave way to mountain biking. The miles between
college and my childhood home prevented regular visits to my mother, my
healer. Often, I would sit in my dorm room in pain and receive telephone
direction on how to best massage various injuries.
Graduate school, my first job, a wedding, and my wife’s months of morning
sickness—all revealing and character-building events in a person’s life—
shaped me into the adult I am. I have no formal medical training, yet in the
months since my daughter’s birth I have discovered a unique ability to
soothe her, instinctively rubbing her stomach or her feet. I connect with my
daughter through touch, just as my mother connected with me.
And now through this book, you can connect with your children as you
practice these same healing techniques.
Good luck, be gentle. Enjoy your children.
MARK FINANDO
Introduction
As a child I was raised, just as so many of us baby boomers were, by
parents who were smitten with the wonders of modern medicine. Initially
developed to treat wounded soldiers, penicillin came into common usage
during World War II, 1939–1945. Prior to the breakthrough of penicillin for
treating bacterial infections, what would be considered common innocuous
infections now could easily have been the cause of death.
Childhood diseases were a common and expected trial for every child;
mumps, measles, chickenpox, and rubella were suffered equally by most.
Some suffered more. Polio terrified parents of small children, since not only
was it commonplace, but the damage it could cause ranged from muscle
pain and weakness to debilitating paralysis. All of this began to change in
the mid 1950s with the development of childhood vaccines, now a routine
part of a child’s health care.
When I was young, medical doctors still made house calls to take care of
those who were sick, something that is now either completely unknown or
thought to be a quaint anachronism to most young parents reading this
book. If a child were sick, the doctor would come to your home, carrying
his black doctor’s bag (does anybody even know what that is now?). He’d
listen to the child’s breathing with a stethoscope and give a shot: the magic
penicillin. The healing process would begin; parents would heave a sigh of
relief.
For parents of small children at that time, modern medicine really was a
wonder.
As a child I was drawn to work with my hands. My initial training in the
healing arts was in the art of Amma, a sophisticated application of
acupressure. My teacher, Tina Sohn, learned Amma from her Korean
grandmother. She talked about Amma’s ability to ease discomfort and heal
disease.
Having been raised under the aura of modern medicine, I was a bit
skeptical, until I began using Amma myself, on my three-monthold son. I
was amazed at its impact. With a little bit of hands-on work, nasal
congestion would clear, a cough would break up and the baby would
breathe better, his fever would go down, his ear infection would disappear.
Sometimes the cold would blossom after a treatment, but it would come and
go in a matter of just a couple of days. The more I used Amma the more I
recognized the magic—the miracle of the body healing itself. This was the
beginning of what has evolved into a thirty-two-year practice in health care.
As an acupuncturist and practitioner of massage I have had the great benefit
of being trained in many elements of two great models of health: one based
on Oriental principles, the other in the Western model of “conventional”
health care. My years of practice showed me that not only does each model
have its place in health care, but when used as partners they are a
remarkably powerful tool, one that spurs the body’s ability to heal itself.
The information and treatments provided here are the results of the
marriage of these two models.
The human body is astonishing. The body is capable of healing itself, and
with a bit of help—often not very much—it will do so remarkably
efficiently. The treatments in this book provide that help. They aren’t a
substitute for medical care; rather, they are an adjunct. There are times
when the diagnoses that are provided by our physicians are essential, and
the medications necessary. But there are many times when we know that a
cold is just a cold and that constipation is a temporary discomfort that will
pass.
Whether or not diagnoses and medications are needed, a hands-on treatment
will advance the healing process and soothe a child in distress. The bonus is
twofold. First, as a parent you can be proactive in your child’s healing
regardless of his age. What could be more wonderful than that? Rather than
simply waiting for your child to get better, you can help. Second, while you
are touching your child, focusing on him, working on him, you are bonding
with him. You are deepening your loving moments of connection that feed
your relationship and your hearts.
The treatments I include in this book are based on the Oriental model of
health care. That system views the body as an integrated whole. It holds that
there are meridians or pathways that lie on the arms, legs, torso, and head.
Life force, energy, qi (sometimes spelled chi), runs through these pathways.
Each pathway is connected with an internal organ or system that functions
in our body. An introduction to this system follows in a later chapter.
The principle behind this model, simply put, is that when there are
obstructions to the free flow of qi through these pathways, those
obstructions will ref lect in the body as illness and disease. By removing the
obstructions the body will begin to heal itself. Massage, acupressure,
acupuncture, and the application of heat at specific points are some of the
means by which these obstructions can be corrected. This system has been
used successfully for thousands of years to treat disease and maintain
general health.
The other aspect of these treatments is the massage of the musculature. We
all know, even if it is somewhat intuitive, that a hurt always feels better
when you rub it. It’s instinctive to touch a painful area. Why? The
musculature that is related to a particular organ or system gets tight when it
is not functioning properly. Which came first: the muscular restriction or the
organ dysfunction? It’s a good question—from a physiological standpoint,
causality may work in either direction. Sometimes restriction in the
musculature leads to the organ dysfunction; sometimes it’s the other way
around. But the bottom line is that when you have a cough, the muscles of
your upper body get tight. When you massage your chest and upper back
and release the muscles, you start to feel better. You breathe more easily.
Ask anyone with asthma. When you’re constipated and you rub your belly,
it helps. The bowels are stimulated, gas is passed, and discomfort begins to
be relieved.
This approach, then, is a combination of acupressure and muscular
massage. Anyone can do it. Clear diagrams will guide your hands to where
you must touch. I have also included the descriptions of the meridian
pathways, points, and muscles that are used in the treatments for those who
are interested in the treatment specifics that promote healing. The only thing
you need, however, is the desire to help your little one, the willingness to
spend time looking into his eyes and smiling at him “face to face, heart to
heart,” while you gently touch his body.
I have been a health care practitioner for more than thirty years. My years
of practice spanned the years in which my son grew from a baby into a man
with a family of his own. When I treated him the health care practitioner in
me felt great pleasure in helping a child; but the mommy in me treasured
those moments together. They are moments that I remember clearly even
now and with a smile on my face—lovingly laughing, playing, touching,
soothing, helping my little one.
It continues to this day.
PART 1
THE BASICS
