The Xiaoxiao FISTQ Children Centre of Chinese Medicine and its Pilot-studies – Elisa Rossi - 2009

The Xiaoxiao Centre was started in 2005 in Milan, Italy: it is a paediatric clinic treating children with tuina and acupuncture, with the support of the Federation of Italian Schools of Tuina and Qigong (FISTQ).
The clinic is now operating for the fifth year. In the first three years it has carried out a pilot-study for the treatment and prevention of child respiratory diseases and in October 2008 it has started a new one for hyperactive children, sleep disorders, hyperactivity or attention deficit. In this “quiet-project” we treat children who have hard times in keeping their body and mind calm, that is, in sleeping quietly, in staying still, in maintaining their attention on something.
This year, from October 2009 to May 2010, we have treated 43 children, of whom 15 came for the “quiet-project”.

The children are given a course of 8/6 free sessions, of which the last one is after 1-2 months, as consolidation and follow-up. Treatments are based on a Chinese medical diagnosis (without following rigid protocols) and used tuina as the main treatment, supported where appropriate with acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, ear-seeds, guasha, and plum-blossom needle. In addition, the parents were taught a basic tuina sequence to be applied daily, along with some “emergency” sequences (in case of common cold or cough, fever, constipation, etc).

In the first 4 years we treated 106 children, aged from 2 months to 12 years, for a total of 552 sessions. 56 children came with respiratory diseases: of these 38 completed the final 8th session of consolidation and follow-up. In 2008-09 10 children were involved in the project for hyperactive children (it takes a year for any new project to start consistently)
The other 40 children came to the FISTQ Xiaoxiao Centre for problems as atopic dermatitis, infant abdominal pain, poor appetite, gastro-oesophagus reflux, slow growing, constipation, nocturnal enuresis, headache, cryptorchidism, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, Tourette’s syndrome.
In the first 4 years 40 practitioners were trained through a basic or advanced paediatric course (the Xiaoxiao clinic also acts as a clinical training centre for tuina practitioners and acupuncturists who already have a good knowledge of Chinese Medicine and wish to focus on paediatrics).

Data were recorded with Microsoft Access in a specifically designed clinical chart [this chart has been made available to other centres that treat children with Chinese Medicine, with the intention of building a network for gathering and exchanging information]

A semi-structured interview is given to all the parents, to have suggestions, to how they felt in the centre, how they evaluate the therapeutic results after some time, and if they continued to use tuina at home.

Parental cooperation

Cooperation with parents is extremely important to support paediatric treatment, both in the treatment of chronic conditions and in preventing future illness. In Europe we do not usually have the chance to treat 3 times a week as in China, therefore daily tuina administered by the parents is encouraged to supplement treatment. It is therefore necessary to emphasise to parents the importance of their home-treatment, whilst at the same time trying to avoid making them feel guilty if they do not do it. They can also attend a two-day course that takes place twice a year at the clinic, where they get a basic knowledge of Chinese Medicine, and learn more about tuina. If parents are able to administer home treatment they feel much more empowered. We always encourage them to keep on with the tuina at home, especially if the child is under any kind of stress (external pathogenic factors, changes in family or personal life, immunisations etc), or when the parents notice that their energy has become depleted or imbalanced.

Prevention

Prevention is a key-issue: “The sage does not treat when illness is already there, but when it is not yet there, he does not treat when disorder-luan is already there, but when it is not yet there. Waiting to treat until after the illness has already developed or bringing order after disorder has already developed is like digging a well when one is thirsty, or like casting a dagger once that the battle has already been engaged…” Prevention is rooted in understanding an individual child’s constitutional strength and tendency to specific patterns. If we know the direction towards which a child tends when they get sick, we can change the daily habits which are most harmful for that child and devise specific preventative treatments. In most cases we apply a basic sequence that tonifies and regulates the middle jiao, moves accumulation, eliminates heat, transforms phlegm, and reinforces Spleen, Lung or Kidney qi.

For further infos: info@fistq.org

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