From Neijing, we know the constitution. According to the theory of yin-yang and five elements, people are divided into five main types: wood, fire, earth, gold and water. The word "constitution" has different names in TCM literature, including temperament, qi, quality and constitution. It was not until Ye Hehua called it a constitution.
2. Characteristics of children's physique
Qianjin Fang Yao pointed out: "The only child has a weak temperament." Chao of Sui Dynasty pointed out in Etiology that "the qi of children's viscera is weak". These studies believe that children's physique has the characteristics of "less blood, weak qi, weak spleen and stomach, and qi deficiency"
The Cranial Meridian, the first monograph on pediatrics of traditional Chinese medicine in China, puts forward: "Anyone under three years old is called pure yang." In the Northern Song Dynasty, Qian Yi put forward that "children are pure yang, so there is no need to benefit fire". These views hold that children are "pure yang" and have physical characteristics.
In the Ming Dynasty, Wanquan put forward the characteristics of children's "five internal organs with liver deficiency, spleen deficiency and kidney deficiency, tropical liver fire, and scorching lung injury that is difficult to heal".
Wu Tang, an epidemiologist of epidemic febrile diseases, pointed out in Syndrome Differentiation of Epidemic Febrile Diseases, that children are "infantile yin and yang".
Summary: Chinese medicine summarizes children's physique as follows:
(1) The child is a "body of pure yang" (explanation: the body of pure yang does not mean that the baby has only heat but no cold syndrome, but describes that the baby has a vigorous growth and development trend. Only by protecting and making good use of this feature can the baby maintain such a benign physique);
(2) the body of "baby yin and baby yang" (explanation: the baby is still weak as a whole, although it has strong growth characteristics, but the overall function of the internal organs is still weak, and it is easy to feel diseases caused by external evils or internal factors);
(3) There is liver excess in the five internal organs, spleen is often deficient, kidney is often deficient, heart-heat is the same as liver, and scorched lung injury is not easy to heal. (Interpretation: From the perspective of the five internal organs, the baby's lung, spleen and kidney functions are relatively weak or low, and it is prone to exogenous fever, cough, indigestion or abnormal growth and development in clinic. Relatively speaking, heart and liver function are easy to form qi stagnation, and then show heat syndrome, which is similar.
3. Related factors of children's constitution formation.
(1) Inherent genetic factors
Because the child comes from parents, when the child is born, the reproductive essence of parents is combined to form an embryo, which is nourished by qi and blood in the mother's body and develops continuously, thus forming an individual. Including parents' quality, parents' consanguinity, parents' childbearing age, the state of raising and protecting the fetus during pregnancy, pregnancy diseases and medication. Therefore, innate endowment is the internal basis that determines and affects the formation and development of physique, and the physical characteristics of parents often have an important impact on future generations.
(2) acquired environmental factors
(1) Geographical climate: the region is divided into north and south, and the climate is cool, just dry, warm and wet, and it can be divided into nourishing roots and herbal medicines. People in different areas have long been influenced by soil and water quality and trace elements, and people living in different areas form different physical characteristics.
(2) Social environment, spiritual feelings: People's spiritual feelings, viscera and qi and blood are often influenced by social factors, so people's physical condition is also related to social factors.
(3) Diet nursed back to health: due to parents' overindulgence, lack of knowledge about children's maintenance, disapproval of children's physique, unreasonable diet structure regardless of age, and abuse of nutrition and health care products, the nutrition is unbalanced or malnourished. Some children eat spicy and thick food or cold drinks, which will damage the stomach yin for a long time and form a constitution that is easy to get sick.
(4) Factors of diseases: Many diseases can change people's physique over time. Children's common diseases such as anorexia, repeated colds, obesity, diarrhea and many other diseases, such as improper treatment or untimely treatment, can often be seen that children's physique is getting worse and worse, forming a vicious circle, and they are more prone to the above diseases.
(5) Iatrogenic factors: Many parents, knowing some medical knowledge, give their children medicine when they are sick, and then go to see a doctor if they are neither better nor worse. At this time, the disease has changed and the child's physique has also been hurt. There is also the doctor's improper diagnosis and treatment, regardless of cold and heat, rashly attacking, warming the medicine, and not healing for a long time. In clinic, it is very common to abuse drugs to fight bitter cold or warm up regardless of cold and heat deficiency. Because children's viscera are delicate and easy to be weak and solid, improper medication can easily lead to changes in children's physique.
4. Maintenance characteristics: With the development of children's physique research, researchers pay more and more attention to the role of physique factors in pediatric diagnosis and daily maintenance of traditional Chinese medicine. According to the characteristics of children's physique, the following aspects should be paid attention to in maintenance:
First, prevention before illness:
(1) Congenital endowment plays an extremely important role in the formation of children's physique. Children's physical health care should start from their parents. Before pregnancy, parents should take good care of their own physique in order to lay a good foundation for the healthy development of fetal physique.
(2) Children's daily life is also very important.
"Children want to be safe, often hungry and cold" was put forward by ancient doctors in view of the physical characteristics of children's "pure yang", "childish yin and yang", "spleen is often insufficient", "small and brittle stomach, little food in it" and the disadvantages of secular parenting. Overfullness will hurt the spleen and stomach and cause diseases. Too warm helps to make the body of "pure yang" more yang and consume vaginal fluid. Too warm can easily make children sweat and catch a cold.
Children's physique has its own characteristics, so special attention should be paid to medication. Children's viscera are delicate, their qi and blood are uncertain, but they are incomplete, complete but not strong, and they are easy to get sick due to exogenous pathogens. Be careful when using drugs, and try to use less toxic and violent Chinese medicines; Use bitter and cold products with caution.
(3) Huangdi Neijing talks about "work before illness" and "prevention before illness", and puts forward the idea that prevention is more important than treatment. According to the different physical characteristics of children, we should use traditional Chinese medicine bath, acupuncture, massage, diet, emotion and other drug and non-drug methods to regulate the body, strengthen the physique and prevent problems before they happen.
B. Early treatment of diseases: the essence of syndrome differentiation is to distinguish physique, which determines the treatment principle, treatment method, dosage and treatment contraindications, so the relationship between physique and disease and syndrome must be correctly handled during treatment.
C. Dietotherapy: The theory of TCM dietotherapy and health preservation has always attached great importance to the suitability of things, that is to say, the nature and taste of food should adapt to the ups and downs of yin and yang of human organs, and what kind of food should be decided according to the needs of the human body. In short, the principles of children's diet can be summarized as follows: nourishing yin and strengthening yang, extensive recipes, light nutrition, and avoiding products that are too cold, too hot, too spicy, too dry, too bitter, too sour and too greasy. When eating, children should be happy, choose foods with good nutrition, easy digestion and certain color and fragrance, and eat regularly.
D, preventive health care: pay attention to the cleanliness of infants and young children, ensure adequate sleep, eat regularly, and don't overeat. Strengthen physical exercise. Children's exercise methods should be gradual with the growth of age. Babies can do baby exercises (passive gymnastics), and children can do outdoor activities and games appropriately, mainly using fresh air and sunshine for water bath and physical exercise. Children should have regular health check-ups, preferably once every three months, so as to know their growth, development and diseases, and manage and correct them in time.
(1) The object of children's physical conditioning is the physical state of children before or after illness, that is, children are in the stage of "not getting sick" or "wanting to get sick" and "recovering at the beginning of illness". Therefore, we should use the theories of Yin-Yang, Five Elements, Zang-Fu, Qi-Blood, Body Fluid, etc. of TCM, and then classify them according to clinical collection, and draw up a conditioning plan.
(2) Children's physical conditioning is a process of balance between yin and yang, and it is also a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. Therefore, no matter what method is used for physical conditioning, we should pay attention to "equality for a period of time" to avoid overcorrection and cause new biased physical fitness.