Why Does My Child Always Have Bad Breath and Frequent Stomach Aches? — Doctor Luo Dalun: It’s Usually Food Stagnation; a Thick, Greasy Tongue Coating With Red Dots Means the Stagnation Has Turned to Heat
Opening: Doctor Luo says children’s illnesses are actually very simple
These past few days, Doctor Luo Dalun has been analyzing photos of children’s tongues sent in by parents. As he looked through them, he first offered a reassuring observation: children’s illnesses, he said, are actually very simple.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Ancient Chinese medicine said that in pediatric illness, “yin-yang syndromes, seize the two tai” — that’s from the Medical Three-Character Classic. What does it mean? For a child’s illness, you only need to grasp two meridians. One is the Bladder meridian of Foot-Taiyang, which represents external contraction — the ancients considered the Bladder meridian to govern the surface of the whole body. The other is the Spleen meridian of Foot-Taiyin — that is, the spleen and stomach. Get these two meridians clear, and your child’s body will basically be fine.
As for the external-contraction side, Doctor Luo says all parents need to grasp is “the lungs.”
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When we breathe, the lungs have the most frequent contact with the outside world, so external pathogens usually invade through the lungs — for external contraction, just focus on the lungs. So which matters more for a child, external contraction or the spleen and stomach? Let me tell you: the spleen and stomach matter more.
Why do external pathogens come knocking the moment the spleen and stomach weaken?
Many parents can’t figure it out: the child didn’t even get chilled — so why does he catch a cold again? Doctor Luo offered a “defense system” analogy.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Under normal circumstances, people can coexist peacefully with the viruses and bacteria around them; external pathogens don’t invade every day. Why? Because you have upright qi (zheng qi) — your defense system runs normally. But if something makes the defense system malfunction so that it can no longer ward off external pathogens, you get sick. What can make the defense system malfunction? Spleen and stomach deficiency. When the spleen and stomach are deficient, nutrient absorption goes wrong, and the source of your body’s upright qi is compromised — the whole body’s function drops, defense weakens, and external pathogens invade easily.
So Doctor Luo put it strongly:
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Spleen-stomach dysfunction is the root of regulating the body — it is the root of regulating a child’s body. So regulating the spleen and stomach is very important.
Children in ancient times were harmed by hunger; children today are harmed by overeating
So how does a child’s spleen and stomach get injured? Doctor Luo says the times have changed, and so has the way the spleen and stomach get harmed.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In ancient times, there were children who went hungry because there was nothing to eat, and their spleen and stomach were injured. Where do you find such children today? I estimate that over 90% of modern children have ruined their stomachs by eating good food. Why does eating good food ruin the stomach? Our spleen and stomach have a limited capacity to transform and transport. Especially in small children, whose organs are delicate, that capacity only goes so far. If you force in a lot of things the child can’t absorb, problems arise — in Chinese medicine we call this food stagnation (ji shi).
Food stagnation has become the most common problem in children today.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Looking at the tongue photos you send me, I feel like what I say is getting repetitive — basically they’re all food stagnation. You should all be able to recognize it by now.
Today’s child: 6 years old, always bad breath, and frequent stomach aches
And so it is with today’s little girl. Her parents wrote in: my daughter is 6 years old, she always has very bad breath, and she often has stomach aches — could Doctor Luo please take a look?
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: One important sign of food stagnation is bad breath. Why? The spleen and stomach qi is blocked here; when stomach qi is stuck, it reverses upward. Stomach qi is supposed to move downward — downward is smooth; upward is a problem. When it reverses upward, there’s a smell.
And the stomach aches?
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Stomach aches show that the spleen and stomach are having trouble transforming and transporting. Look at this little girl’s tongue: the coating is thick and greasy — the middle part, and especially the back half, are thick and greasy. Not counting the very root, the part just behind the middle is already on the thick, greasy side. The coating isn’t thin and pale — it’s quite thick, which means food stagnation, because she isn’t transforming and clearing it.
The small red dots in the middle of the coating: the stagnation has turned to heat
Look more closely — there’s something else on this child’s tongue coating.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: There are many small red dots in the middle of the coating. What does that mean? It means the food stagnation has turned to heat. When too much accumulates inside, it disturbs the movement of qi, and wherever qi becomes blocked, heat is generated — so from time to time there can be heat patterns in the body.
Step one: stop the rich, fatty foods — ease up on beef, lamb, and braised spareribs
Since this is an illness that came from eating, the treatment starts by managing the mouth.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: For this kind of child, you should regularly promote digestion and guide stagnation out. Be careful not to keep feeding rich, fatty, heavy foods — braised spareribs, stewed beef, don’t eat too much of them. Beef and lamb are heat-promoting. Pork is yin by nature, but when you braise spareribs with Sichuan pepper, star anise, and all kinds of spices — the ancients added spices to remove pork’s yin nature and make it neutral; nowadays spices are added mainly for flavor, in large amounts — so even the pork easily promotes heat, and eating it leads to blockage.
So what should the child eat? Doctor Luo gave several food-therapy recipes you can make anytime.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Give the child more things like stewed carp with shredded radish. On ordinary days, let him eat some hawthorn products or tangerine peel (chen pi) products — for example, boiling some tangerine peel water for him to drink. All of these awaken the spleen qi.
Step two: when stagnation is obvious, Three Charred Immortals with stir-fried chicken gizzard lining, 6 grams each, for two to three days
If you feel the problem has recently become more serious, it’s time for a little medicine.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: You can use the Three Charred Immortals (jiao san xian) together with stir-fried chicken gizzard lining (chao ji nei jin). The Three Charred Immortals are charred hawthorn (jiao shan zha), charred medicated leaven (jiao shen qu), and charred barley sprout (jiao mai ya). How much of each? 6 grams — for a 6-year-old, 6 grams of each is enough. Decoct in water and drink for two to three days. Once the stagnation is dissolved, the child’s body will gradually return to normal. Otherwise, the frequent stomach aches tell you the digestion is off.
Step three: pinching the spine — a 6-year-old still has one year left, and the younger the child, the better it works
Besides medicine, there is one hand technique passed down from our ancestors that Doctor Luo especially recommends.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: If you can study Chinese medicine online, take some video courses — what should you learn? Pinching the spine (ni ji). Pinching the spine works wonderfully for children. It generally works until about age 7, so this 6-year-old still has one year left — after 7, the effect isn’t as obvious. The younger the child, the better and more obvious the response.
Wrapping up: more exercise, and let the spleen and stomach “turn on their own”
Finally, Doctor Luo left two very simple reminders.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: For the sake of the child’s health, parents should adjust the diet a little. Then let the child exercise more — what happens with more exercise? The spleen and stomach can move and transform freely, which benefits the child.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: I see far too much food stagnation, so from now on I’ll make an effort to talk more about ways to dissolve it — all right? That’s all for today. Learn gradually to recognize food stagnation. I believe that if you truly master this one pattern, it can resolve more than half of your children’s problems.
What to take away: A child with persistent bad breath and frequent stomach aches is very likely suffering from food stagnation (ji shi) — bad breath appears when blocked stomach qi reverses upward, and stomach aches appear when the spleen and stomach fail to transform and transport. On the tongue, look for a thick, greasy coating (especially in the middle and back half) as the sign of stagnation, and small red dots in the coating as the sign that the stagnation has turned to heat. Children’s spleens and stomachs are delicate and their capacity is limited, so overfeeding creates stagnation — the number one modern cause of children’s illness. Treatment in four steps: ① cut back on rich, fatty, heat-promoting foods (beef, lamb, heavily spiced braised pork); ② food therapy such as stewed carp with shredded radish, hawthorn products, and tangerine peel water; ③ when stagnation is obvious, the Three Charred Immortals (charred hawthorn, charred medicated leaven, charred barley sprout) plus stir-fried chicken gizzard lining, 6 grams each, decocted and drunk for two to three days; ④ pinching the spine (ni ji) — the younger the child, the better, effective until about age 7. Add more exercise so the spleen and stomach can move freely. Recognizing food stagnation early can resolve more than half of children’s problems.
Based on a children’s tongue-diagnosis lecture by Doctor Luo Dalun.