Baby Has Food Stagnation (Ji Shi) and Gets Sick All the Time? Doctor Luo Dalun: A Thick Coating in the Middle of the Tongue Is the Signal — Pinch the Spine Plus Jiao San Xian to Clear It
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Dear parents, today let’s continue talking about children’s tongue signs. Once, I gave a mini online lecture (on Sina) and took questions. The moment I opened the floor, parents’ questions burst out all at once — and as I listened, I found that in the end, the questions all came down to something very simple.
Opening: at an online mini-lecture, every parent’s question pointed to the same answer
At that lecture, Doctor Luo was flooded with parents’ questions. But as he listened, he noticed: every child’s “external pathogen invasion” turned out to be caused by a weakened spleen and stomach.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Basically, children’s rhinitis, external pathogen invasions, and so on — all kinds of problems are related to a weak spleen and stomach. Why? Because in Chinese medicine, the lungs belong to Metal in the five elements, and the spleen and stomach belong to Earth. What is the relationship between Earth and Metal? Earth generates Metal. In modern terms — the spleen and stomach are the mother of the lungs.
When the spleen and stomach weaken, why is the respiratory system the first to suffer?
When the mother is ill, the child naturally follows. Once spleen and stomach function breaks down, lung function — the respiratory system — weakens, and external pathogens invade easily.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The lungs are the organ that contacts the outside world most frequently — breathing every moment. When lung qi weakens and external pathogens invade, external pathogen conditions arise — colds, asthma, coughs, rhinitis. These diseases all relate to the lung system; and at the root, they all relate to the spleen and stomach.
So how does the spleen and stomach get damaged in the first place?
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When I see these problems and then look at these children’s tongues, almost all of them involve food stagnation (ji shi). What does that mean? It means too many good things have been eaten — for small babies it is called improper feeding; for older children, it is endless chicken legs and braised spare ribs. Children are innocent — when they see something tasty they eat it, and eating and eating they overeat. That is food stagnation.
What is food stagnation? Too many good things eaten, and the spleen and stomach cannot process them
Food stagnation happens when too much of one kind of food is eaten, so the spleen and stomach cannot absorb or process it — and then problems appear.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When does food stagnation occur? First, when a child eats an enormous amount of a single food — for example braised spare ribs, a whole basin set in front of the child, and the child keeps eating until the belly is huge, and then it cannot be digested. Even though this excess food is natural food, it still causes stagnation, because too much was eaten and the spleen and stomach cannot process it.
The first hidden landmine: trans fats hiding inside birthday cake
The second situation is eating too much non-natural food — for example birthday cake, which many children love.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Do you know how birthday cake is made? It is made with artificial cream — trans fatty acids. Ordinary real cream is a natural food; eat it and it is metabolized within a few days. But trans fatty acids take over 50 days to be metabolized, and some substances may never be metabolized out at all. Fifty-plus days left in the body — the body simply cannot absorb them, so they drain the upright qi of the spleen and stomach and damage its function; then the spleen and stomach weaken, and next the respiratory system breaks down.
Doctor Luo has seen far too many such children.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: One day there is a birthday party; after the little friends leave, the remaining half cake is all eaten — and the very next day the child has asthma, a cold and a fever. Why? Because you cannot absorb it. I have talked with people in the cake industry. They said: if a cake is made entirely with natural ingredients, the price becomes extremely high, which is why trans fats are used now — first, they keep well; second, they are cheap. Their suggestion: scrape off the white stuff on top and throw it away, and eat the cake below. Oh my goodness — what do children like best? The white cream on top! Let me tell you: that is artificial cream, and inside it are trans fatty acids.
The second hidden landmine: improper feeding — afraid the baby is not full, you feed the baby into illness
There is also improper feeding — feeding too much, too frequently.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Some parents always feel the child has not eaten enough. Afraid of underfeeding, they keep feeding and feeding — and end up causing food stagnation.
Today’s baby: 3 months old, spit-up for 40 days, stools more frequent and looser
And right on cue, today’s case is a typical example.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Look at today’s tongue photo. The baby is only 3 months old. After birth the baby spit up milk for 40 days; after that the stools became more frequent and thinner (looser), and blue veins appeared on the body, and so on. Looking at the tongue, the biggest feature is: there is a coating right in the middle of the tongue, extremely obvious — many children are like this, a coin-sized, round patch of tongue coating sitting right in the center.
What does this “coin coating” represent?
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The middle of the tongue represents the spleen and stomach. A thick coating accumulated in the middle of the tongue means the child’s spleen and stomach have food stagnation. This kind of child is probably suffering from improper feeding — feeding too frequently, or feeding again before the spleen and stomach have finished digesting the previous meal — and that causes food stagnation.
Don’t underestimate food stagnation: gastrointestinal disruption affects growth
It’s just a patch of tongue coating — how serious can it be? Doctor Luo reminds us: do not underestimate it.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This kind of food stagnation disrupts the child’s gastrointestinal function, and the child’s growth can be affected a little. So once you see a child’s tongue looking like this, you must recognize it — there is food stagnation here. Even small babies can have food stagnation.
Remedy one for clearing stagnation: pinch the spine — the most crucial technique
So what to do? Doctor Luo offers two remedies; the first is a manual technique.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: You must learn to pinch the spine (nie ji) for your child — pinch the back. Search online for a “pinching the spine” video and learn from it. Pinching the spine clears food stagnation — the effect is especially, especially good.
The second remedy is a household-name “trio” for clearing stagnation.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: You can also buy some Jiao San Xian. For a small baby, I think 3 grams of each is enough — charred hawthorn (jiao shan zha), charred medicated leaven (jiao shen qu), charred barley sprout (jiao mai ya), 3 grams each, decoct a little water and feed it in, slowly helping the child dissolve the stagnation. Generally two or three days of drinking is enough — no need to drink a lot, just sip by sip. Pinching the spine is the most crucial technique.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Once the food stagnation is dissolved, then when you feed the baby milk again, absorption returns to normal. So when you see this kind of tongue coating, you should recognize that the little one has food stagnation — a thick tongue coating in the middle of the tongue means food stagnation.
Closing: why does Chinese pediatric medicine place “food stagnation” so high?
Finally, Doctor Luo explains the full weight of food stagnation — it is no small problem.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Chinese medicine places food stagnation in a very high position in pediatrics. Why? Because for a child, the spleen and stomach are the only channel for absorbing nutrition. Children grow so rapidly; if nutrition is insufficient, it will affect the child’s health. So recognizing food stagnation is an especially important diagnostic direction in Chinese pediatric medicine — parents must learn it.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Most children may not be this typical — the coating in the middle may not be this thick. But whenever the middle of the tongue coating is somewhat thick, we should suspect whether it is food stagnation and give it some thought. That is all for today — from now on we will keep sharing tongue signs. Thank you, and see you next time.
Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s TCM health lectures (children’s tongue diagnosis series: food stagnation in babies).