🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Infant and toddler diarrhea is a syndrome caused by pathogenic E. coli and enteroviruses leading to digestive dysfunction. Characterized by loose stools, increased frequency, or watery consistency. Belongs to the category of “Diarrhea” or “Xieshi” in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Prevention Before Illness
Proper pre-illness care and hygiene are crucial.
(1) General Measures
1. Promote breastfeeding. If formula-fed, dilute milk appropriately and sterilize feeding utensils—best boiled or steamed daily. Food must be fresh and clean.
2. Feed at regular intervals and in controlled amounts. Gradually introduce complementary foods without overdoing it or introducing starches/fats too early. Avoid sudden changes in food types.
3. Monitor weather changes, dress appropriately to prevent abdominal cold. Strengthen physical exercise and prevent colds, pneumonia, otitis media, etc.
4. In summer, pay extra attention to food hygiene and care. Offer more fluids in hot weather. Avoid overeating or consuming high-fat foods. Do not wean during summer.
5. Avoid long-term misuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics.
(2) Dietary Prevention
1. White Bean Millet Porridge: Boil 30g winged bean and 10g Codonopsis pilosula (or ginseng), strain, add 50g millet, cook into porridge. Regular consumption helps prevent infant diarrhea.
2. Yam White Bean Cake: 200g yam (peeled and sliced), 50g fresh white bean, 500g chopped red date flesh, 3g tangerine peel strips. Mix well and steam into cake. Eat as breakfast, 50–100g per serving. Ideal for those with weak spleen and stomach.
Second, Post-Illness Prevention
The outcome depends on the child’s inherent spleen-stomach strength, timeliness of treatment, and severity of pathogen exposure. Exposure to summer-heat, dampness, and heat easily leads to progression—either heat transforming into fire, invading the heart envelope; or persistent diarrhea damaging yin and yang. Severe diarrhea damages spleen yang, leading to earth deficiency and water excess, potentially causing chronic spleen wind.
(1) General Measures
1. Adjust Diet: Mild diarrhea still allows breastfeeding. Shorten feeding time, extend intervals. For formula-fed infants, dilute milk further and remove cream. Older toddlers should eat easily digestible porridge. Severely affected children should fast for 6–8 hours to rest the gastrointestinal tract.
2. Rehydrate: Prevent dehydration and electrolyte loss. Give sugar-salt water, weak tea, carrot water between feedings or during fasting. Under doctor’s guidance, use oral rehydration salts.
3. Care: Keep abdomen warm. Clean anal area with warm water after each stool. Change diapers frequently, handle feces promptly, wash hands. For prolonged diarrhea, avoid forcing the child into bent positions to prevent prolapse.
(2) TCM Treatment and Prevention
1. Food Injury Type: Initially use formulas to relieve stagnation and promote bowel movements—e.g., Qizhen Dan, Yini Jin. Then strengthen spleen and stop diarrhea—e.g., Baohe Wan, Shan Zha Jianpi Wan.
2. Damp-Heat Type: Use Ge Gen Qin Lian Tang Modified. If restless, prone to internal heat transformation, add Haliu Ming, Tianma, Gouteng, Daimao, Lingyangjiao Fen, Zixue Dan. If thirsty, sunken eyes, short red urine, indicating yin injury, add Lian Mei Tang, acid-sweet to nourish yin. If limbs cold, lethargy, weak yang, urgently use Shenfu Longmu Tang, or add Ginseng, Fuzi, Wuweizi. If apathetic, drowsy, eyes exposed, hand-foot twitching, indicating risk of chronic spleen wind, add Ginseng, Fuzi, Rourui, or solidify true essence decoction.
3. Deficiency-Cold Type: Use Qianyi Liubai Zhu San or Yi Huang San, optionally adding Buku Zhi, Yizhi Ren, Wu Zhu Yu, or Zhishi Wan.
(3) Dietary Prevention
Primarily suitable for older toddlers and mild diarrhea.
1. Radish Seed Porridge: Roasted radish seed ground into powder, cooked with rice. Suitable for food injury diarrhea.
2. Coix Porridge: Raw coix, white rice (1/3 the amount of coix), boil coix until soft, then add white rice to cook porridge. Suitable for damp-heat diarrhea.
3. Yam Porridge: Cook yam and glutinous rice together. Suitable for deficiency-cold diarrhea.
(4) Single and Effective Formulas
1. Mix powdered charred Hawthorn and charred ginger, 1g per dose, taken with warm water, three times daily.
2. 9g pomegranate peel, decocted with red sugar, taken three times daily. Suitable for chronic diarrhea.
3. Roast garlic with skin until soft, peel, mash into paste, mix with a little sugar and water. Consume 2–3 cloves daily.
4. 30g Evodia rutaecarpa, 2g cloves, 30 peppercorns, ground into powder. Mix 1.5g with vinegar or plant oil into paste, apply to navel, cover with gauze. Replace daily. Used for food injury and deficiency-cold diarrhea.
(5) Acupuncture and Massage Therapy
1. First acupuncture at Zusanli, then at Qihai. If diarrhea persists, add Zhi Xie point (5 fen above Guanyuan). Alternatively, use moxibustion on Shenshu for 10 minutes. For vomiting, add Neiguan.
2. Spine Pinching Therapy: Child lies prone. Doctor uses thumbs and index fingers to pinch skin from Changqiang (coccyx) to Dazhui (shoulder level), lifting skin continuously without releasing. Perform 3 times daily. Particularly effective for children with weak spleen and stomach and chronic diarrhea.<Diarrhea>