Volume 5, Number 2 | Summer 2010

Clinical Report 1 (Japan)
Three Cases of Shonishin (pediatric acupuncture) forNight Cry, Stool Abnormality and Nightmare
Shoko Masuyama
Depatment of Acupuncture
Morinomiya University of Medical Sciences

Introduction
Shonishin (pediatric acupuncture) devices
differ from acupuncture needles which penetrates
the skin for adults. Shonishin therapy is thetechniques of providing painless stimuli involving
rubbing and touching to the skin surface lightly.
For details of treatment techniques, a publishedbook should be referred to1). Shonishin grew
popular mainly in the Kansai area2) and especiallyin Osaka, it has taken root in people’s daily lives.
We introduce three cases of Shonishin thatshowed favorable results at our university clinic.
Case 1
Patient’s name: K. S.
Age and gender: 10 months, male
Family structure: Father, mother and the patient
Chief complaint: Night-time crying
Present history: No symptom appeared until 5months of age. About 7 months of age, night crying
began. The frequency was 2 to 3 times during anight. The patient kept crying for the longest timeof 20 to 30 minutes, sometimes it continued for 5minutes and stopped. At shortest, crying
continued for 5 minutes and then stopped.
Treatment
Initial visit
He was crying in the waiting room and at thetime of changing the clothes. He disliked hospitals
all the time and got scared when seeing a whiteuniform. Treatment was performed with themother holding the patient in her arms. The wholebody was rubbed and touched with Yoneyama
Gingko Leaf Shaped Shonishin.

The 2nd treatment (6th day from the first visit)
On the night of the initial treatment, thepatient fell asleep soon when the mother looked
into him crying face. Although this was repeated 2
to 3 times, he did not keep crying. From thefollowing day, he was in bed at 20:00 as usual but
cried 3 to 4 times and then stopped crying in realtime and fell into a sleep by 24:00 when parents
went to bed. The intensity of night crying
decreased as a whole. During treatment, hereceived acupuncture, lying alone on the bed
without crying.
The 3rd treatment (on the following day of theprevious treatment)
Last night, the patient easily fell asleep 19:30
earlier than usual. Although he woke up crying
twice before 24:00, the mother patted her backgently and then he stopped crying any second. In
the morning he woke up crying
twice and it
continued only for short minutes. Although thefrequency did not decrease, the intensity of crying
became weak and crying time was shortened.
During New Year days, parents were planning tostay at his grand mother’s place and worried if hewould cry violently because of a change in theenvironment. Generally he was not good at taking
the face-up position, but was not reluctant to takethe position during treatment.
The 4th treatment (14th day from the previoustreatment)
Family stayed at his grand mother’s place on
New Year days. Night crying did not occur at all.
He used to dislike being in the baby stroller but
now could have a daytime nap for the first time init. After returning home, night crying occurred
only twice - once by 24:00 and once 5:00 in themorning.
The 5th treatment (6th day from the previoustreatment)
The family stayed at his grand mother’s place

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Volume 5, Number 2 | Summer 2010

again for three days. From the night of returning
home, cough appeared. Before that, the number ofnight crying was about twice. However, he caught
a cold last night and the frequency of night crying
increased due to cough and congested nose. At thetime of vaccination in this morning, he cried out
loudly. Cold drugs were prescribed, and he was ina bad mood. Before visiting the clinic, he cried andcried out but kept quiet at the clinic.
The 6th treatment (7th day from the previoustreatment)
After the previous treatment, a fever of 38 C
degrees developed. On the following day, it
resolved spontaneously without antipyretics.
Appetite and bowel movements were returning tonormal. He was able to sleep from 20:00 at night
through to 4:00 in the following morning without
wakening up. He sometimes woke up at 24:00 but
did not scream and fell asleep.
The 7th treatment (8th day from the previoustreatment)
A cold cured two days ago. Around 12:00 of 2 to
3 days ago, he became fussy but soon fell into asleep at the mother’s breast. This was repeated 5
to 6 times during an hour. After this, he slept
through to the following morning without
wakening up. During treatment, he was in a goodmood and relaxed receiving treatment. As night
crying subsided, a two-week time interval wasallowed before the next treatment.
The 8th treatment (14th from the previoustreatment)
He woke up once before 12:00 but, after this,did not wake up until 5:00. In recent days, night
crying did not occur and he was able to sleep
straight to the following morning. Previously, inthe daytime napping, he had woken up every 30
minutes. However, often times, he was able to nap
for an hour and a half.
Treatment was completed.

14Case 2
Patient’s name: K. H.
Age and gender: 1 year and 5 months, female
Family structure: Father, mother and the patient
Chief complaint: Diarrhea and constipation
Complication:
Iron-deficiency
anemia.
Hemoglobin was in the vicinity of (Hb) 10 g/dL.
Although syrups were prescribed, she spitted out
the medicine in dislike. So the medication wassuspended for two months. While waiting for the
medical check, Shonishin was requested.
Findings: Skin dryness, red rashes around GV15,and undereye circles.
Convulsions including nervousness and shorttemperedness seldom occurred.
Treatment
At the time of the initial visit, she was scaredof the acupuncture needle and cried loudly, so that
she received Shonishin in her mother’s arms. The
dorsal region, sacral region, upper limbs, head,and posterior region of neck were lightly rubbed
and touched for about seven minutes.
The frequency of treatment was once or twice aweek. She became able to receive the thirdtreatment without crying.
Results
Immediately after the treatment, the driedskin felt to be moisturized. According to themother, on the nights of treatment and thefollowing nights, the patient fell into a deep sleep
in a short time and did not wake up till themorning. The patient received 75 times oftreatment during one year and nine months fromthe initial visit, but the patient comes to the clinic
to receive Shonishin for diarrhea or constipation.
Within several hours or on the following day after
treatment, the symptom of constipation ordiarrhea improved. Currently, the patient not in
bad condition comes to the clinic to receive
Shonishin two or three times a month for theThe Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

Volume 5, Number 2 | Summer 2010

purpose of managing the health. The blood
examination at the start of treatment indicatedHb 9.7 g/dL, Fe 13 µg/dL. One year and eightmonths later, blood levels of hemoglobin and ironincreased to Hb 13.1, Fe 74. The doctor in charge
told that no more blood examination was required
any longer.
Changes in the levels of Hb and Fe
Initial
visit

After
2 months

After
4.5 months

After13.5 months

Hb (g/dL)

9.7

10.0

11.3

13.1

Fe (µg/dL)13184174

Case 3
Patient’s name: I. K.
Age and gender: 2 years and 11 months, female
Family structure: Father, mother and the patient
Chief complaints: The patient had great
sensitivity and was full of fears. The patient often
easily got scared and cried out.
Symptoms began to develop 11 months ago.
What she scared of was anything that moved
including insects. She cried by dreaming of a scary
dream at nights. She was the type of person whoacts based on understanding and did not have afear of strangers and was affable.
Special notes: The mother was in the 9th month ofpregnancy (their second baby was expected.)
Findings: Skin temperatures of hands and legs
were high.
On the day of the initial visit, she could notenter the clinic from the door and cried refusingentering. She was scared of moving toys,
decoration dolls, everything. Her bad moodbecame a little bit better by “Anpanman.”Treatment
As the patient refused to take off the clothes,treatment was made with the clothes on for theforearms, legs, nucha, interscapular region, back,and sacral region while distracting her mind,using the tinkling bell sounding Spoon Needle. On

the day of the third treatment, she came near theclinic but could not enter. So we met the patient
there and got arm in arm to the treatment bed of
the clinic.
Results
On the 4th visit of 8th day of treatment, themother said that after the treatment of yesterday,
the patient slept well without talking in sleep.
When taking a bath, she usually had become fussy.
However, she promptly took off the clothing andtook a bath with the father. From around this time,
she became able to receive treatment withoutcrying. After that, although she had night crying,saying “ants are scary,” the frequency graduallydecreased. She had an interest in acupuncture
treatment and prefers to have it, compared toother children. Although she lived apart from themother who was in hospital for eight days before
the delivery of her sister, there was no severenight crying during the days. She had 21 times oftreatment during 7 months. After 11th treatment
onwards, the symptom of the fearful emotion wasrelieved. Currently, she receives acupuncture
treatment for the purpose of the healthmanagement including constipation.
Consideration
Case 1 describes about a mother who sufferedfrom night crying, a symptom specific to infants
and selected Shonishin. Immediately after thetreatment, the patient’s condition improved andresponses to the treatment were distinguished.
Night crying appeared intensively by the time ofthe parents going to bed. There was the possibility
that the sleeping environment of the infant wasdisturbed by the sound of parents talk and othernoise in life. It is interesting to note that when themother was a child, he was taken to receive
Shonishin by his parent. We felt that he had astronger sense of trust in acupuncture treatmentcompared to other mothers.

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Volume 5, Number 2 | Summer 2010

In Case 2, diarrhea stools changed to a solidstate on the following day without medication,
which happened several times. As regarding
constipation, we consider that the infant was at
the stage of toilet training, during which theinfant was put in the environment that easily
caused constipation. Gathering information about
the environment surrounding the infant, we used
it to make the treatment relaxing and comfortable
to the infant. As well as improvements in diarrhea
and constipation of the chief complaints,improvements in the levels of iron-deficiency
anemia (a complication) were obtained as shownin the blood examinations. The mother reported ofthese improvements to the pediatrician, who thensaid to continue acupuncture treatment.

peculiar to infants. In many cases many of theparents and grandparents who bring in theirchildren to acupuncture treatment have previous
experience receiving acupuncture treatment andfeeling its effect. We feel that the culture of eachfamily has its “family acupuncturist” to stayhealthy and promote well-being still remains withOsaka.
References
1.

BirchS.

Shonishin:Japanese

PediatricAcupuncture. Thieme. Stuttgart/New York,2011.
2. Noguchi E, Tani M. A survey of the current
status and background of acupuncture forinfants. Jpn J Orient Med. 1996; 46: 581-590.

In Case 3, the symptoms of the patient became
worse when the mother was in 9 months ofpregnancy. From this, the child was acutely awareof physical changes of the mother and this might
possibly have influence on the mind of the child. It
can be predicted that as her mind was in theunstable state, she was overly sensitive to any
sound heard and anything that moved, which was
the condition of kidney deficiency based on thetheory of Oriental Medicine. It is considered that
improvements were connected to the factors that
autonomic nervous system were influenced by theskin stimulation of Shoninshin and the childpatient became fond of visiting the clinic fortreatment, leading to the relief of stress.
We believe from the three cases that children
grow every day and at the same time spend eachday, feeling stresses in learning how to adapt tonew things, which include the change from thebaby food diet to the ordinary food diet, thetraining of diaper withdrawal, a sister’s delivery,and self-presentation to attract the parents’attention. Parents will select Shonishin that does
not use drugs as a means of appeasing symptoms

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The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)