Volume 3, Number 1 | Spring 2008

Clinical Report 2 (Japan)
Infant Crying at Night
Zen’ichiro Watanabe
Fuji Niko-Niko Clinic

Case: One year and two months old, male infant,weight 9.8 kg

patient with weak spleen and stomach (digestivefunction) was involved in his mother’s mental stress,inducing him to feel anxious and start crying atnight. The treatment was made to recover thespleen and stomach with shokenchuto and toalleviate anxiety with kambakutaisoto. The author
also

Main complaint: Night crying
Past history & Birth history: Unremarkable
Present history: Two months ago, the patient began
to cry weakly and quietly three to four times during
the night. When picked up in mother’s arms and fed
with breast milk, he falls back to sleep. However, assoon as he is left on the bed, he starts crying. So themother stays up to hold him up. Although baby foodhas been introduced since he was 5 months old, heconsideredthat

ingredients

withhighsweetness in these formulas of malt sugar, Chinesedate, and licorice root acted to ease tension.
From the standpoint of Chinese medicine, thepatient type is deficiency-cold in the spleen andstomach and susceptible to negative emotions. Coldin the abdomen of such type of infants congeals,
leading to qi stagnation, thus causing abdominal
pain based on the principle of “qi blockage causes

eats so little with a little weight gain.

pain. Furthermore, as cold belongs to yin, it tends toOriental medical findingor transportation and transformation of spleen qi[Inspection] Physical constitution: On the slim side,lack of energy with an anxious impression. Tongue:
Pale white.

often cause throwing up milk, diarrhea, eating solittle. The sound of crying is weak due to yangdeficiency, which is treated by warming the spleen
and[Listening] No special mention[Interview] Stools: Slightly loose. Mother: Looked alittle tired and frustrated.
[Palpation] Abdominal region: Distended withslightly strained rectus muscles and a slight senseof coldness. Pulse: Weak.
Diagnosis: Night crying due to heart-spleen (mentalstatus-digestive function) vacuity.
Therapy: shokenchuto (morning and evening) andkambakutaisoto (instructed same dosage for motherand the child before bedtime.)
Course: The night crying reduced to once on thethird day of the administration, and he could eat up.
Since the 7th days he has stopped crying. In theinterview of a later date, it was found that themother had felt mother-in-law stress. After thetreatment, the mother could have room to breatheand did not feel uneasy with every word hermother-in-law spoke. Her complexion has becomebright.
Discussion: The author considered that the infant

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become worse during the night. Reduced movement

dissipating

coldwithformulas

suchasshokenchuto and ninjinto.
Patients having anxiety are sensitive to even asmall change in their environment and readily
recognize that they are separated from their mother,a safety zone for them. And this kind of separation
becomes quite a burden to such infants, who thensuddenly start crying. Therefore, for the reasons
above, such infants as the subject patient, who lookasleep in the arms of their mothers, start crying assoon as mothers put them into bed. Complexion has
little color due to anxiety. For these patients,
treatment is performed aiming to induce sedationand tranquillization (settle fright and quiet thespirit) using sansoninto, kambakutaisoto, andkeishikaryukotsuboreito.
We have studied other 11 cases of infants crying
at night. For night crying caused by physicaldisorders such as pharyngitis, tympanititis, nasal
stuffiness, asthma, itchy skin, or constipation,

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

Volume 3, Number 1 | Spring 2008

treatments for symptoms were performed withkakkontokasenkyushin’i,
makyokansekito, hangekobokuto, shofusan, andogikenchuto. For termination of breastfeeding, foodformulassuchasstagnation, and infants who always wanted to be in
the mother’s arms (high need baby), lifestyle
guidance was given to the mothers.
For the infants of the spleen-heart deficiency typethat had influences on the heart qi causing shallow
sleep, difficulty falling sleep, lack of energy, andpoor appetite with nervous temperament, and softstools, formulas such as kihito and kamikihito wereadministeredtoinvigorate

thespleen(digestive-function) and calm the mind. For theinfants of the exuberance type of heart-liver fire,
who got excited after a parenting school or a festival,and had the heat qi overly agitated by theaccumulation of sweet, hot, and rich taste food,causing them to keep awake, moving around even in
the midnight and to cry in a loud voice, and in a
louder voice in the light, and for infants who werered-faced and had constipation, treatment wasmade to clear the heated heart (exited emotion) andclam

themindwith

formulassuchasryutanshakanto,
saikokaryukotsuboreito,
orengedokuto, and yokukansan. For those with yin
deficiency in the liver and kidney who got easily
angered and could not sleep due to a sense ofexaltation, yin was nourished with rokumigan andseishinrenshiin.
In diagnosing infants, physicians should know not
only the patients conditions, but also the mothers(family) conditions and the relationship between theinfants and mothers (family). In most cases infants
night crying is often triggered by their sensing
abnormal conditions of the mother, and thus
treatments are necessary for both infant patientsand the mothers and how to take the same herbal
medicine at the same time is effective.

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

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