Your Child’s First Acupuncture Appointment
Acupuncture is helpful for just about everyone and that includes children. Parents often overlook alternative medicinal treatments such as acupuncture, but it can really help a child. There are a few reasons why many acupuncturists refuse to treat anybody under the age of 18. For one, their bodies are not fully developed. Acupuncture can be equally helpful to children as it is to adults, but since their bodies are different, the whole procedure must be altered to match. Because of this, many acupuncturists who don’t specialize in children refuse to work with them. This is why some actually specialize in acupuncture for children.
Many children and adults are completely scared of needle. So, while it can be spread out through ages, it is mainly children who are afraid of needles. But the thing with acupuncture needles is that they are incredibly thin - barely larger than a human strand of hair - and they are inserted very delicately into the top layers of skin, not triggering much or any pain. It stimulates more than it hurts, and it does that in a good way.
It’s like a massage: someone beating onto your back would normally seem obscene, but in an environment where it’s practiced professionally and differently than just a punch into your back, it’s soothing and relaxing (Note: massaging consists mostly of rubs and the like, but we were making a comparison in this case).
So, the first main step in preparing your child for acupuncture is describing to them how it’s controlled, safe, and how small the needle is. Thinking from a child’s perspective, there are billions of hairs in your head, and if you pluck one out, it really doesn’t hurt that bad. Acupuncture can’t really hurt all that much more.
We believe that one of the main issues other than the needle itself is that the child is not controlling the needle. Inflicting pain upon oneself puts you in a more stable mindset, where you control what’s happening. But when somebody else is doing something to you which you believe will inflict pain, it’s a more tense feeling when you don’t know when it will happen.
This is a hard one to communicate, but maybe explain to them how the person is a trained professional. Plus, since the acupuncturist specializes in children, he will probably tell them when he’s making the first few insertions to familiarize them with the feeling and put them at ease. This is not necessary most of the time, as they can insert needles without the child even knowing that it’s happening, which may be even more calming.
“When will it happen?”
“It already has: three times.”
The lack of pain in those previous moments will really help put their minds at ease. All in all, acupuncture can be just as helpful to a child as it can be to an adult: it’s just a little more difficult to have a child lay down and wait for needles to poke into him or her.
