Small botches on the whites of the eyes

Blue/grey splotches on the whites of the eyes generally have little or no clinical significance. As we age the sclera thins naturally and will in some people allow some different colors to come through. In western terms this may be indicated as a "scleral plaque". From a western perspective there is nothing that needs to be done should they arise.

In Chinese Medicine the eyes have strong relationships with both the liver and kidney meridians. Generally liver patterns involve redness, dryness, or some kind of heat involved pathology and kidney patterns may be due to general age or a deficiency that has developed from illness or trauma. You can see the most basic eye patterns on the "ten questions" page.

As always you -never- use one symptom to form a diagnosis within Chinese medical terms. So if you take into consideration the eye issues (i.e. KD and/or LV patterns) and then perform all of the other TCM diagnostic procedures you will fall into a pattern that you can treat. You could of course consider adding eye related points such as those that are listed in the acupuncture for eye and vision disorders treatment page should they fit within the diagnostic pattern.

I'm sorry to hear that you are having such a rough time with your child. Pediatric ezcema can certainly be tricky and treating younger children with acupuncture and herbs can also be difficult depending on the practitioner and the techniques they use. The vast majority of children that come into our clinic love the experience, but you certainly have to read each one and ease them into it at times. If you ignore their hesitations you are likely to make them biased against the treatments which seems to have happened here.

A couple questions, one - have you tried standard western treatments? I'm curious if he responds to them and to what degree if so. Have you tried the use of probiotics? There are studies that show some effectiveness in pediatric ezcema and the treatment is widely used in europe.

With regards to TCM theory, acupuncture, and herbs, I have a few things to say. First, I'm not sure how your son was administered herbs but if it was raw herbs as teas it's no surprise that he won't take them. They generally taste horrible and even for adults it can be difficult to get them to take them regularly. There is a standard "patent" remedy for eczema which may be what you tried already - but it comes in pill form and may be easier to take. It is hua she jie yang wan. You can find online suppliers yourself, but he should probably only use it at the advice of someone who has actually seen him.

For acupressure, I would focus on the following areas:

The huatuo area (just next to the spine on either side) of T1, T2, T3, T4, and on the right side of T7, LI 11, SP 10, SP 6. This comes from the Tam Healing System that I primarily utilize. To explain briefly, T1, 2, and 3 are for the immune system overall (bone marrow, thymus gland, and lung and lymph systems respectively), T4 controls the breasts, sweat glands, and hair follicles (useful for any skin conditions), T7 on the right innervates the abdmonial blood vessels (useful for any condition related to blood issues - both western and TCM). We often use Tong Ren Therapy on Children (well everyone, but with Children it is a good choice) and this is the energy healing part of the healing system (we would needle, perform tuina, and use qi gong all on the same points). Tong Ren is something you could learn (it's very easy) and perform that on him a few times a week. There are books listed in our store (with excerpts) and some videos in the Tong Ren video section. In my experience no child has ever been bothered by Tong Ren, they are more intriqued if anything and they often make good practitioners as well.

The only other thing that I would mention is that we do not firmly believe in the Candida syndrome and a child is not very likely to be "toxic" even with exposure to western medications and the like. So I would restrict certain foods based on the TCM principles your doctor recommended and, of course, have him try to eat healthy - but children need a range of food and they need to develop an enjoyment for it as well. I wouldn't be too hard on him in the dietary arena. Let him make choices and watch what he likes and dislikes for clues as to what is best for him. In my experience more people develop allergies and/or immune issues from restricted diets than those that are helped. That's just my opinion though...