Impetigo

Impetigo is a contagious, blistery, skin disease which is mostly seen in children. From
the Western medical point of view, it is due to a bacterial infection. It is characterized
by clusters of red water blisters mostly occurring on the arms, legs, and face. When
the blisters break, they ooze a thin, honey-colored fluid which, when it dries, forms
crusts around the lesions. Because of this yellow-colored exudate, impetigo is
traditionally called "yellow fluid sores" or "pus-dripping sores" in Chinese. This
disease mostly occurs in the summertime.

In Chinese medicine, this disease is mainly due to damp heat attacking and
accumulating in the skin. Therefore, it typically occurs during seasons or in locales
where there is a preponderance of dampness and heat, such as the summer. Although
this disease is seen as an invasion of external dampness and heat, children with a
propensity to be damp and hot internally are more susceptible to this condition, and
dampness and heat accumulate internally in children primarily due to their weak
spleens and faulty diet. Therefore, in order to prevent your child from contracting
impetigo, it is important to foster a healthy spleen and to promote a clear, bland diet.
One can fortify the spleen by doing daily infant massage as described above. A clear,
bland diet of primarily cooked foods, low in fats and greases and low in sugars and
sweets, both fortifies the spleen and helps to prevent the accumulation of dampness
and heat internally.
If your child does "catch" impetigo, it is important that the lesions be lightly covered
with a gauze bandage, since the lesions will spread wherever the yellowish fluids
touch. This means that other children should not come in physical contact with either
the lesions themselves or the suppurative fluid. It also means that the child must be
kept from scratching these lesions. If the lesions are touched, one should immediately
wash.
Since impetigo often occurs secondary to scratching a small cut or insect bite with
dirty hands, children should be taught to wash their hands frequently and also not to
scratch small cuts and bites, since this may lead to infection.

Chinese medicine treats this condition through the internal administration of various
herbal decoctions. For instance, your practitioner may choose to use versions of either
Qing Pi Chu Shi Yin (Clear the Spleen & Eliminate Dampness Drink) or Er Miao San
(Two Wonders Powder). The practitioner will vary these prescriptions depending
upon the exact location of the lesions, their physical appearance, and other factors,
such as itching. In addition, your practitioner will also probably prescribe a Chinese
herbal wash or lotion. If the lesions are weeping and flowing, it is important not to use
an oil-based ointment. This can trap the dampness and heat in the skin and actually
cause the lesions to spread and worsen.

In terms of Chinese dietary therapy, a dilute soup or porridge made out of mung beans
is useful to help clear damp heat from the child's system. This can be given
preventively during hot damp summer weather or remedially if your child develops
this condition. Another possibility is to feed your child a dilute porridge made out of
Job's tears barley. This is also called Coix by Western practitioners and is available at
both health food and Oriental specialty food stores.
If this condition becomes chronic, the scaly, sticky lesions may cover large areas
which then do not easily heal. Accompanying symptoms include thirst but no
particular desire to drink, fatigue, possible shortness of breath, restlessness, disturbed
sleep, a light red tongue with thin or scanty coating, and a fine pulse. These signs and
symptoms are due to prolonged dampness and heat damaging the qi and yin of the
body. Thus there is a combination of lingering damp heat mixed with yin and qi
deficiency. Although this may sound bad, the good news is that this is exactly the
kind of condition that Chinese medicine excels at treating. When this pattern appears,
your child's practitioner will want to prescribe a combination of Chinese herbs which
supplement the qi and fortify the spleen at the same time as enriching yin and clearing
and eliminating dampness and heat. For instance, they may choose to prescribe some
version of Shen Qi Zhi Mu Tang (Codonopsis, Astragalus & Anemarrhena
Decoction).