Chaihu Huanglian Wan for Deficiency-Heat Night Sweats in Children

Chaihu Huanglian Wan (Bupleurum-Coptis Pill) comes from "Xiao'er Weisheng Zongwei Lun" (General Treatise on Infantile Health). The formula contains equal parts of Chaihu (Bupleurum root) and Huhuanglian (Chinese Phellodendron rhizome). Preparation: grind the two herbs into an extremely fine powder, mix with refined honey into a paste, and form into pills the size of Gordon euryale seeds. Take 1-2 pills twice daily. If making pills is bothersome, you can buy empty capsule shells online on Taobao, grind the herbs into powder, fill the capsules, and give them to the child; a child may resist drinking the powder directly.

This formula releases the muscle layer and clears heat. It treats infantile tidal fever and night sweats. Tidal fever and night sweats are common pediatric complaints with many treatments; the most commonly used are Liuwei Dihuang Wan or Zhibai Dihuang Wan, but these patent medicines do not work for every child.

In Chaihu Huanglian Wan, Chaihu disperses wind-heat, while Huhuanglian depletes deficiency heat, accumulative (gan) heat, and damp-heat, and is good at treating bone-steaming night sweats. The two-herb combination is very simple but well-targeted; it is indeed suited to persistent deficiency heat and bone-steaming night sweats in children after infection.

During the three years of the pandemic, everyone wore masks and blocked out common pathogens, leaving little chance for people to train their immune systems through infection with ordinary, low-harm pathogens. Immunity declined across the population, which is the main reason this winter's pediatric infections have been so hard to handle. Some children improve after treatment but develop various sequelae, among which spontaneous sweating and night sweats are common. If such sweating is present, the sweat-stopping formulas I have introduced recently may be tried.

If the child also has dry mouth and cough, this formula may be used together with the patent medicine Maxing Zhike Pian (Ephedra-Apricot-Cough Tablet). One may also brew 3-5 thin hooks of Gouteng (Uncaria) and 0.5-1 g of Bohe (mint) as tea to wash down the pills.

By the way, I see many people still wearing masks, and small children are bundled up tightly. This may better protect children in the short term, but in the long run it does them no good. Unless a child is exceptionally frail, masks should not be worn constantly. Sealing out every pathogen is not ideal; the human immune system was trained by infection with common, low-harm viruses and bacteria. If masks are worn continuously, it hinders the development of the child's own immunity.