This is quite a difficult one to answer for two reasons:
- although the BAcC does not yet recognise standards of specialist qualification, there is a growing number of members who spend their time working with particular groups of patients, such as children or pregnant women, and who undertake further training directly related to these groups. While the acupuncture used to treat most 'special' groups is identical to any other kind of treatment, a strong case is currently being made that there are variations in standard patterns of treatment when dealing with the under 5's in particular. However, as a profession we are committed to generalist practise, and are still debating whether to allow people to claim expertise in any one field, so we would not normally be able to cherrypick a number of members in an area based on informal knowledge of their focus.
- although chinese herbal medicine is often used very successfully alongside, or sometimes instead of, acupuncture in the treatment of chronic skin problems, we are not in a position to comment on how suitable herbal medicine might be for a two-year old.
So, our best recommendation is that you contact some of the BAcC members local to you and ask if any have had further training in paediatric acupuncture and have dealt with this problem before, or perhaps google 'treating children with acupuncture north surrey' to generate a list of people who have undertaken further training. There are also a small number of well-known course providers whose websites often list members who have undertaken further postgraduate trainiing in paediatrics.
It may also be worth contacting the Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine (http://www.rchm.co.uk/) to ask its view of whether herbal treatment is suitable for infants. There is no doubt that the regularity and frequency of treatment may be beneficial in maintaining a momentum which weekly or bi-weekly acupuncture treatments may not match.
