Syndrome differentiation and treatment
The therapeutic principle for treating anorexia mainly lies in regulating the spleen to improve digestion. The principles such as activating the spleen, nourishing the stomach, invigorating the spleen, may also be applied to treat the disease according to the differences of syndromes.

1. Splenic dysfunction in transportation
Main symptoms and signs: Poor appetite, ingestion without taste, aversion to feeding, eructation, nausea, chest distress, epigastric fullness, unsmooth defecation, light-red tongue with whitish or thin and greasy fur, soft and slow pulse.
Therapeutic methods: Regulating the spleen to promote transportation and transformation, inducing appetite and digestion.

2. Deficiency of the stomach yin
Main symptoms and signs: Poor appetite, dry mouth with preference to drink, dry skin, constipation, scanty and dark urine, dysphoria with insomnia in some infants, feverish palms and soles, red tongue with little fluid, a little or peeled fur or and thready pulse.
Therapeutic methods: Nourishing yin to benefit the stomach, supplemented by promoting transportation and transformation.

3. Qi deficiency of the speen and stomach
Main symptoms and signs: Poor appetite without desire for speaking, lustreless or sallow complexion, emaciation, profuse stool with undigested food, enlarged and tender tongue with pale colour, whitish and thin fur, slow and feeble pulse.
Therapeutic methods: Strengthening the spleen to benefit qi, supplemented by promoting transportation and transformation.