The manipulation in which the manipulator holds the patient’s skin and some subcutaneous tissues and pulls them up with the thumb and other fingers is called pinching. The pinching is often applied to the bilateral sides of the infant’s spine. Pinching has two different manipulating manners.
 
1. Pinching with Thumb and Index Finger
The infant patient lies prostrately to relax the muscles on the back. The manipulator uses the the radial aspect of the middle knuckle of the flexed index finger to touch the infant’s skin of the bilateral sides of the spine, then moves the thumb forward so as to press the skin and pinches it with the thumb and the index finger. As the skin is pinched, the manipulator pulls it up and then lets it off. This movement is manipulated alternately by the two hands from the point Guiwei (GVl) to the point Dazhui (GVl4) (Fig 93, Fig 94). Click to learn Causes of Stomachache in TCM.

2. Pinching with the Thumb, Index and Middle Fingers
The infant’s posture is the same as the above. With the radial sides of the thumbs putting close to the infant’s skin of the bilateral sides of the spine and the index and middle fingers moving forward to press the skin, the manipulator pinches the skin between the thumb and the other two fingers, then pulls it up, and then lets it off. The two hands move forward alternately(Fig 95, Fig 96)．

The indications of pinching spine is very broad, and it is more frequently applied in Infantile Tuina．It is generally believed that pinching spine inclines to nourishing and invigorating, and has the actions of balancing Yin and Yang, fortifying the spleen and harmonizing the stomach, and strengthening the body resistanice. Therefore, it is applied to treat infantile malnutrition, indigestion, diarrhea, vomiting and poor health condition. It is also applied to treat adult’s diseases such as digestive tract disorders, irregular menstruation, dysmenorrhoea, insomnia, etc. Click to learn Chinese medicine Treatment for Stomachache.
 
Besides, there’s a kind of pinching in orthopedic manipulations as well (Fig 97), which refers to that the manipulator squeezes the limb with his palms oppositely to make the pieces of broken bone close up to the longitudinal axis. It is suitable for correcting fractures such as comminuted fracture, long oblique fracture and long spiral fracture．The two pinchings are different in manipulation but with the same name in Chinese, therefore they should be distinguished from each other.