STEPHEN LEWIS picks up a few scraps of ancient Chinese wisdom about how to make sure your child stays healthy and happy.

IF you suddenly found yourself in the middle of a group of people animatedly discussing the properties of wood, fire, earth, metal and water, you could be forgiven for thinking you'd stumbled on a convention of gardeners or a meeting of the York Geographical Society.

But if your companions were mainly young mums and the person doing most of the talking was June Tranmer, you'd be mistaken.

The five 'elements' above are the basis of traditional Chinese medicine - and if you go down to the Healing Clinic in Fulford Cross on a Monday afternoon, June will be more than happy to show you how to apply some of the principals to help protect your children from the common illnesses of childhood.

According to the theory, people fall into categories associated with the five elements.

If you're a 'wood' person, you might tend to have a temper and to suffer from wind and liver or gall bladder problems (though not so much in children).

If you're a fire child, you'll be light-hearted and joyful, but may have problems with heart and circulation. Earth people are staunch, but may have problems with their digestion, while metal types could have lung problems and very dry skins. When it comes to water children, meanwhile, the problems are likely to be with bladder and kidneys.

Water is also the element associated with fearfulness or the lack of it - important in children. Too little of the water element and your child may be a bit timid: too much and they may be reckless.

Most people tend to have a little bit of each element in their makeup, June says, though one or two elements will normally be dominant. Good health is about achieving a 'balance'. Too much fire and you may have high blood pressure - too little, and you may be sluggish and lacking in energy.

Don't let the Chinese philosophy put you off, because you don't necessarily have to buy into it to get some benefit from June's classes. The secret to achieving a balance of the elements, June says, is mainly diet. And her classes are basically the application of good common sense principles to the health of your children.

As the mother of two teenagers herself, she remembers what it was like to be a young mum faced with a sick child - and to not know whether it was serious or not.

"I did make some major goofs myself!" she jokes. "But you learn by your mistakes."

Her course aims to give parents confidence in dealing with minor childhood ailments. She's a qualified acupuncturist - but promises that she won't be expecting mums and dads to stick needles in their children. Instead, over the next few weeks, she'll be taking parents through a series of simple techniques for helping their children stay healthy.

As well as diet, they will include how to use roasted salt for earache, the use of 'pressure cups' to improve circulation and fight minor infection, and massage techniques to strengthen digestion and help with diarrhoea.

There will also be a cure for warts using moxa (chopped mugwort) or grapefruit seed extracts and tips on how to use 'rescue remedies' based on flower essences for everything from bleeding to shock.

"It's not about preventing illness totally," she says. "It's about helping our kids get through illness as best we can. It's about bringing back all the home nursing skills that people used to have, and helping parents feel less panicky and nervous when their kids get these minor illnesses."

Importantly, she stresses that if your child is really ill, it is important to seek professional medical help. Part of her course in fact will be devoted to recognising when something more serious is wrong with your child, so that you do need to seek proper help.

Mum Nicola Holmes was among those who turned up for the first week of June's eleven-week course - and she's all for learning a few home nursing skills.

"The typical kind of support network that our parents had is not there for us now if you live away from your parents," says the mum-of-two, who lives in York's Tadcaster Road area. "So I'm just hoping I will learn a few alternative ways of dealing with common, everyday illnesses that children get."

Best of all, Nicola says, the Monday afternoon classes include use of a creche for one-year-old Megan - and because they run from 12.30-2.30pm she finishes in plenty of time to pick up four-year-old Hannah from school.

u The Traditional Remedies for Modern Children classes run until Monday April 2. You should be able to pick up the course at any point along the way. Classes cost £5 a session. For more details call the Healing Clinic on 01904 679868.