Deficiency, cold and stasis should be discriminated from one another in the syndrome differentiation of scleredema neonatorum. Deficiency refers to insufficiency of yang qi of the spleen and kidney; cold to attack by exogenous pathogenic cold; stasis to unsmooth circulation of qi and blood. Deficiency, cold and stasis do not always remain unchanged. They often transform into one another. Yang deficiency is susceptible to attack by cold, the yin pathogen; pathogenic cold severely impairs yang qi of the spleen and kidney while yang deficiency causes unsmooth blood circulation due to coagulation of cold, resulting in obstructive circulation of qi and blood.

Severe symptoms of ice-cold of infantile general body, motionless lying in bed and extremely poor reaction belong to yang qi deficiency of the spleen and kidney in most cases; mild symptoms of decent reaction, cold body, cold limbs and sclerema of skin and muscle mostly pertain to the syndrome of unsmooth blood circulation due to cold coagulation.