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Nicholas came to see me at seven weeks old. His mother told me
that he was a “total fusspot.” That was an understatement.
He had to be held all day or he would scream as if he were in pain.
He liked to be held over the shoulder and walked around. He could
not rest. He would sleep for only 10 or 15 minutes and would wake
screaming.
Nicholas’s mother told me that he cried constantly, to the
point of holding his breath. “He is very difficult to soothe
once he begins crying,” she said, “and we can’t
figure out what is wrong. He looks very fearful all the time and
he also looks angry. He doesn’t like to be touched, have his
diaper changed, or be bathed. He seems scared and nervous. He’s
jumpy and easily startled. He can’t seem to quiet himself.
Sucking his thumb seems to help; but if you try to offer him his
thumb—because it’s the only thing we’ve found
that soothes him—he’ll fight you.” She also reported
that he had gas and belched; it appeared to me to be gastro-esophageal
reflux.
Like mother like son
Inconsolable crying with gas is a very common complaint of newborns.
Because infants can communicate only through crying and other body
language, my cardinal rule in such cases is to take the case of
the mother. I have found that understanding the state of the mother
at conception and during the pregnancy and delivery is often crucial
to finding the remedy for the child.
Farokh Master in his book Clinical Observations of Children’s
Remedies states: “Most of the illnesses seen in a child
in the initial few years of his life are directly or indirectly
linked to the mother’s physical and emotional states during
conception, pregnancy, and labor.” After hearing the mother’s
story of how Nicholas came into the world, his very angry and very
fearful state made perfect sense to me.
Taking the mother’s case
“He was a surprise conception,” Nicholas’s mother
told me. “My first child was only seven months old. I was
in shock. I can’t stand being pregnant. I was so uncomfortable.
I just wanted to get him out. I had lesions on the placenta. I have
a condition that causes me to have an increased tendency to clot.
During the pregnancy I was told that I could have a stroke and die.
It was horrendous. Initially, there was a lot of fear. I thought
I was going to lose the baby and die. I felt guilty that I had caused
this somehow.
“At one point, the sonogram showed something wrong with
the baby’s heart,” Nicholas’s mother continued.
“I left the doctor’s office hysterical. Did I cause
this? Did I do something wrong? When my first child, Rachel, was
born, we were elated. But with Nicholas, we were feeling, ‘Oh,
my God, how are we going to do this? It’s going to be so hard
because my daughter needs so much attention.’ Nicholas didn’t
exactly get the welcome wagon.”
Nicholas was born three-and-a-half weeks prematurely and was struggling
at birth with low oxygen and low blood sugar. His mother said, “When
I saw him in the neonatal intensive care unit with all those wires
in him I was thinking, ‘What did I do to my baby? I wished
to get him out of me and now look what happened!’”
A likely remedy
At first blush and upon observing the infant, I thought that he
needed Chamomilla based on his symptoms: anger with a red
face; being easily frightened; inconsolable; irritable on waking;
and shrieking with pain. I prescribed Chamomilla 30C, one dose,
and told Nicholas’s mom to call me in the morning.
“The crossest child”
Nicholas’s mother telephoned me the next day saying that
he had not gotten much relief with the Chamomilla. “He’s
so cross that he’s almost mean,” she added.
This made me think of the homeopathic remedy, Cina.
Murphy’s
Lotus Materia Medica describes the Cina state
of mind as, “Very cross, dissatisfied, very touchy, petulant,
nervous. Unreal feeling of having done something wrong.”
Sankaran in his book The Soul of Remedies mentions the
close alliance between Chamomilla and Cina: “The main feeling
in both of these remedies is that they are not getting enough attention
from their parents.”
Chitkara’s Materia Medica of the Mind mentions
the following Cina rubrics that describe Nicholas’s mother’s
state well: “Ailments from anger,” “Ailments from
fright,” and “Anxiety of conscience, as if guilty of
a crime.”
Homeopaths have touted Cina as one of the “crossest”
remedy pictures. Lippe said, “There is no child more contemptible
than the Cina child; he is easily excited; weak; screams, strikes,
and bites; is cross and obstinate.” And Morrison has described
Cina as, “About the worst child …”
A complete transformation
So I prescribed Cina 30C and it did the trick! Nicholas’s
mother reported: “I gave him one dose of Cina 30C, and he
was better immediately—his mood, his sleeping, everything.
A complete transformation! It’s a miracle! You are my angel.
Thank you, thank you!” He never needed another dose of Cina.
It never ceases to amaze me what we learn about the unknown and
particularly about the state of the fetus in utero. Our thoughts
and perceptions are clearly transmitted, as Nicholas’ mother’s
emotional state of fear was transferred to Nicholas. It certainly
bears further investigation into the fascinating world of conception
and pregnancy. Taking a good case of both mother and child can reveal
issues present in the child long before they have a chance to become
pathology.
Seven months later, Nicholas is a happy, smiling baby who sleeps
well and is a pleasure to his family. He never got into that Cina
state again. This is even more evidence that his emotional state
at birth was not his true constitutional state.
Homeopathy has much to offer in the field of pediatrics. The transformation
seen in young Nicholas shows, once again, that homeopathy is a many
splendored thing.
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Nancy Gahles,
DC, CCH, RSHom(NA), is a chiropractor who has been in practice for
23 years. She is a Certified Classical Homeopath with offices in
Manhattan and Belle Harbor, NY. Dr. Gahles is the Director of Health
and Harmony Wellness Education, providing consultations and workshops
on Complementary and Integrative Medicine. She is a health and science
columnist for The Wave, Rockaway’s newspaper. She may be reached
at askDrNancy@aol.com.
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