Homeopathy and Children

Kelly, avid reader of “Homeopathy 4 Everyone”, the hpathy.com monthly ezine, writes:

“Please write an article about homeopathy and children. I’ve told all my parent-friends about it and I’d like to have something to show them!!!!!!”

To which I replied, “Okay!!!  Sheesh!!!”

But seriously, let me just begin by saying, I don’t know what parents do without homeopathy, I really don’t, my heart goes out to them! My daughter, Shana, is now 12 as of this writing. She’s never swallowed a pill or had an injection in her life!  In fact, the only doctor she’s ever been to was an MD homeopath–two of them, but only one actually prescribed and cured her of two really bad illnesses: one flu and one strep throat.  That was Dr. Sarah Fisher.

Shana has definitely had her share of flus, colds, coughs, injuries and even strep throat as I said. Thank goodness there has always been homeopathy during these emergencies–and for those of you who don’t know, homeopathic remedies are little sugar pills that melt in your mouth and inexplicably do magic!

Even just this morning while getting ready for school, Shana was acting strange–sitting on the “potty” after her shower (I can’t believe I’m still saying “potty”!), which never happened before so it drew my attention, and finally she admitted to having stomach pains. Knowing there was something “going around” at school, I told her to get back into bed and I gave her Arsenicum 200C, because I suspected a gastro-intestinal flu. I went out to breakfast and told her to call me if she needed me. When I came home, she was at the computer–her favorite seat in the house!–and completely back to normal!

While I was in the restaurant, I, myself, had begun to experience a sudden “sinking feeling” and I thought, “Oh no, not me too!” I opened my homeopathic first aid kit and pulled out our popular flu remedy, Gelsemium, and popped a few pellets in my mouth. I recovered immediately! This is what life is like in the homeopathic household–uneventful!

I’ll give you another story! The other day I tripped over the recycling bags in the kitchen and fell on my knee, which Shana found amusing! I knew I’d be in for swelling and pain, but, I had neither because I immediately took Arnica, our main injury remedy right away, and kept right on going!

Homeopathic remedies taste good and children like them; so do animals. When I think back on Shana’s health history, I think back to her being 2 years old and eating pretzels for the first time; a food she wasn’t accustomed to. The poor thing, she threw up–I don’t know how many times! When she asked for cold water, I knew right away what the remedy was–Phosphorus! ONE DOSE of Phosphorus 30X, and she fell asleep–immediately–like seconds later (it was bedtime)!. I went to Murphy’s Materia Medica and looked up Phosphorus. Aside from it’s well-known symptom, “Craves cold drinks”, I also found, “Bad effects of eating too much salt.” The salt, of course! Salted pretzals, I should have known!

I think of when Shana was four years old. God only knows what was wrong with her but she had thrown up 5 times in one morning! I called her doctor. He had absolutely no clue, saying something like, “Well, I’m sure her body is doing the right thing….”  What???  He was no help at all! I went to my homeopathic Repertory (book of symptoms) and the remedy Nux Vomica seemed to be indicated. I gave her one dose and a few minutes later she announced, “Mommy, I’m not throwing off anymore!”

Earaches in the middle of the night? A dose of Pulsatilla or Chamomilla depending on the symptoms and it’s back to sleep for everyone! And Belladonna?  I don’t know how many fevers Belladonna has made fast work of!

Put simply, there aren’t too many emergencies around here. Or maybe I should say that what would be emergencies in other people’s houses are dealt with quickly here and then forgotten!

I remember Shana’s mosquito bite rash from last summer–totally resolved in one day with Caladium!

I have a 2 year old client right now who is recovering–thanks to homeopathic Sulphur–from the worst case of constipation I’ve ever seen in my life! This child screamed whenever she had to sit on the potty, and actually tried NOT to go! If you look in the Homeopathic Medical Repertory under “Rectum, constipation”, you’ll see the following rubric, or heading: “constipation painful, compels child to desist from effort,” with Sulphur being the highest-rated among three remedies, so with that, I recommended Sulphur. Unexpected benefits from Sulphur were: the child no longer cried at bedtime, no longer cried in the car, no longer cried after day care, no longer was afraid of animals or moving toys like cars, no longer perspired profusely at night, no longer woke up to drink water, and now plays by herself without insisting that her mother watch her. Well, seriously, what Rx drug can do this as a “side effect”?

On a more serious note, there are children with REAL behavior problems!  Oh yes, you know who they are, and homeopathy works for these too! Take a look at a remedy like Tarentula Hispanica; here’s what Dr. Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman had to say about it in her book Ritalin-Free Kids:

“Tarentula children have rhythm. Their active, climbing, jumping restlessness mimics animal behavior. They love music and rhythmic activities like dancing, tapping or drumming and it soothes them. Cunning and mischievous, they play tricks on their parents and other children, tell lies and love to hide. They are very hurried and impatient. Often destructive, they have to be watched very closely as they are capable of breaking anything they get their hands on. They are very impulsive and distractible. Twitching and jerking of the muscles is a common symptom….They can have tantrums and fits….” Dr. Reichenberg-Ullman describes one two year old Tarentula patient thusly, “She fought for hours against going to sleep…in a frenzy every night…she screamed at the top of her lungs during most of our interview…she had a habit of throwing herself on the floor when unhappy…she had not gotten one good night’s sleep since birth.” I suspect the parents hadn’t either! Five weeks after being given Tarentula Hispanica, the mother reported, “Angela no longer has tantrums and extreme moodiness, just the odd two-year-old stuff.” What can standard medicine do for children like these other than give Ritalin?  And then as soon as you stop the drug, the behavior is back!

Some of you will no doubt say, “If homeopathy is so great, how come my doctor doesn’t know about it?  Why don’t the hospitals know about it?” In other parts of the world, doctors do know about it, and it’s even commonplace in such countries as England, where the Queen and the whole royal family use homeopathy! Prince Charles carries a homeopathic first aid kit with him–so does Paul McCartney!

It’s only in the United States where people seem to be so ignorant of this healing modality–which makes no sense to me because there is a strong history of homeopathy here in the United States.  There used to be homeopathic hospitals and  medical schools everywhere!  Some very famous people were supporters of homeopathy including Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Jack London, William Lloyd Garrison, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, Emerson and Thoreau–it’s starting to look like your high school reading list, isn’t it?

The homeopathic medical schools were the first ones to accept minorities and women.  The first X-ray machine was in a homeopathic hospital.  Many famous medical schools were originally homeopathic, such as Standford.  The founder of AA was a homeopath.  Dr. Menninger of the Menninger Clinic was a homeopath.  In my own city of Philadelphia, Hahnemann Hospital was homeopathic until the mid-fifties.  What happened????  The conservatives won like they always do!  They have their big bags of money and campaign contributions to throw around; big Pharma felt threatened….  Everyone knows there isn’t a day that goes by that our vitamins aren’t threatened, that alternative cancer treatments aren’t being run out of the country…. They’re even genetically modifying foods now so that they don’t make seeds, meaning if you want to grow the crop you have to go to Monsanto every year and buy the seeds from them, it’s evil!  It’s the same old story.  Homeopathy threatens the hegemony of big Pharma, and that’s all there is to that; but that doesn’t mean that YOU have to miss out on the benefits of this easy and freeing system of medicine.  Homeoapthy:  get to know us!  Start by purchasing an acute prescribing book, like this one:  Homeopathy: An a-z Home Handbook by Alan Schmukler.  Click here to see it at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Homeopathy-Home-Handbook-Alan-Schmukler/dp/0738708739/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279550236&sr=8-1#_

So, there you have it, Kelly, Homeopathy and Children!

Elaine Lewis

Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom Elaine is a passionate homeopath, helping people offline as well as online. Contact her at LEWRA@aol.com Elaine is a graduate of Robin Murphy's Hahnemann Academy of North America and author of many articles on homeopathy including her monthly feature in the Hpathy ezine, "The Quiz". Visit her website at: http://elainelewis.hpathy.com/ and TheSilhouettes.org