Homeopathy Papers

Skin Eruptions in a 4 Year Old Girl

Dermatitis
Written by Stefan Durniok

Heilpraktiker Stefan Durniok presents a case of chronic skin eruption in a four year old girl.

November 7th 1997

Anna has been suffering from skin eruptions since she was 1.5 years old. It was  nothing dramatic but now at age 4 years and 2 months her mom thinks it is time to try something else. Nothing has really helped her daughter up to this moment. Several creams and ointments have been tried. She developed irregularly shaped patches of a pink-like colour first on her wrists and later appearing on the forearms. These patches started as small pustules on the right side and are up to several inches in diameter and do not have clear limits (ie. one does not recognize a definite boundary). Later the pustules disappear and leave white scales. About 6 weeks ago the eruptions showed on her upper legs for the first time. The eruptions are amelioratted a lot in the summer and aggravated in autumn; the winter is better than autumn.

She scratches a lot on waking in bed in the morning, but also during sleep. The itching is agg. by woolen clothing, by water, and by scratching. Her skin was much better while she had the chickenpox in January 1997 (3y. 4m. old).

Anna is a special girl and can write her name already, at the age of 4!) She only plays with older children and she wants to go to school and read books. She loves to swim to paint and to dance, she doesn’t need music for that, and she just starts to move whenever she feels like dancing, “like a ballerina“ she says.

She loves animals, e.g. she does not want her parents to get rid of the poor ants in their garden!  Anna invents stories and tells  “whole novels“ . She can talk for hours, is eloquent and knows how to express herself verbally. This little girl started to speak before her first birthday!

According to her mother, Anna is extremely imaginative, says “I’m a snake“ and starts to move like one on the floor. Anna likes to play alone for hours. She asks lots of things, is headstrong but also shows compassion especially towards animals.

She is not orderly and drops things wherever she is. She never fights with others and immediately apologizes for mistakes or misbehaviour from her side.  She only fights back when her parents are involved, obviously she doesn’t dare to be aggressive towards  “outsiders“ or strangers. She is extremely sensitive to criticism. Anna likes to win games and tells her playmates: “congratulate me!“  Whenever she loses she gets angry and scolds. She seldom cries and does so if it serves her purpose, but also when she believes she made a mistake !

Anna loves to be at the seaside (her symptoms are very much better there) and she watches thunderstorms and the full moon. She does not like to be in the sun too much but she is chilly in general. Harmony is important to her and she tries to mediate whenever there is an argument going on around her.  She craves consolation.

Her mother obviously treats her like an adult. She appeals to Anna’s reason and  intellectual faculties. Her daughter seems to create stress for her and she easily gets annoyed with what the child does. No fears are reported.

Since August 1997 Anna has been attending kindergarten, which she likes a lot. She says she has many friends.

Physicals:

– Sleep: prefers to lie on her left side; restless; agg. full moon; sweat on occiput

– Cravings: Raw vegetable, raw potatoes, boiled eggs, icecream, milk instead of breakfast.

– Aversions: sour, pineapple, cheese

– Thirst: very little

– 5-6 bowel movements a day, esp. after drinking much

Pregnancy: “Ok”.  According to the mother, she felt fine during pregnancy.

– Birth: was a precipitate labour of only 4 hours. Afterwards mother did not want to go home because she was afraid of the responsibility and of being alone; she felt very insecure.

– Normal in size and weight: 3320 g, 52 cm and circumference of head 34 cm.

Was breast-fed for only 2 weeks, after which mother had no more milk because of   “stress” she says.

– Colic immediately after birth for 9 months; she slept in the daytime and was awake at night. Colic amel. by warmth and being carried – agg. 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.

– Slow teething, started at 10th months

– walking at 18 months

– talking: 11 months

Family history: both great-grandmothers had cancer

maternal grandmother: lung cancer

mother: hayfever, psoriasis

father: psoriasis

Vaccinations: Measles, Mumps, Rubella: Feb. 1995

Pertussis: 1995/97

DPT: Jan.April 1994; April 1995

Other complaints:

Colds occur often – always with a lot of coughing, a croupy, dry cough.

Never high fevers – max. is 38,5 C.

Modalities:

amel.: seaside ( mental and physical), warmth

agg.: full moon, exposure to sun

Conclusions:

To me the feature of prematurity was striking. She had grown up too fast, I thought – spoke before she walked, dentition set in late but then… a four year old wanting to read the grown up’s books … wanting to go to school, omitting kindergarten.

We Germans are not known for our affinity towards dancing, so a child starting to follow its impulse like Anna did is an exception. To me her love of dancing was one of the main features of her character and the remedy must have this symptom !

Sepia could have been a choice of course (Natrum Mur. too) as sensitiveness is not limited to a remedy like Carc., but would a Sepia girl be so reasonable and so  accessible to logic ?

I had never given Carcinosin before but this combination of suppression of anger and natural aggression on one side and the tendency to express herself artistically, the dancing and the love of harmony and nature on the other side made me give Carc. 30.

Rubrics used (Murphy’s Repertory):

Dancing

Dancing; desire for

Precocity, mental

Reproaches a/f

Responsibility, burdened with, at too young of age

Responsibility, over responsible

Communicative, expansive

Sensitive, children

Sensitive to reprimands

Seashore, amel.

Follow-Up November 19th:

Her mother reports on the phone:  Itching has become worse especially in her left arm-pit; she scratches a lot during sleep; eruption has increased on left leg;

The cold that started last week is getting worse.

I decide to wait…

Follow-Up December 15th:

The aggravation reported by the mother had steadily increased since our last contact and had lasted for another 2 weeks. Today the skin is almost normal and she has stopped scratching altogether.  She only scratches when she is very excited, and her skin starts to itch again.  For a week now she has a thick greenish discharge with lumps from the nose; in her sleep she has to cough because of the discharge running down her throat.

We wait…

I did not hear from her until her mother called on Feb. 28th 2000 – almost 2.5 years ! after the prescription of Carc.  Anna had been fine until last November.  The itching had started again and after some time eruptions reappeared, first on her right wrist and elbow, then on the left side too. Now the mother would like to give Anna the remedy again that had helped so well !

The family had moved 400 km to Berlin more than a year ago after the death of her father’s mother who had died of cancer!  Anna had helped to take care of her grandmother, washed her, cooked for her and cleaned her false teeth. For some time now she has been interested in Egypt, the Pharohs and mummies and asked her parents why grandma couldn’ be a mummy too. She still loves dancing and started to take ballet classes in January. She now also plays with kids younger than herself, likes rollercoasters, is still very reasonable and fond of harmony in her surroundings. She is less dominating and found new friends easily. Her sleep is good and she awakes refreshed. She still likes thunderstorms and the full moon, but she can’t stand the sight of blood, which makes her sick.

Her craving for milk is gone and she now has toast for breakfast.

She did not go to school last year although she was the right age. Her parents decided to send her the following summer.

All in all the same character but less extreme I thought…

I sent the family Carc. 30 C again but haven’t heard from them since.

 

About the author

Stefan Durniok

Stefan Durniok has been working as a homoeopath since 1993 in and near Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. He studied with Friedel Kroschewski-König, Bernd Müller-Thederan, Anne Schadde, Rajan Sankaran and Jayesh Shah among others. He was influenced mainly by the works of Boenninghausen, Boger, Phatak, P.Sankaran and R.Sankaran. For some time now he has been a follower of M.L. Sehgal's
Revolutionized method. Today he only goes on house calls or treats patients by telephone. Stefan uses horary astrology and birth chart readings for counseling purposes and sometimes medical astrology to confirm a diagnosis or a patient's report.

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