Children Health Issues

CHILDREN'S ILLNESSES

Children do not come into life flawless: they are born with predispositions to various types of personality and illness, and we cannot protect them against their genes. One of the functions of childhood is to develop a healthy and resilient immune system, which will provide a strong defence against ill-health for the rest of the person's life. One of the ways in which a child does this is by being exposed to and recovering from the various minor diseases of childhood. The best way to protect children against disease and to give them a healthy start to life is to bring them up on a good healthy varied diet and to give them as much love, fresh air and fun as possible, and as few preservatives and drugs. This chapter will offer suggestions about the treatment of whatever children's ailments do come your way.

Register with a homoeopathic practitioner so that you can discuss the finer points of your home treatment or join a local class teaching homoeopathic first aid. Look for details of these in your local library. Children are easy to treat because most of their symptoms are very clear, undisguised as yet by politeness or the habit of putting up with or understating problems. The emphasis within homoeopathy on symptoms which represent small deviations from the norm of the patient's behaviour makes it particularly suitable for use by mothers, who are always first to sense when a child is not well, often before any physical symptoms appear, precisely because there are subtle changes not always obvious to others.

It does not matter if the child cannot be precise about where it hurts or what they feel: you or the homoeopath will be able to sec the important general picture well enough to prescribe: temperature, emotional state, change in colour are all excellent indications, Most of the remedies useful in children's ailments are those mentioned over and over again in this book, and the principles for prescribing for them are the same. Children get over most of the afflictions of childhood without too much trouble, but it is often worrying to watch them do so, and using remedies can make their passage from illness back to health a lot smoother.

A small number of remedies can make a large difference to your capacity to deal with your children's health. If you can identify your child's basic remedy type, you will find that this remedy will help you in most of her illnesses, whatever the specific symptoms. In the rest of this chapter I shall be discussing in detail eight remedies which cover most of the complaints arising in childhood. If you have these on hand you will be able to help your child a great deal and may never need any other remedies except in very specific circumstances, in the case of accidents and injuries, for instance. The remedies are Aconite, Belladonna, Chamomilla, Hepar sulph, Merc sol, Pulsatilla, Silica and Sulphur. These are all represented in the main Materia Medica, which should be consulted for fuller pictures. Here I have concentrated on the use of these remedies in illnesses commonly suffered by children. Naturally, if an adult finds herself in any of these states she can also use these remedies.

ACONITE

Aconite is a remedy for anything which comes on suddenly especially after exposure to cold dry weather or draughts or if the child has been frightened in any way. The child will be very hot, thirsty and restless, whatever the complaint. Give Aconite at the first sign that the child is coming down with something. If there is a fever it will come on quickly with a severe chill followed by a high temperature. The child will be intensely thirsty for cold water. She will also be hot, red in the face (sometimes pale; sometimes one cheek will be red, one pale). She will kick off the bedclothes. Anxiety and fear may be marked and she will be extremely restless, worse in the evening, in a warm room and lying on the left side.

It is a remedy for the first stages of anything: coughs, colds, sore throats, croup, earache, measles. Give it quickly, especially in croup: if it is given in time, no other remedy will be needed. The cough is violent, dry, loud and barking. (Steam also helps relieve the symptoms quickly.) Use Spongia if the croupy cough does not respond to Aconite within a couple of hours, or if the child's breathing is still harsh, hard and barking. Give Hepar sulph in the third stage of croup, when there is infection. In colds there will be frequent sneezing and a very painful burning throat.

It is wonderful for the kind of earache that comes on after being in a cold wind: there will be an intense throbbing burning tearing pain and it will be worse for noise and warmth. It may also be of use in teething where the general symptoms apply. In measles, give Aconite in the early stages before the rash conies out. There may be a catarrhal discharge from the nose and the eyes will be very sensitive to light.