Homeopathic Remedies for Children Racine WI

My baby tugged at her left ear as tears rolled down her flushed cheeks. At 6 months old, Chloe had her first earache. My initial panicky instinct was to rush her to the ER and give her anything to ease the pain. But my husband and I had seen too many friends ride that earache–antibiotic merry-go-round; yes, the treatments relieved pain quickly, but the antibiotics never dealt with the root causes of the recurring earaches. Instead, I called our naturopath. Within hours of Chloe receiving her first dose of a homeopathic remedy, she seemed much better. She still suffered congestion, but the acute agitation and aches had lifted.

The experience made me wonder: What other homeopathic remedies could I use for Chloe? Turns out this gentle approach is good for everything from diaper rash and colds to tummy aches and the sore gums of teething.

Bitter pill

Of course, in certain situations, conventional medications may be just what the doctor orders for your children—and rightly so. But do pay attention to potential risk factors. Sometimes, physicians will “rush into [recommending] very powerful medicines,” says Dana Ullman, MPH, DHM, and author of The Homeopathic Revolution: Why Famous People & Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy (North Atlantic Books/Random House, to be released in October 2007). “Many of these drugs have not been tested on children and are prescribed based on inexact measurements like weight and height.”

Case in point: In January, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta issued a warning about the dangers of children’s over-the-counter cough and cold medications. The CDC reported that in 2005 three infants died in the US after taking cough or cold medicine and more than 1,500 were taken to emergency rooms the previous year for side effects associated with the medications. Why? The ingredients in these treatments can increase blood pressure and heart rate, in some cases to dangerous levels, the researchers concluded.

Ullman advocates using gentler natural remedies to treat infants and children before resorting to conventional pharmacology. In that vein, he relies on and recommends what he considers to be one of the safest and most effective treatment modalities for children: homeopathy.

Sweeter pill

Homeopathy is based on the principle “like treats like”—whatever symptoms a large dose of a substance can cause, a minute dose can cure. For example, a hefty dose of arsenic (if it doesn’t kill you) will seriously irritate your digestive tract; but a minute amount will actually resolve stomach pains. “It’s a little bit like the law of vaccination or allergy shots,” says Dennis Chernin, MD, MDH, author of Homeopathic Resource (North Atlantic Books, 2007).

Homeopathic remedies, therefore, contain very diluted traces of potentially harmful plants, minerals, and other compounds. Because remedies contain such small doses and, in many cases, only an energetic imprint or memory of the substance, they cannot cause harm.

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