Why is Homeopathy the Best Answer to Children’s Ailments?
Health and Disease begin as soon as Life does! So appropriate care of the health and wellbeing must begin in the very early days of life. This ensures that children age with optimal health and sustained quality of life.
Parents’ belief in homeopathy for the sickness of their kids emanates from a variety of evidence, the most conclusive one being- more than 200 years of clinical experience of Homeopaths from across the world. Another is the fact quite clearly defined in the books of homeopathy that susceptibility ie the general capability of the organism to receive impression or the power of the organism to react to stimuli is greatest in children and diminishes as age progresses.
Children are most likely to fall prey to a vast range of illnesses and diseases in the first two years of life- Diarrhea, dysentery, fevers of all kinds, allergies and hypersensitivities, nutritional deficiencies to ear, nose and throat aches. However, diseases of children do not restrict themselves to just the first two years of life but span from the birth till adolescence varying in their nature, and character.
Besides, the risk of recurrence and relapse such as recurrent tonsillitis, and adenitis, relapsing fevers, allergies like urticaria, and contact dermatitis, and behavioral patterns such as autism learning disability and ADHD- all develop in early childhood.
While it is easy for us doctors to speak to an adult with capabilities to express and describe his complaints and elaborate upon the evolution of his trouble, pinpointing the history, assessment of subjective symptoms, and the behavioral changes in a child is tough as well as complicated.
Unlike a physician specialized in the treatment of adults, a physician dealing with children requires an exceptionally good ability to forge rapport with the little one, to efficiently navigate through the intricacies of the doctor-patient dynamics. Why? Because a child never likes a person labelled as Doctor!
But a homoeopath needs to break the walls of defence and delve deep into the child’s physical and mental make up to be able to cure the issue.
Why Homoeopathy For Kids: Let’s Hear it from Researchers
As per a recently published article (Buskin, S., Riveros Huckstadt, M., & Salatino, S. (2016). Use of natural and homeopathic remedies in children ailments. Clinical Management Issues, 10(2), 33-48. doi:https://doi.org/10.7175/cmi.v10i2.1252),
“Perceived efficacy of homeopathic or natural treatments, fear of drug adverse effects, dissatisfaction with conventional medicine, and the need for more personal attention are the main reasons given by parents who treat their children with homeopathy” and
“In recent years the use of herbal remedies and homeopathic products in children is highly increasing, as outlined by analysis carried out in the USA and in Europe [3-6]. Very often parents ask the pediatricians to give children these kind of remedies, especially in the early childhood years or for the treatment of mild ailments, such as those related to teething or infantile colic. The biggest concern for parents comes generally from the risk of adverse events due to conventional drugs; furthermore, for some disorders, there is no standard of care in mainstream medicine. In these cases the use of homeopathic products confer the advantage of having an excellent profile of safety and tolerability together with efficacy, as demonstrated by recent studies presented and discussed in this article [20-24].”
Benefits of Homeopathy for Children
-Homeopathy is based upon the use of natural substances in minimum doses
What makes homeopathy suited to almost all conditions encountered in children and adolescents, is the fact that homeopathic medicines are natural, gentle, very minimal in quantity (if prescribed on the basis of the principles of Homeopathy) and with minimal side effects, sometimes none. Additionally, the ability of deep acting, constitutional and antimiasmatic medicines to reach the depths of the disease breaks the chain of recurrence and ensures a gentle, permanent cure.
-Homeopathy is Wholistic and takes into account physical and mental health together.
A homeopath looking after a tiny tot has multidimensional responsibilities- from general wellness checkups, curative treatments to preventive care and even taking care of the overall growth and development that encompasses mental, physical, psychological, emotional, reproductive and social health. Homeopathy works on the principle of individualization and no matter what the disease, the medicine is decided by the symptoms peculiar to the child. For example, two children suffering from food poisoning might display the same stomachache , vomiting and diarrhea which indicate food poisoning but their nature, character and frequency will be different in both owing to the different genetic make up. That’s exactly what a homeopath catches and finds a remedy most suited to the individual picture of these children.
No invasive methods
Homeopathy relies totally on the oral route and in rare cases the olfactory route of administration of medicine. This comes as a major relief to our little ones who are usually scared of needles, injections and other parenteral modes of drug delivery. The medicines additionally are sweet pills made of sugar of milk which are a tasty treat and ensure patient compliance.
Non Addictive Medicines
Being minimal in quantity, the small pills given to the patient are absolutely non addictive. THis allows parents to discontinue the treatment when they feel that their child has significantly healed. However, it is always advisable to stop an ongoing treatment with the attending physician’s consent.
How to Take Homeopathy (General Guidelines for Children)
- Medicine should be taken after cleaning the mouth & preferably on empty stomach
- It is advisable to keep the child away from strongly flavoured foods like ginger, garlic and onion right before the intake of the medicine
- The child should refrain from having strongly flavoured toffees and chocolates right before having the medicine
- For infants and breast fed babies who are unable to take the medicine in the form of pills, mother’s milk/top feed may be used as a solvent to dissolve the medicine and administered to the child in liquid form.
- The medicine should be discarded if the white globules turn yellow, or if sediments appear in the liquid form of medicine
- An ongoing treatment of the child in any other medical stream need not be stopped to continue homeopathic treatment
- Keep the medicines:
- Away from strong smelling substances like camphor, menthol etc.
- Away from direct exposure to sunlight; in a cool and dry place
- Away from the reach of children
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