A Mother's Guide to Raising Healthy Children--Naturally (51 page)

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Authors: Sue Frederick

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BOOK: A Mother's Guide to Raising Healthy Children--Naturally
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Page 134
The idea of working with energy fields is more than 5,000 years old. Traditional Chinese medicine is based on a system of energetic forces called
chi
(vital life force).Western medicine has been slow to grasp the idea of energy fields, and because there have been no clinical studies into the effectiveness of flower remedies, Western medicine considers them harmless and worthless.
The proof of their potency is in the results, says Buono. Those results can be seen very clearly in children, she adds. "The essences are particularly effective with children. Kids don't have so many emotional blocks or years of emotional experience to work through. You can see dramatic results quickly."
Meyer, whose practice includes numerous children, agrees. "Children have fewer layers to peel back to get to their true selves. It's easier to work through the emotional trauma with a child than with an adult."
The flower essences work beautifully with children of all ages. "With infants, you can put drops on their pulse points, their forehead, or behind their ears," Buono says. "And with teenagers, flowers can have remarkable results. Crabapple is great for a teenager overly concerned about her appearance. Or if they're being critical and intolerant, try beech. And if they procrastinate and don't do their homework until midnight, give them hornbeam. It can really make a difference."
Buono has been treating numerous ADD children. "I just treated an eight-year-old boy whose doctor wanted to put him on Ritalin. We identified that he was irritable, easily frustrated, and tended to daydream. I made a mixture of impatiens, heather, and clematis for him. He showed good improvement within a few days. His teachers were happy. Now, of course, we're uncovering some of the deeper issues, like lack of self-confidence and working with that. You have to keep peeling off the layers. It's part of the healing process."
Meyer believes that birth trauma can cause learning and attention span problems. "The flowers can heal the birth trauma so the child can focus in the present moment. Flowers get to the source of the problem and heal the underlying pain, rather than just dealing with the effects of the pain, the way Ritalin does."
When treating children, Buono suggests making a treatment bottle from a 1-ounce amber bottle nearly filled with spring water. "Add two drops of
 
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Flowers For Children
Beech: for children intolerant of parents or others.
Cherry plum: for temper tantrums.
Clematis: for the daydreamer; helps bring the child to the present moment.
Crabapple: for the child obsessed with appearances.
Goldenrod: for children easily influenced by peers to engage in inappropriate behavior.
Impatiens: for impatient children.
Heather: for children easily irritated by others.
Holly: for sibling rivalry jealousy.
Hornbeam: to reduce procrastination regarding chores or schoolwork.
Rescue remedy: a combination of essences good for shock, trauma, and teething pain.
Star of Bethlehem: for coping with loss, such as death of a pet or loved one.
Walnut: helps the child move through a difficult transition such as divorce.
Source: Nancy Buono and Patricia Meyer.
each prescribed flower essence to the treatment bottle. Give the child four drops, four times a day," she explains.
Buono uses as many as four different essences per treatment, and she doesn't use a preservative such as brandy. "It doesn't taste good, and if you keep the dropper from touching the tongue, the remedy will last about three weeks."
 
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Remember, you can't overdose with flower essences. ''If you want faster, more dramatic results, give more drops. If you want a gentle shift, give less. There are no harmful side effects to worry about," says Buono. "It's complementary medicine in its truest sense. It works with any other modality, from herbs to antibiotics. And it works on our deepest levels, where true healing can take place."
People are just beginning to realize that only through flower essences can our spiritual selves be healed, Meyer asserts. "The medical doctor can heal us physically, the psychiatrist or therapist can heal us mentally or emotionally, but only the flower essences can heal us spiritually."
Meyer believes that flowers dramatically improve our health because they heal our spiritual pain, which is the basis of disease. "If you have cancer and you don't want to be in this world anymore, you can't heal. Flowers can awaken your vitality, your interest in life. Then your body can heal itself."
The effects of flower essences can be subtle but powerful. Meyer explains, "Sometimes people take them for a while and don't know if they're doing any good. Then suddenly they'll find themselves responding positively in a situation that used to elicit a negative response from them. They're not hooked by the same hooks as before. Flowers are truly gifts from God for our healing. They teach us to love life."
 
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Chapter 13
Chinese Medicine
Before my daughter was born, I spent years getting acupuncture and Chinese medicine treatments from David Scrimgeour, R.Ac. We worked on issues such as stress, migraine headaches, skin rashes, and the usual array of colds and flu. I found Chinese medicine to be a profound healing tool. After Sarah was born, I learned about all the ways David could help her with acupressure, herbs, and other Chinese medicine techniques.
One of my favorite stories is about the time David stopped an extremely bad cough. For two nights, my daughter's coughing was so severe it triggered episodes of vomiting. Her pediatrician said it could be a mild case of pertussis (whooping cough) and that we should watch her carefully. (There is no conventional cure for pertussis.) I took her to see David. He pressed on certain points of her body with mild acupressure, took her pulse, looked at her tongue, and then mixed up an herbal liquid tincture containing Chinese herbs. I was instructed to give her a dropperful every three hours. I started her on the herbs immediately.
She never coughed again, slept through the night without any trouble, and was virtually well the next day. I took her back to her pediatrician, who was very impressed and wanted to know the name of my practitioner.
Expert Advice
Here, David Scrimgeour shares his insights into using Chinese medicine to treat children.
"Oriental medicine has existed as a complete system of health care for well over 2,000 years. Over this time period, it has developed many safe and
 
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effective treatments for a vast array of children's disorders. One of the most important and unique features of this system that makes it so effective is found in the concept of strengthening, or tonifying, the body. This concept does not really exist in conventional Western medicine but is essential to understanding Oriental medicine. In essence, it is a system of balance: where there is weakness or deficiency, it is imperative to strengthen, and where there is excess, it is imperative to sedate or remove the excess. For example, in this system, a bacterial infection will tend to look like an excess with redness, fever, swelling, pain, etc. The treatment will focus on removing the excess by taking the heat out of the system with specific herbal formulas and/or subtle bodywork techniques based on the system of acupuncture. The focus, then, is on assisting the body through the immune system and other environmental or lifestyle influencesfor example, dietto bring about balance. It does not focus merely on removing a pathogen, as do antibiotics and most conventional Western treatments.
"Oriental medicine offers a viable alternative to conventional care for children in a number of areas, particularly when dealing with chronic illness. Some of its important features are as follows:
1.
Oriental medicine tends to have few, if any, side effects.
This is due to the wisdom of using well-balanced herbal formulas that work
with
the body and not against it. Within each formula are often found herbs that help soften the harsh effects of another herb or enhance the effects of certain other herbs. In other words, the combinations are synergistic.
2.
Oriental medicine tends to be more effective than many conventional strategies in treating chronic illness.
We are not talking about life-threatening disease here but many of the common, long-term, and hard-to-treat illnesses such as asthma, chronic ear infections, headaches, digestive disturbances, etc. As mentioned above, this is due to the emphasis on strengthening the body as well as the ability to work well with the whole system, since most chronic illnesses, according to Oriental medicine, are in fact systemic problems.
3.
The approach is thorough.
If a child is treated properly with Oriental medicine, there are usually no recurrences, as often happens after using antibiotics. Because of its emphasis on treating the whole body, strengthening the immune system is typically a part of any treatment
 
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plan, which leads to longer-lasting and better effects of treatment. For example, in Japanese medicine, it is known that it is very important to completely eradicate a cold or virus from the body. This implies the tonification, or strengthening, of the body to prevent the return of the illness and to boost the body's ability to rid it completely of the pathogen.
4.
Oriental medicine addresses prevention.
It should be obvious how important this can be. In other words, it is not enough in the practice of Oriental medicine to simply eradicate symptoms. It is essential to understand the root cause of a problem and to work with the body to change it or get it out of the system.
5.
Oriental medicine is tried and true.
As stated above, Oriental medicine has been around for a very long time, and the treatments used are well established as being safe and effective with hundreds of years of experience to prove it."
A common question with regard to the treatment of children using Oriental medicine is, "What does it involve and how is it done?" Basically there are two aspects to the delivery system. The first, and probably the most widely practiced, is the prescribing of herbal formulas as mentioned above. These are typically given either in liquid as tinctures or extracts, or in powders or granules that are freeze-dried from traditional cooked formulas. Some children prefer the liquids mixed with water or juice, and others prefer the powders, which are typically mixed with food such as applesauce or cereal. A wide variety of formulas are available in both forms. The second, a less commonly practiced form of Oriental medicine for children is
Tui Na
(a Chinese form of massage therapy) or
Shonishin
(a Japanese form of acupuncture therapy that employs small tools used in a massage-type fashion that works according to the same principles as acupuncture, using special points and meridians). Most children like this gentle approach and can benefit greatly from these hands-on techniques that tend to be calming and soothing.
Also commonly asked is what types of conditions are seen in the Oriental medicine clinic. The conditions tend to be very much like those seen in a general pediatric clinic. The common problems in the list below are all treated with effectiveness by properly trained practitioners. (A note of caution: if

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