A Mother's Guide to Raising Healthy Children--Naturally (61 page)

Read A Mother's Guide to Raising Healthy Children--Naturally Online

Authors: Sue Frederick

Tags: #Health & Fitness, #Women's Health, #test

BOOK: A Mother's Guide to Raising Healthy Children--Naturally
2.93Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
 
Page 174
will worsen in humid or damp weather, fog, after exposure to the sun, and after 10 P.M. She'll feel better when warm, after urinating, and in fresh air.
Hypericum (St. John's wort)
General uses:
Hypericum stimulates the healing of injuries to nerves or areas of the body rich in nerves such as teeth, fingers, toes, spine, and head. The body signals us that nerve injury has occurred by producing shooting pains or numbness. Should your child slip and land on his tailbone, bite his tongue, receive a blow to the head, or have one of his front teeth knocked out or injured, start him on hypericum as soon as possible. As most surgery is traumatic for nerves, give hypericum at least once before surgery and afterward as needed. Hypericum is also used, both internally and externally, for treating puncture wounds from nails, splinters, pins, or animal bites or stings. Use calendula for superficial cuts and hypericum to help close deeper wounds. If using hypericum tincture externally, dilute it10 parts water to 1 part tinctureor it will sting due to the tincture's alcohol content.
Modalities:
Chosen according to type of wound rather than other symptoms. Your child will, however, feel better when lying still, and worse in cold or damp weather or before a storm.
Ignatia (St. Ignatius bean)
General uses:
A good choice for high-strung, sensitive, nervous, easily excitable children who often bottle up their anger, grief, or fear, pretending they are fine until finally exploding with rage or hysteria. Common presenting complaints are headache, indigestion, insomnia, and sore throat. The child who needs ignatia will sigh or yawn frequently, be easily upset or offended, and feel misunderstood. Ignatia is the remedy for children who have been physically or mentally abused. The child's moods fluctuate and are contradictory; she may be crying one second, laughing the next, or laughing through her tears. Her unexpressed emotions may feel stuck in her throat, and she may have a corresponding physical sensation of a lump in her throat or a lump in her stomach after eating. The ignatia child may tremble, have difficulty sleeping, and have a tendency to faint.
Modalities:
Emotional upsets and repressing emotions-anxiety, grief, depression, anger-will increase discomfort. Warmth, an activity that takes the child's mind off her anxiety, gentle pressure on the painful part-all will ameliorate symptoms.
 
Page 175
Kali Bichromicum (potassium bichromate)
General uses:
Use
Kali bic
for allergies, colds, coughs, croup, headaches, laryngitis, measles, and sinusitis when your child is producing thick, stringy, gluey, lumpy yellow or greenish mucus from nose, eyes, throat, or chest. Other signs that
Kali bic
is the correct remedy include listlessness, symptoms that migrate from one part of the body to another (headache is replaced by stomachache or diarrhea), slow digestion (the food sits in the stomach, so the child feels worse after eating), nausea, a craving for acidic drinks (hot tea with lemon, orange juice), and chills.
Modalities:
Respiratory problems that respond to
Kali bic
generally occur in spring and autumn. The child will feel worse in cold air or wind, wet weather, if uncovered, and upon awakening. Summer weather discourages these respiratory problems, as does warmth. Motion and firm pressure help alleviate symptoms.
Ledum Palustre (wild rosemary, marsh tea)
General uses:
A remedy to try when pain from an animal bite, insect sting, injury, or inflammation is relieved by cold applications or bathing. Ledum is a primary remedy for puncture wounds that are inflamed and itchy, such as bites and stings from mosquitoes, bees, spiders, and rats. It is also an excellent remedy for inflammation such as that caused by poison ivy, oak, or sumac, and by bruised muscles and connective tissue. Ledum's effectiveness in healing smaller capillaries makes it the remedy to try for bruises to hands and feet and black eyes, especially if arnica has helped but not cured the condition. Ledum is also the remedy to use for long-lasting bruises. If started immediately, a combination of ledum taken internally and arnica applied topically can heal a black eye overnight.
Modalities:
If ledum is your child's remedy, he will feel better with cold applications, cool baths, cool fresh air, and rest, but worse from motion, at night, and from heatthe heat of bedclothes, warm clothing, warm air.
Magnesia Phosphorica (phosphate of magnesium)
General uses: Mag phos
is a primary remedy for colic, muscle and menstrual cramps, backaches, or spasms relieved by heat and pressure. The child may feel relief by staying quiet, warmly covered, and doubling up in a fetal position.
Mag phos
also is used for cramps, stiffness, or numbness that occurs after prolonged use of certain muscles in writing, playing an instrument, playing
 
Page 176
a video game, or taking a long hike or bike ride. If the cramping is abdominal, as in colic, the abdomen may be bloated, but passing gas doesn't help.
Modalities:
Cramps will be eased by heat, warm applications, warm drinks, curling up in a fetal position, or firm pressure. Cold air, cold applications, and cold drinks will make the child feel worse.
Mercurius (mercury)
General uses:
Mercury is used when an acute conditionsuch as diarrhea, sore throat, earache, toothache, food poisoning, mumps, or conjunctivitisseems to be evolving rather than dissipating. Chronic ear infections often respond well to mercury. Typically, the child will be weak, restless, and hypersensitive to hot and cold. She will salivate profusely, soaking her pillow while sleeping. She also will perspire a lot but won't feel better afterward, and will have a dry throat, an intense thirst for cold drinks, and a hunger for sweets. Her sweat, breath, urine, and stools will have an offensive odor; diarrhea may cause a burning sensation. If a cold is the problem, it will settle in the throat, and the lymph glands will be swollen.
Modalities:
Changes in the weather and extremes in temperature will make the child feel worse, as will any exertion, touch, or pressure, and being in the open air. Often her condition will worsen at night. The child will feel better during the day, if she is able to settle down and rest.
Natrum Muriaticum
General uses:
The child who will benefit most from
Natrum muriaticum
is a perfectionist. Usually sensitive, intelligent, attractive, well groomed, well behaved, and neat and tidy, this child is ambitious, hard on himself, and eager to achieve. He may get a headache after intense mental work, such as preparing an important school report. If he makes a mistake while writing or doing artwork, he will tear up the page in frustration and consider himself a total failure. He keeps his room neat and organized, evidence of his perfectionism. He may not want to share his things with a friend or sibling, not because he is selfish but because he is afraid they will be damaged.
Nat mur
children are sensitive and caring; they blame themselves when anything goes wrong. If their parents divorce, these children will be certain it is their fault.
Nat mur
children love salt, are often thirsty, and typically pass hard, dry stools. They have difficulty falling asleep because their minds are busily
 
Page 177
thinking over the day's experiences, planning the next day, or trying to solve the riddle of Infinity. Even if tired, a
Nat mur
child may try to force himself to stay awake so he can keep thinking about things. While sleeping,
Nat mur
children's heads or whole bodies may perspire. When a
Nat mur
child develops a cold, he will often say the inside of his runny nose hurts or burns; he may have a sore between his nose and upper lip, and his lips may be dry and cracked. If your son fits this profile, is on the shy side, and is having problems with enuresis (bedwetting),
Nat mur
will definitely help. If your child frequently gets cold sores, has recurrent diarrhea, or comes down with German measles with symptoms including swollen glands, a sore throat, rash, and canker sores, consider
Natrum muriaticum.
Modalities: Nat mur
children are often lactose intolerant or do not like milk, slimy foods, and fat. Illnesses may be initiated or made worse by emotional upsets, especially grief. Eyes and skin are sensitive to sun exposure. Direct sunlight will cause these children to squint or to develop headaches and will aggravate skin eruptions.
Nat mur
children tend to be warm-blooded, so they feel better with fresh air, light bedclothes, warm or cool rather than hot baths, and cool drinks. The opposites exacerbate their discomfort.
Nux Vomica (poison nut)
General uses:
Homeopathic Prozac,
Nux vomica
is the remedy for children who are overly excitable, hyperactive, and driven.
Nux vomica
children (and adults) are competitive people who live in the fast lane, work hard, and expect everyone else to keep up. Their zeal is counterbalanced by anxiety, and they are often tense, which makes them irritable, critical, and impatient. If sick, this child wants to be cured
right now!
Despite feeling ill, his fastidiousness and desire for everything to be both accurate and in order will cause this child to maintain his room's neatness (it will already be well organized). Because his nervous system is on fast forward, the
Nux vomica
child is a light sleeper and sensitive to noise, odors, touch, music, food, and drugs. A dark, quiet room is essential for this child; he needs adequate sleep to recharge and will be irritable and prone to illness without it.
Although he craves spicy foods and fats, the
Nux vomica
child may become bloated and flatulent about an hour after eatingparticularly after eating meat, milk, and cold foods, which also may provoke headaches and respiratory problems such as asthma, allergy symptoms, and congestion. In
 
Page 178
addition to indigestion, particularly after overindulgence, children who will benefit from
Nux vomica
may become constipated, unable to go to the bathroom despite frequently feeling as if they need to. If a headache accompanies the constipation, it will be worse in the morning, exacerbated by exertion, light, sun exposure, or coughing. Lots of nasal discharge during the day and congestion at night is also typical.
Modalities:
Prolonged mental or emotional stress, too much spicy or fatty food, drug use (prescribed or recreational), inadequate sleep, cold or windy weather, noise, light when trying to sleepall will exacerbate symptoms. A good night's restunbroken, deep sleep; firm pressure on areas that hurt; and avoiding meat, milk, and cold foods when ill will help.
Pulsatilla (windflower)
General uses:
Pulsatilla is often prescribed based more on the child's personality than on a specific ailment. This child soaks up affection and can't seem to get enough; she hates to be alone. As an infant, she needed to be physically attached to her mother, carried in a baby sling or carrier, and cried whenever placed in her crib for a nap. She's emotional and sensitive, open to and influenced by those around her and her environment. Changeable and moody, she may be crying one minute, laughing the next. Easily hurt, she will cry softly if she is criticized, punished, or feels ignored but will quickly become sunny again when she receives the sympathy and attention she needs. Fearing abandonment, she may become clingy, whiny, and jealous of her parents' attention to her siblings. Because of her impressionable nature, a children's movie with scary scenes will keep her up at night. She'll always want a night light on and may still frequently appear in her parents' bedroom for hugs and reassurance. She'll need help choosing what clothes to wear to school, what game to play, what food to eat at a restaurantjust about any decision, big or small. Her physical symptomswandering pains that alternate on each side of the bodyreflect her changeable nature: congestion or a runny nose that moves from one nostril to another, conjunctivitis, or a sty that vanishes from one eye and appears on the other, a cold that becomes a cough, a sore throat that metamorphoses into an earache, a headache that is replaced by a stomachache. She won't be thirsty, even if she has a fever.
Modalities:
Symptoms may manifest after eating rich or fatty foods. Warm, stuffy rooms or being chilled will exacerbate symptoms. Fresh air, gentle
 
Page 179
motion, cool applications, cold food, lying on the side that hurtsand lots of attention and sympathywill help her feel better.
Rhus Toxicodendron (poison ivy)
General uses:
The two hallmark indications that a child will benefit from
Rhus tox
are: (1) he is restless, always moving around when awake, tossing and turning when asleep, and (2) the rusty-gate syndromeupon awakening, he'll feel stiff and achy; initial movement will aggravate things, but continued motion will make him feel better. When he finally rests, however, the syndrome will repeat. He'll feel achy on initial movement, then gradually better with continued movement. His illness may begin after he gets chilled or wet, especially if he has been playing and is overheated. Cold, wet weather will make him chilly and uncomfortable. At night, symptoms will worsenhis restlessness will prevent him from getting good rest, and what rest he gets will provoke the rusty-gate syndrome. He's susceptible to herpes blisters on his lips, which may be dry and cracked. He'll ask for cold drinks, even though they make him feel more chilly and worsen cough symptoms.
Rhus tox
is the most common remedy for chickenpox; the rash will be accompanied by intense itching, especially at night, making the child very restless. If, even when well, your child frequently complains of sore muscles after exertion, consider
Rhus tox.
Modalities:
Overexertion, rest, and cold, wet weather aggravate symptoms, which typically worsen at night. Continued motion and warmthwarm covers, warm applicationsameliorate symptoms.
Ruta Graveolens (rue)
General uses:
Rue is the remedy to use for injuries to the periosteum (bone covering), tendons, or ligaments, or for any bruise that takes a long time to heal and leaves a calcified, knotty lump. Injuries to the periosteum occur at the knees, elbows, and shins. In carpal tunnel syndromean increasingly common problem in children due to frequent and prolonged use of video games and computer keyboards-knotty lumps appear in the connective tissue at the wrist. Any inflammation of muscles due to overuse and repetitive motion may respond well to ruta (arnica works best on sudden injury;
Rhus tox
on injury with rusty-gate syndrome). As teeth are actually part of the body's bone mass, ruta is also very effective in reducing pain and speeding healing after dental surgery or after a child's braces are put on or adjusted.

Other books

Miss Marple and Mystery by Agatha Christie
Kindred by Adrianne Lemke
Wounded Earth by Evans, Mary Anna
Dragon Soul by Jaida Jones
02 Madoc by Paige Tyler