A Dilemma for Parents

Parents of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) go to great lengths to give their children healthy food and provide a non-toxic environment. So what do you do when your child has immune challenges? Ear infections, tonsillitis, infected skin rashes, coughs, colds, all require some kind of intervention, but ASD kids need to avoid drugs, especially antibiotics. And what do parents do when their child is in pain? It seems like there is no choice other than give pharmaceutical drugs when it comes to dealing with infection and pain.

The side effects of both paracetamol and antibiotics, particularly when given in the first year of life, (eg allergies) continues to appear in medical journals. Given that both autism and childhood allergies are rapidly increasing in incidence, avoiding common childhood medications where possible, is becoming more and more important.

There happens to be a simple, often controversial therapy that addresses most kids needs for common infections – homeopathic medicines. Homeopathy is controversial not because it is unsafe or expensive, just because it is not well understood how it works. Many parents around the world use homeopathy for common infections and injuries quite successfully, as explained on Extraordinary Medicine and Homeopathy Worked For Me  The medicines can be given at home, in place of analgesics, antibiotics, antihistamines, cortisone and other medications.

Properly prescribed, homeopathic medicines work quickly. When parents have homeopathic medicines on hand at home, they can treat the problem in its early stages, avoiding the need for a trip to their health professional. It can take time to learn how to apply – but it’s easy to learn. Often there are Homeopathic First Aid courses close by. If not, ask a homeopath near you to run a course.

Homeopathic medicines come in drops  for babies and young children and small white pills for older children and adults. Homeopathic medicines are completely safe for babies, pregnant women, children and adults. There are absolutely no toxic effects.

Acute conditions homeopathic medicines can treat:

Benefits:

Conditions parents can treat at home:

Runny nose – Ferrum Phos and Kali Mur tissue salts

Sore throat: Ferrum Phos

Symptoms after exposure to cold: Aconite

Sudden onset of symptoms: Belladonna, Aconite

Established symptoms (after a few days): Mercurius, Pulsatilla

Once familiar with a few medicines, parents can treat acute problems at home.

When a homeopathic medicine doesn’t relieve symptoms, it means a different medicine is needed. Instead of thinking “this stuff doesn’t work” – take your child to a homeopath. Alternatively, make sure you have a good home prescribing guide, like Treat Your Child Yourself

Tissue Salts

Tissue salts are low-dose homeopathic medicines. There are 12 tissue salts, which can be used singly or in combination. You can purchase a little booklet as well, with prescribing information. One bottle of tissue salts costs under $10. Commonly used tissue salts are Kali Mur, Ferrum Phos, Mag Phos, Nat Sulph and Nat Phos.

Chronic, ongoing problems are best treated by a practitioner, as individualised treatment gives better results than a ‘one size fits all’ treatment.

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