Childhood Illnesses And How Can Homeopathy Help?

Hello everyone!

I am Dr. Kriti Mathur, I am a homeopathic physician practicing in Gurgaon. I have done my BHMS from Delhi; I have also done post graduation in counselling and behavior modification and in nutrition. So basically I treat my patients holistically taking care of physical, mental and dietary health. Today I will be talking about some very common childhood illnesses and how homeopathy can help in dealing with them. One of the most important, most common symptoms that a child presents with is a sore throat. If it is the flu season then that sore throat or cold that could be because of the seasonal common cold and that is very easily handled. But generally, when we examine the patient, we find it is because of tonsillitis. Now, what are tonsils? Tonsils are the lymphatic tissue which is present on the sides of the throat and they basically form the first line of defense against any infection that is trying to enter the body through our mouth. So, what happens is that these tonsils get inflamed. On examination we find that their beds are swollen and the child complains of pain in throat, difficulty in swallowing, dry cough, there could be fever also.

So those are the common complaints that a child with tonsillitis presents with. Another thing is adenoid hypertrophy. Now, what are adenoids? Adenoids are glands which are present in the root of the nose. They form the line of defense for any infection that is trying to enter the body through the nose. In adenoids, what happens is the parents are complaining that the child is breathing through the nose, the child is basically having blocked nose, he is not able to sleep properly at night, there is snoring also; in that case clinical examination doesn't help much but when on the basis of symptoms we find we conclude that it is a case of adenoid hypertrophy. We ask the patient to go in for x-ray for confirmation. Another important thing that is seen unfortunately it is becoming very common these days is childhood asthma that is because of increased pollution, pollen, improper lifestyle; so, unfortunately, that is also a very important problem these days in which the child presents with cough and there is difficulty in breathing, the child is getting upper night to breathe, these is wheezing in the chest.

So how does homeopathy help in all these cases? In asthma you have mainly prescribed antibiotics and in cases of tonsillitis you are mainly prescribed antibiotics and ultimately may be asked to go in for surgery. But in homeopathy, we do not suggest surgery because we feel that they are the first line of defense, why should we remove them. So we treat it homoeopathically based on the symptoms. When you go to a homeopath, you are asked many questions regarding what is the type of cough, when is it more, what is the type of discharge, whether there is watery discharge from the nose or whether the child is having difficulty in swallowing food or in swallowing water. So all those symptoms are important to us and they help us in deciding the medicine. Another important medicine that we use in homeopathy is a constitutional medicine which is on the basis of all the symptoms of the child, on how he appears to look, what are his likes dislikes, what are his hobbies, what is his mental state; depending upon that we select a constitutional medicine which basically acts on our internal system and helps us in fighting against these diseases internally.

So that is how we can help homoeopathically avoiding surgeries. Then another thing you as parents can do is it to teach your child to not share water or hankies from anybody, do not send a sick child to the school that is very important because that will prevent the spread of infection to other children and we provide that necessary rest to our child also and taking care of diet that is very important. Do not give any cold drinks or any junk food which has got citric acid or preservatives or artificial colours in it. Preferably give the child home cooked food. What we learned in grade 1 that balanced diet concept that is very important. You can make it in a single meal, you can have a khichdi with everything in it or you can have stuffed parantha with everything in it or you can just have a normal regular balanced diet which is very important. So next time if you have your child complaining of sore throat instead of going to antibiotics, jumping onto antibiotics go in for homeopathy and that is surely going to help your child in the long run.

Thank you.