Treating children with homeopathy is rewarding and challenging. Following are a number of guidelines which will help facilitate this process...

Homeopathy views illness as acute or chronic. Acute problems require immediate treatment while chronic problems are treated constitutionally. The biggest difference between acute and constitutional treatment is the time it takes to see results. In acute treatment, changes occur anywhere from a few minutes to several days. In constitutional treatment, changes evolve slowly over a period of weeks.

Conventional medicine trains parents to see all childhood illness as acute and therefore in need of immediate attention. Often parents seek alternative care because these treatments do not have a truly curative effect and the child’s complaint often re-occurs. Earaches, colds, asthma and diarrhea are treated with powerful drugs which temporarily relieve the symptoms. It may appear at this point that the child’s complaint is an acute condition (“he has an earache”), though in reality the child has a case of chronic earaches which re-occur for six months to a year.

Classical homeopathy seeks to remove the underlying weakness in your child which allows the symptoms to occur. Homeopathic remedies support the child’s natural healing response in order to bring about a more vital state of health. This is what is meant by constitutional treatment. If your child has previously been exposed to recurrent treatments which sought to suppress symptomatology rather than support a healing response, homeopathic treatment will take time to establish a curative effect. Continued use of vaccinations, antibiotics, and steroids, ultimately lower vitality. Children are particularly vulnerable to these medicines. Conventional medicine may have seriously eroded your child’s immune system. Additionally--although it is never useful for your child to become severely ill, allowing him/her to develop and overcome mild forms of many childhood illnesses actually develops and matures their immune system. Illness is like exercise for their immune system. So, the more vital your child is, the faster they will respond to treatment. This does not mean that homeopathy won’t work for a child who has had a good deal of conventional medicine, but that their response may be a little bit slower. But please bear in mind that your child will be responding to a very safe and subtle stimulus.

The homeopathic process requires that you learn to think about health and healing in a new way. Homeopathy defines health as more than simply lack of disease. Health is resilience and the ability to express freedom from limitations mentally, emotionally and physically. All these levels will be considered in the treatment process. This means that you will have to learn to observe your child differently.

Parents often have many questions while they learn this new way of looking at their child’s illness. It is therefore advisable to keep in touch with your homeopath to discuss any aspect of the treatment, and also notify them of any intended visits to other health practitioners. Please bear in mind that the use of over the counter drugs, antibiotics and even self-administered homeopathic remedies, can disrupt the whole pattern of healing. Patience and understanding are key elements here, in the knowledge that your child will attain a longer lasting state of health and a stronger immune system. Some disorders addressed are recurrent colds, flu's, earaches, coughs, and sore throats; allergies, including mother’s milk, cows milk, foods and environmental sensitivity; developmental disorders including ADD, ADHD, Autism and retardation; asthma, constipation/diarrhea, complications from other medical procedures and medicines and many others.