“How are you feeling buddy?” I ask my son as he stirs from his slumber, “Not good mama. My nose not feeling very good.”
Between my little man and I, we’ve shared three nasty colds in as many weeks; it feels like an unwelcome gift that keeps on giving and just won’t go away.
My son’s eczema also flared up and he fell off a stool last week and got a nasty cut lip; needless to say, we feel like the walking wounded. I can’t help notice our bedside table has become a veritable homeopathic pharmacy.
These gentle remedies are my reliable go-to whenever our family is ill.
Finding alternatives to prescription and conventional medication has been an empowering journey and since becoming a mother my hunger for knowledge has only deepened. After all, children are more vulnerable to the potentially serious side effects posed by drugs including antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and pain relievers.
Homeopathy offers a safe, effective and easy to administer alternative to conventional medications. It also helps little bodies heal themselves rather than simply masking symptoms or pushing illness further into the body. Here are ten of our favourite remedies which may help your family feel better too.
BUMPS AND BRUISES
One of the most popular remedies, Arnica is incredibly powerful for relieving trauma, bruises, aches, and strains. With the relentless frequency of toddler bumps and bruises we keep both the oral and topical applications on hand. Arnica also supports with the the trauma of minor or major surgery (it helped me after my caesarian) and the exhaustion of jet lag and long haul flights.
For kids, after a tumble occurs, administer oral arnica every few hours until symptoms improve. The topical ointment can be applied to bruises or bumps, but not over open wounds. I keep a vial of Arnica at home, in the car and always take it when we’re travelling.
ECZEMA
We recently discovered Forces of Nature Eczema Control Remedy when my son’s eczema flared up with the unavoidable change of routine travel brings. It has become known as “magic cream” in our family owing to the almost immediate improvement we saw in our son’s skin.
A combination of fifteen homeopathic plant extracts it reduces itchiness, dampens inflammation and helps the skin repair itself. For us, it’s not a cure for eczema – that’s a long story for another day! But, I’m relieved in the knowledge that when my son’s eczema flares up and I’m tempted to use cortisone, I’ll be reaching for the “magic cream” instead.
DENTAL HEALTH AND CAVITIES
A recent study published in The Lancet Neurology, added fluoride to a list of toxic environmental chemicals contributing to neurodevelopmental disabilities such as autism and ADHD. So, how can we protect our kids’ teeth against cavities without using fluoridated toothpaste?
As an alternative to fluoride, our paediatric dentist recently gave us a remineralizing paste but our son outright refused. And I don’t blame him – it was kinda funky! So, I immersed myself in the world of natural dental care and was shocked to find my long held beliefs about what’s needed to maintain good dental health completely obliterated.
As it turns out, diet, but not just sugar, plays a major role in dental health; so much so, the British Medical Journal, published a study reporting cavities and tooth decay could potentially be reversed with diet. So our diet and supplements have changed and we’ve added two protective homeopathic remedies.
Taken daily Calc Fluor and Calc Phos strengthen and aid in the growth of teeth in children. Calc Phos “is concerned with formation of bone and teeth” and Calc Fluor “is found in the surface of bones and in the enamel of teeth.” Our naturopath suggested to give these remedies once daily and we’ve already noticed a difference.
TEETHING AND EARS
Chamomilla is the remedy for teething pain in babies. We started giving it to our son when he was six months old by dissolving tablets in a teaspoon of water. We used a combination remedy by Hyland’s. Another option is Camilia, which comes in individual liquid ampoules; more convenient but a little more expensive.
This remedy also works wonders for ears. From painful popping on airplanes (a parent’s worst nightmare when travelling) to ear infections Chamomilla is powerful. Our homeopath made up a specific dose for our son when he was a baby and we gave a dose every 5-10 minutes on descent. If you don’t have a homeopath you can find Chamomilla for babies here.
COUGHS AND COLDS
Official warnings have been in place since 2009 requiring cough and cold medication to state they mustn’t be administered to children under the age of six. Despite being potentially harmful, as many as one in five parents give these medications to young children. Adverse reactions in kids can be as severe as coma, seizures and death. Thankfully there are a number of safe remedies which can help kids feel better:
- In the early stages of a flu and to prevent it taking hold, we use Oscillococcinum. Writing this post has reminded me to stock up as it’s such a great remedy (which we forgot about this time!).
- Coryzalia is our go-to for relief of mild cold symptoms such as congestion and runny noses.
- Ferrum phosphoricum is a single remedy which also aims to prevent colds getting worse. At the first sign of a sore, scratchy throat or the start of a fever or earache our homeopath suggests giving hourly doses of Ferrum phos 12C or 30C until symptoms dissipate.
- Aconite is a helpful remedy to use at the start of a cold. It helps children who are restless, agitated and anxious about their symptoms. Also helpful for coughs, including “croup”.
LEARNING MORE ABOUT HOMEOPATHY
Natural medicine is such a huge topic and it’s impossible to cover it in one blog post. What I have shared here is not meant to be prescriptive but merely an outline of the remedies which have helped our family avoid conventional medication.
Two books I have referred to on many occasions are Homeopathic Medicine for Children and Infants by Dana Ullman and Natural Baby and Childcare: Practical Medical Advice and Holistic Wisdom for Raising Healthy Children, by the late (and incredible) Dr Lauren Feder. With hundreds of remedies homeopathy can seem overwhelming but these references make it simple and accessible for families.
We also have a homeopath who is an amazing resource; she often prescribes constitutional remedies for specific conditions, guiding our family on our natural health journey.
Have you used homeopathy for your family’s health? What remedies would you add to this list?
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Hi, thanks for the excellent list of homeo medicines. I will highly recommend Arsenicum Album for flu/cold symptoms. Works a treat early on.
Thanks so much Pooja. I will get some of that too. Do you repeat dose until symptoms subside?
Isn’t it that the homeopathic system of medicine effect is just its placebo effect? We tackled this in when I was in the undergrad school just a side topic of the professor which can be considered as an obiter. He said that, any positive feelings after taking homeopathic treatment are just because of the normal recovery from such illness. But nevertheless, I’ve been so discouraged by other medicines and all of its side effects maybe I’ll try to use some of Homeopathic medicine if afflicted by any disease. Thank you for this enlightening post.
Hi Kate, thanks for reading and for your comment. My dad would agree with you! Homeopathy is a type of medicine which unfortunately is easy to ridicule and make light of – especially by western medicine. I’m not an expert of homeopathy but I have learnt enough about it to appreciate the powerful effects it can have. As I mentioned in the post the placebo effect is limited with babies and pets. I used it, as well as herbal medicine, in practice when I was a veterinarian and saw some incredible results. It’s not a catch all – western medicine is indispensible and necessary for many conditions, especially acute problems. But, for chronic conditions I find myself increasingly turning to unconventional options as western medicine often doesn’t have an answer or the medication merely mask symptoms or have potentially serious side effects. I hope you find it useful too and thanks for reading.
All homoeopathic remedies undergo a strict ‘proving’ which is a series of clinical trials. All symptoms are noted, before a remedy can be included in the Materia Medica and can be considered a homoeopathic remedy. It is true each persons body will respond in its own way to the remedy, based on what it needs, but it will always happen within a set of parameters for each remedy. Homoeopathy was based on ancient practices, but systemised in 1700s by Samuel Hahnemann.
Hi Tracy…. I would love to use the magic cream on my son who is five months old. Do you know if this is safe for babies ?
Hi Nilu,
I just checked the Forces of Nature website and it says not to use for children under 2 years of age without doctor’s advice. Sorry! You could chat with your doctor or naturopath and see what they think. Here’s the link to the advice.
When my son was a baby, and still now, we used a lot of coconut oil – you can’t go wrong with that. I add it to the bath as well as put it directly on the skin. Eczema is such a pain, we’re mostly winning with it now so appreciate its hard trying to find a solution. Dead sea salts in the bath were also great. Oatmeal baths too. And for my son, it’s definitely dairy, wheat and sugar that flare it up. We had allergy tests done but I’ve also tested it with dietary changes. It all begins in the gut and the skin is just the symptom really – we used loads of probiotics too. Vitamin D and fish oils great too. Hope that helps! And good luck xxx
Thanks a lot for sharing such a good number of useful homeopathic medicine. Again great post…
Dear Tracy, thank you very much for this article, and the sharing of natural remedies, I will definitively go for some of them. In addition to your advice, I highly recommend an amber necklace to help our little ones with the teething. In my country, many many mums and midwifes count on it. I use one myself and my daughter is much better with the necklace while teething then without – less cranky, less in pain or discomfort.
We have used a lot of pulsatilla for our little one, for teething and fevers. She fits the personality most times. Now She’s 2 chammomilla works well too and calc carb was her constitutional remedy from our homeopath. My daughter loves taking her little tablets!