Is it a con or can it help my sick child?

[Nightswimminginoldpants]

Homeopathy?

Feeling a bit vulnerable at the moment, so not sure if it’s clouding my view.

Dd is ill and I’m getting desperate. Have been talking to a homeopathist online, she is very intent that homeopathy will help my Dd get better.

Does it work?

Any positive effect of homeopathy is attributable to placebo (which in itself can be very powerful - I believe it’s currently being seriously studied for potential uses in mainstream medicine). Don’t waste your money on ridiculous ‘consultations’ and expensive snake oil, though - they’re woo merchants who prey on the desperate and gullible, and it’s a total con. As someone said upthread, you may as well give your daughter some tap water and tell her it’s magic.

On a cautionary note, I have a friend whose child was sick many years ago, and someone had really got in her head about mainstream medicine so she took him to a homeopath instead. A day or so later he had a raging fever and was struggling to breathe, and she ended up having to call an ambulance. He was admitted to hospital immediately, critically ill, and the registrar lost his shit when she told him she’d been dosing her son with these pixie drops rather than taking him to see an actual doctor. She was mortified, but also wracked with guilt that - with the best of intentions - she’d done something so stupid. He was fine in the end, but the outcome could have been very different.

I hope you’re able to get some help for your daughter.

It's a con. At best it might work as a placebo. If it truly worked, it would have passed rigorous scientific tests and would solve a lot of problems!

There may be no way that science can as yet understand the basis of homeopathy, but that does not mean it does not work or is a con. Personally I have benefitted hugely from seeing a very good homeopath who helped me recover from thyroid problems among other issues. My elderly mother suffered from tinnitus but was completely cured by seeing another homeopath who was also a NHS GP.
As to placebo effect, homeopathy is very successful in curing animals - and they are not subject to placebo effect.
Seek out a good homeopath, OP - someone reputable and who you can see in person. Homeopathy treats the whole person, not just the symptons.
Find a good practitioner, trained and qualified on a register of Homeopathy UK or Society of Homeopaths. Their websites give useful information about choosing someone. 🌺

If in any doubt, watch this hilarious Mitchell & Webb sketch on homeopathy:

Given she is unwell, with neurological symptoms I gather, and has been on multiple rounds of antibiotics, the best thing you can do regardless is work on her gut health.

Vegetables, grains, beans, nuts, fruits, yoghurt, etc - essentially the modern Mediterranean diet plan. Plenty of books around about its antiinflammatory effects, and its effects on the immune system and the brain, and many neurotransmitters are produced by the gut microbiome.

We don’t need to "understand the basis" to believe that homeopathy works. We just need to be able to see the results it claims, reproduced in proper objective blind trials. If it really worked, that would be easy. But it doesn’t happen.

The Royal Veterinary College experts don't believe it really helps animals.

https://www.rvc.ac.uk/research/news/general/scientists-at-royal-veterinary-college-show-homeopathy-only-appears-to-work-because-of-perceptual-errors

What basis do you have for saying that? Or do you just automatically repeat the other ignorant views peddled on here?😞

She is showing an infection still that antibiotics should get rid of but hasn’t, even after many rounds
Do you think Gi map test results will help us?

Arnica cream would be a herbal remedy, homeopathy is water, Herbal and homeopathy are not the same thing.

So if my horse has a deep puncture wound the homeopathic approach would be to treat with ledum palustre.
Yeah, no, think I'll go with a dose of tetanus antitoxin!

Disclaimer: I am a scientist and I believe in science.

Because if someone is selling a product that doesn’t work to desperate and vulnerable people, they’re at best naive and at worst nasty con people.

Basic logic

This. The conflation of these two entirely separate things is not helpful.

I haven't read the full thread as I know MN Is generally very negative about homeopathy but I want to add that I have had very positive experiences and it has helped with numerous conditions that modern medicine and NHS have been absolutely useless with. What is to lose by trying it out

Several of your posts go on about water. In fact homeopathic remedies are usually delivered in soft pill form that dissolves under or on the tongue. Contrary to a post earlier on here, the remedies are surprisingly cheap.

Water is also very cheap and equally efficacious.

I'm not a victim, I'm an intelligent person using a wide variety of treatments and methods to improve my health.
Beyond diagnosing me, the NHS has basically washed their hands of me. They claim I can't be cured, so they don't bother doing anything - that's the con I'm paying into!
There are masses of CFS ME support groups sharing treatments/skills etc that have worked for them to improve their condition or stopped it worsening. All without NHS support - we have to fight to even be believed we're ill......
The NHS has it's place, but so do complimentary health treatments and changes in diets and supplements....

Absolute con.

It’s the alchemy of modern times.

Just as base metals can’t turn into gold, water cannot retain the memory of substances that it has touched.

”oh but it worked for me!” It didnt. If you were cured, it was by something else.

Please listen to those of us saying that improving your child's gut health may work. You may have ignored my last post because mumsnet temporarily hid it, possibly because I named a specific product.

Repeat antibiotics harm the gut and your gut biome is important. If you are having a gi mat test next week maybe hold of until after that but then I would strongly encourage you not just to look at diet but to give her either pre or pro biotics.

What exactly are her symptoms apart from repeat infections that are not responding to antibiotics?

This suggests you don't know what homeopathy is. So please tell us what you believe it to be ans which illnesses it "cured".

Because the “active ingredient” has been diluted, shaken, diluted again. The theory is the more dilute the more effective the medicine.

But it is so dilute that they is often none of the original “ingredient” left. So is just water. That somehow holds on to the memory of the ingredient it was dosed with.

How this happens is completely unknown. Why the water doesn’t hold on to the memory of anything else it has come into contact with is also unknown.

This magic water is then mixed with sugar/ neutral power to make into tablets. How this contamination of the magic water doesn’t affect it is also unexplained.

Double blind trials have shown it has NO effect. As it can’t because it is entirely nonsense.

It isn’t the cost of the tablets alone that is the problem it is the consultation. Plus the false hope.

This is a very ignorant comment. The remedies are not given as water. Do you actually know anything about homeopathy?

i haven’t seen anyone arguing against all alternative medicines, healthy eating, gut biome, herbal remedies, massages can all help.

Magic water can’t. Unless it is the placebo effect, which is incredibly powerful.

Sorry to hear about your child OP.

Don't know if this has been suggested already, as haven't read the whole thing, but it might be worth looking into fasting. Obviously done properly, and not for weight loss. There is some really interesting research about fasting and various autoimmune diseases. The "Zoe" podcast on if, offers a good introduction.

As for homeopathy, it's a placebo, which can be helpful in itself (for your daughter). May be cheaper ways of doing it though, depending on what the woman is charging x

And yes to ask for a blood test to test if B12 pills are improving her levels or not.

I'm not an expert on GI mapping, but I've read mixed things about them. The people in favour say you can learn if there are harmful bacteria, parasites etc. The people against say they're not that accurate yet, and have a high rate of false positives and could lead to treatment of things which aren't an issue.

A common sign of gut issues is recurring bloating, diarrhoea, constipation etc., which you can try and tackle with diet with or without further testing. Also, it's worth thinking about the home environment, if there are any major stressors or causes of anxiety as these are also bad for the immune system.