Homeopathy for children?

[fraktious]

I know this might be a bit woo but does anyone else use homeopathic treatments for common childhood ailments? We have (magic) teething powders and I've laid in arnica in anticipation but I'm not sure what else people typically use homeopathy for.

Our GP is very pro homeopathy and I swear by it for many things, I know that it can be used for a whole range if things but I'm looking for anecdotes/advice on where it does work and where it doesn't. I'm not planning to treat him myself but any advice about when to ask for a homeopathic remedy would be welcome :)

It has been proven to work Hope on all kinds of medicine, not just homeopathy: Link

"There are so many things which cannot be tested in a laboratory, which cannot be explained or proved. I don't consider that to be a negative thing."

Name 3.

"Name 3"

Sometimes I love this place

good luck getting answers...

The placebo effect does work with conventional medicine. Double blind trials have shown that valium is not effective other than by the placebo effect.

But the placebo effect does work on conventional drugs. Hence its use in testing them.

IME "things we cannot explain" usually means "things for which there is zero evidence but in which I would really, really like to believe".

Gosh, what a lot of narrow-minded, out of date opinions from very rude people! Outrage at the thought of a homeopathic hospital and reporting the increasing (yes increasing!) number of doctors who offer homeopathic treatments. C'mon guys, drag yourselves out of the dark ages.

I like it herein the dark ages, nobody can tell I haven't washed my hair

Loopy, there's nothing good about being so open minded that your brain falls out the back of your head. Seriously!

Believing in a treatment that has kills or permanently injures children isn't modern thinking Lucy.

Damn I'm on my iPhone but I'm dying to link to either the Dara O'Briain rant about homeopathy ("just a big bowl of soup and some pot pourri") or the Mitchell and Webb homeopathic A&E sketch.

Your wish is my command

I've always assumed that doctors that offer homeopathy do so to give the 'worried well' something to keep them quiet. Or for people that they recognise need a bit of 'tlc'. In the past drs used to give sugar pills to take advantage of the placebo effect so I guess that's what homeopathy does. I hope that's the case - would really not like to think they actually thought it worked other than as placebo!
The problem for me is that at least sugar pills are honest, they are cheap and there is no deception involved. Unlike homeopathy which takes advantage of people's scientific ignorance and gullibility to make lots of money.
For minor bumps and scrapes I find a kiss and a wipe works v well on my dcs or failing that some ice.

this sketch?

Thanks for the tip, it's hilarious!

In my experience, the people I've met who believe in homeopathy are the same ones who believe in astrology and fortune tellers, ie vulnerable/deluded/illogical. Possibly all three. I just think there's a sucker born every minute.
It 'works' in the same way a plaster or sweetie 'works' to calm my 4 year old down when she's scuffed her kneee or whatever.
One of our cats is a rescue cat who we got from friends, who were unable to look after him because he was 'violent and savage'. He came to us with a package of homeopathic 'medicine', supposedly to be put in his food to calm him down. I binned it.
He was a kitten! A kitten who occasionally pounced on furniture or nipped people... because he was a kitten! He's now a 14 year old friendly and happy cat. I lost a huge amount of respect for my friends because of that; I suppose I couldn't believe that educated people could be quite so stupid.

'C'mon guys, drag yourselves out of the dark ages'

You mean when 'medicine' involved treatments and potions that were not based on any scientific evidence? Pop two frogs under your pillow, tie willow round your neck and come and see me in the morning

Loopy are you not reading the posts on here? We have dragged ourselves out of the dark ages. It those people who believe in homeopathy who are stuck in 1796. You can wait around as long as you like but there isn't going to be an amazing renaissance that finds homeopathy to be effective. It has been tested, double blind trials have been done and it has been found to be ineffective. I'm sorry if you can't understand this but it's the truth.

Thanks for linking!

I guess a lot of people aren't particularly interested in science/medicine, and just take it as received wisdom. I could easily be like that born into a different family and brain, as it were.

HopeForTheBest

I am a bit concerned that on the first 2 pages of google, I can find NOTHING in English about the stuff you gave your dad. AND quite frequently, during a bad cold, I go from being completely blocked up (can't see how that is a favourable side effect to anything) to running horribly, back to being blocked up etc. Over the course of a day it can change quite a lot. That is the nature of the cold.

"Believing in a treatment that has kills or permanently injures children isn't modern thinking Lucy".

Um...how exactly can the treatment have killed if it's only sugar and water? Interesting! On the other hand I do know of countless stories where children have been tragically killed by conventional drugs due to side effects or adverse reactions.

Homeopathy does not kill! You might die if you have a serious illness and fail to seek other treatment because you believe homeopathy will cure it, but I don't think I've ever heard of a case of someone dying because of the medicine itself.

There seems to be this perception among some people that mainstream medicine is only one of many wisdoms, that ancient knowledge somehow provides a gentler path to the same destination etc.

Just for the record:

1. In medicine more ancient =/= better. Proof: look at the correlation between the rise of evidence based medicine and average life expectancy.

2. If it works you can stake your very last shirt on the fact that mainstream pharmaceutical corporations will successfully monetize it and thereby introduce it into mainstream medicine.

""There are so many things which cannot be tested in a laboratory, which cannot be explained or proved. I don't consider that to be a negative thing."

Name 3."

Don't want this to get lost so I'm bumping it up

the treatment can kill.
if the homoepath therapist tells the parents to withdraw the conventional medicine because the homeopathy would not work otherwise.
I do not wish an asthma attack on anyone. but having one and only beeing given sugar pills and not even driven to the A&E is frightening. I could have died. I have permanent lung damage.

1. Why Noel Edmonds is back on tv? (But that is a negative thing)
2. Where do all the teaspoons go?
3. Why does my left thumbnail grow faster than the others?