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 :)

Dark ages? You mean when we used to use unproven, anti-scientific, not at all logical "treatment" for illnesses......?

Still unable to answer the most basic of questions then Loopy? Shocker.

Homeopathy kills children when their idiot parents give them sugar pills when they needed actual medicines. There have been several high profile cases. Of course no one dies from the actual "medicine", BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING IN IT!

Heres a question for the quacks, if homeopathy works, why do you go to a doctor when there is actually soemthing wrong with you? Doesn't work that well then, does it?

1. Because the great British public are stupid
2. Into the bin or the compost bucket
3. Because you're right handed so your left thumb gets less use.

WATER and SUGAR are no replacement for antibiotics, MistyB. And quite frankly, if you are refusing your child proper medical care (ie antibiotics) you are playing a dangerous game. Infections can spread, causing many more problems!

It is true in that the body can fight mild infection without the intervention of modern medicine, I recently had an infection in my toe that went away with a good cleaning & draining routine. But I wouldn't pretend that it went away because I was drinking water & had the occasional sugar in my tea!

If you have treated infections with water & sugar, then I would suggest that yours or your child's immune system has simply fought the infection off. Please don't be fooled that it went away because you took a pill made of water & sugar!

My long-standing verruca went away by itself (random happy fact)

1. and 2) I'll accept but I'm not conviced by 3). Does overuse make the nail tired? It's not breaking it's just not growing fast.

I'm certainly not saying homeopathy can treat all ailments. If I broke a bone which needed surgery I wouldn't go to my homeopath, just the same as i wouldn't expect to be able to take an aspirin to fix it. The fact that you even ask that quetion Stoirin shows a complete lack of understanding.

I'm not entering into a debate about what's in the homeopathic medicines as I don't know enough about their make up to comment. Just like I couldn't tell you exactly what's in paracetamol, doesn't stop me from believing it works though.

I was referring to the case I linked to where a girl died and NotADude's experience, both as a result of parents believing that homeopathic remedies could cure their children.

If homeopathy didn't cure your child's illness, would you then go to see a conventional doctor loopylucy?

If you're not going to debate whether water can cure your illness because you don't know enough about homeopathy, then there's no point in having this discussion :o

I can tell you what's in paracetamol. N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethanamide That's a proper scientific name that describes the type, number, and position of the atoms in the active ingredient. The word paracetamol comes from the old naming system which called it para-acetylaminophenol

I can also tell you what's in homeopathic medicine - nothing.

I found this as a comment on youtube

Various species have been living, breathing, breeding and most importantly, defecating on this planet for billions of years. Therefore, every glass of water I drink carries the "memory" of faeces. This would explain my natural immunity to the bullshit that homoeopaths peddle

Look, I don't know the exact mechanics of how the human egg is fertilized and all the details of embryology. That does not mean that I have equally good reason to subscribe to the stork theory of human reproduction.

Evidence. It matters!

(If I bang my head on the table in despair, is there a homeopathic remedy for the resulting bruise?)

I'm quite amused by the naive assumption that conventional drugs, and I'll lump doctors in there too, are 'proper medical care'. Really makes me laugh that people trust doctors purely because they are doctors. All the ones I have met are clueless and just guessing because they really don't have a clue what's wrong.

I'm starting to see that some of you are of the opinion that conventional medicine is the only way. It explains a lot!

Sugar and water please!

No, it shows a total understanding actual. You only use homeopathy for things that can go away on their own. Then they go away on their own and you say "Wow, look at how well the homepathy works!".

AGAIN: THERE IS NOTHING, NO ACTIVE INGREDIENT AT ALL, IN HOMEOPATHIC PREPERATIONS. Homeopaths will tell you this. You haven't even bothered your arse to find out the basics.

There is no debate to be had. You are at best misguided, and monumentally ignorant.

How do you think any diagnosis works? Using knowledge, experience and the balance of probabilties the professional tries to work out what's causing the problem. People don't come with labels. I suppose that's the benefit of handing out sugar pills and syrup. You don't actually have to put that much effort into diagnosing what's wrong because the treatment is always the same.

Loopy

Try

Loopy

All the ones [doctors] I have met are clueless and just guessing because they really don't have a clue what's wrong

But you think your homoeopath does have a clue as to what is wrong with you? My friend is training to become a homoeopath. She has NO medical experience AT ALL, she has been studying (part time) less than a yr & will be finished in another. Then she will be qualified to dispense 'homoeopathic medicines' to anyone she feels needing of them.

I know who I would trust most...friend or no friend!

I don't automatically trust all doctors, but that's not the same as not trusting medical research.

Not that it's 100 per cent reliable of course.

Oh dear, think I may have touched a nerve there Stoirin!

Marginally - don't even get me started on what I think of a GPs ability to provide an accurate diagnosis!

don't even get me started on what I think of a GPs ability to provide an accurate diagnosis!

But you trust your homoeopaths, when as I have written, they can have as little as 2yr part time training?

Loopy, do you - generally speaking - accept the merits of the scientific method?

I'm getting the impression that you don't, exactly. If so, do you also see the merit of Reflexology? Miracle foods? Reiki? Chakra Massage? Crystal therapy?

If not: why not?

The practice of homeopathy does harm, and has killed.

It's not the sugar or water that does people in, it is the belief they are encouraged and convinced to have in sugar pills as effective.

And a belief that "alt" therapy is safe/good whereas medicine is "evil big pharma poison chemiclas" and to be avioded. A line homeopaths are not adverse to pushing.

whatstheharm.net/homeopathy.html

That is before you investigate the extent to which western homeopaths have got involved in pushing the anti big pharma v lovely homeoquack line to increase sales of their sugar pills in Africa. HIV Antivirals and maleria are two areas that homepaths have leapt on with great human cost.

As for the idea that homeopath believe their "meds" are harmless....

Homepaths believe that the weakest dilutions are the most powerful, and do believe that you can overdose on them. They have to really, you can't claim more dilution means greater strength and not follow through to the logical conclusion that at some point super potetency is reached.

The first deliberate "overdose" on camera I saw was about ten years ago, when a homeopath sent a skeptic a vial of 200c (one of the higest dilutions) remedy for insomnia and baldly stated that if the guy took them all he would die.

Well he did, but had no adverse effects. I think that first challenge from homeoquack to skeptic was what started off the "mass homeopathic overdoses" outside Boots.

I want THIS T-shirt ....

"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.

^ any more?

seeker you are a legend

Loopy, touched a nerve? Honey, with your scientific knowledge, you couldn't find your arse with both hands, let alone touch a nerve!