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 :)

Stoirin, I am ROFL at your comments

still no one answering seeker's question then?

I think we should maybe lower the bar here a bit: one answer to seeker's question rather than three?

Anyone?

To conclude that anyone who rubbishes homeopathy is some sort of slave to conventional medicine is nonsense.

I have no time for homeopathy but that does not mean I uncritically accept everything a conventional doctor tells me! For example, our DS was suspected of having various serious (some fatal) muscular conditions when he was small by a consultant. We always thought this very unlikely. It also took the doctors almost 5 months to correctly diagnose his medical condition, and it really shouldn't have been that difficult.

This does not mean, however, that I have since concluded that all conventional medicine and conventional doctors are rubbish and homeopathy must be the answer. There is just no getting away from the fact that improved medical methods and drugs have contributed greatly to longer lifespans. Anyone who argues otherwise is just being willfully blind to the actual facts, or hasn't bothered to engage their critical faculties and look at the evidence. Sorry.

People who point out that homeopathy has nothing in it presumably have exercised their critical thinking skills and so are less likely to be uncritical proponents of conventional medicine.

I'm still laughing at Loopy's critique of her highly qualified GP while unquestioningly accepting the diagnosis of someone with no scientific or medical qualifications, just a diploma in a pseudo-science. I know who I'd rather trust with my health.

I told DH about this thread earlier, and showed him the howdoeshomeopathywork web site. He giggled, then said, but some of it does, it has been around for longer than medicine. Speaking to him, it became clear that he was talking about HERBAL.

When I explained what homeopathy is, he refused to believe me as it all sounded too far fetched, then said "That's the kind of thing that Tom Cruise believes in, it's like believing in aliens sitting on your shoulder"

And here is my favourite ever post about homeopathy on MN

"Surely the trick with homeopathy is to see the homeopath for only a tiny amount of time, but shake a lot while you do it.

Maybe go by on a pogo stick, and wave through the window?"

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

oh go on, tell us.

A common theme with people for whom homeopathy has worked seems to be:

• no qualified medical professional could find anything wrong with me
• a homeopath immediately agreed I was ill and prescribed me some magic pills
• I got better

Isn't the word for this "hypochondria"?

"Isn't the word for this "hypochondria"

That isn't automaticly correct, state of mind plays a huge part in being able to manage pain or discomfort.

Back in the 80s a friend roped me into a free consult with her teacher cos she was training to become a homeoquack. I had no idea what it was but went to help out a freind, with no real expectation that anything could help with the period pains that were knocking me for six one week a month.

They spent over an hour talking to me, for the first ti e since it happened somebody asked me how I coping with my father abandoning us and my having to take so much parental responsibility for my younger sibs (my mother was broken).

I cried my heart out and got express the hurt, anger, fear etc. and nobody fobbed me off to stop me clogging up the waiting room.

My periods got better.

The thing is, I never took the pills they gave me cos they said I had to give up mint toothpaste and coffee (COFFEE!!, fate worse than death not having coffee) and that was a step too far from my teen self to accpet.

So I think letting some of the steam out of my intetnal, emotional pressure cooker allowed me to cope better with the pain, or it lessened the pain becuase I was no longer ramping it up in my mind as a mode of opting out of coping one week a month.

There is nothing for health care to glean in the sugar pills, but the mode of comsultation I think does have something to offer. Just not sure the system can afford such a time comsuming form of consult.

The forum of consultation does have something to offer...

...but not in conjunction with lies about water having a memory, and pills with nothing in them.

Yes, having someone talk to you and take your concerns seriously is undoubtedly helpful - that's why homeopathy is so effective for anxious mums whose babies have colds for example.

Actually, what it does show is the huge and unexplored connection between mind and body and it is a shame that Western medicine doesn't give that as much weight as it should.

If there was less of a stigma around mental health, that would also help. People always find it highly offensive if you suggest that some of their symptoms are psychosomatic and I've never understood why. I suppose it's akin to being accused of faking them but I think a lot of the time there is genuine pain and discomfort, even if there is no physical source.

The forum of consultation does have something to offer...

...but not in conjunction with lies about water having a memory, and pills with nothing in them.

---

Exactly.

I just don't know how affordable that would be for the public sector. Preventative medicine and taking into account the emptional aspects of medical needs certainly would do much to improve health care and people's perception of their wellness, but I don't know if it would provide the sort of savings in the longer term that would justify it.

Certsinly there is no justification for letting hoemoquacks off the ethical hook on the basis of the value of their consults. Not while their (percieved) overseeing body take no action when members flagrantly undermine clinets faith in medcine and actively promote fear and distrust with a "big pHARMa poison" form of self marketing. And not while they are flogging a placebo.

There is a debate to be had over the use of placebos but until that debate can be had and we resolve the benefits of placebo v paternalistic medical attitude issue, they shouldn't be given carte blanche to carry on as they are, sanctioned by the NHS.

" that's why homeopathy is so effective for anxious mums whose babies have colds for example."

Excpet when the anxious new mother with the insomniac baby is left even more anxious due to a mammoth hole in her (tiny) supermarket budget and ends up trying to eek out nappies for a month.

With a baby that still isn't sleeping any better depsite half a ton of sugar pills (that she was unaware were sugar pills, or she wouldn't have followed idiot paternalistic peds advice and bought the sodding things).... with extra added anxiety of the money kind just to make things worse.

It isn't black and white enough in terms of effective placebo effect to take the line that there is no harm in doctors perscribing them for anybody they can't help with medcine.

I'd have been better off being told that babies don't actually follow the rules laid out in the baby books re sleep and feeds, especially if breastfed.

At least I'd have stopped fretting there was something with him or my milk supply .....and my wallet wouldn't have taken the hit it did.

Chinese traditional medicine has active ingredients. Absolutely no comparison with homeopathy.

ctm in theory is herbal medicine.
herbal medicines have active ingredients.

in the past there have been cases of very potent conventional (prescription) medicines beeing mixed into herbs illegally, or animal parts of endagered species...

I'm with seeker and mousey: not the same thing at all.

There are areas that might be concerning about CTM, e.g. which training practicioners have, licensing and so on. However, whether herbal medicine is capable of doing anything or not, I guess, is out of the question. If it weren't, why would cannabis be illegal?

"My point is only that it's not necessary to dismiss things just because they can't be proved scientifically."

oh I think it is when it's to do with the treatment of real illness!

But what if a proportion of people actually benefit from homeopathy - would you cut that treatment out of their lives if it was making them feel better? If it helped somone sleep, or in some other way contributed to their quality of life?

I don't think anyone here is saying that homeopathy is the right answer in all cases or even for anything that approaches a serious illness but to dismiss it out of hand because it doesn't fit with your own worldview is churlish imo.

If you don't believe in it fine but don't condemn others who do. It's up to them what they believe, what they spend their money on and what they put into their bodies. It's called freedom and when I last looked, we still had in this country.

Logic is not churlish. Science is not dismissive.

Its bunkum. Its bullshit. Some people beleive that fairies are talking to them, it doesn't mean we all have to legitimise such claims. Homeopathy is not the right answer to anything, its GOT NOTHING IN IT. (How many times does this need to be said?)

Freedom? There are a lot of things you might want to put into your body that are either illegal of highly regulated. Where did you get the idea that you have freedom in that regard?

Hope, clarification: when I say that I believe CTM is capable of doing things, what I really mean is the herbal medicine part, not acupuncture; I (wrongly) assumed this was what was up for discussion.

As for its understanding of the human body, etc.: I think it is perfectly possible to deduce from observation that there is a causal relationship between two things. E.g. humans understood the link between sex and pregnancy long before we knew about sperms and eggs. As I already wrote in my last post: training, among many other things, is arguably an issue with CTM.

As for evidence based medicine. IMHO, if you are old enough to make an informed choice, you should be free to use whatever medical tradition you wish. If you believe you gain more from some reiki and crystal therapy than from something that has been proven to work, by all means, go ahead. But don't withhold treatments that actually work from your children. And don't expect the NHS to pay for it. Given the cuts in the health sector etc. I find it outrageous that there should be even a suggestion of public financing for pseudo-scientific crap.