Homeopathic treatments and asthma in 8 year old.

[cindersrella]

So my 8 year old has asthma and the pollen count has made it horrendous. She has managed for several month with her Clenil modulate (brown) inhaler and her ventolin (blue) inhaler as needed. Last month was terrible as he tree pollen started to increase and she ended up having a five day course of oral steroids.

She is now taking montelukast 5mg meds, Clenil modulate, plus certirizine (antihistamine).

Her asthma has settled and is much more controlled.

However whenever she starts taking the montelukast her mood/temper/tolerance declines terrible.

I hate these meds but without them she has asthma attacks and cannot cope. I will not take her off them until the weather and pollen settles and I speak to the GP about this..

Does anyone have any experience in homeopathy meds?

Homeopathy is not medicine. It contains zero pharmaceutically active ingredients. It's water.

The evidence from clinical trials shows that homeopathy has no effect beyond placebo effect. You’d be better off saving your money and giving her a smartie and telling her it was medicine.

Agree with above. Has she ever had allergy testing. You may find other triggers apart from pollen. Do you have pets? She should really be on antihistamine for pollen right now.

Sorry just reread on anthistimine.

If she has full on asthma attacks there is no way I would risk trying to substitute prescribed asthma medication for homeopathic treatment.

Asthma can be life-threatening and homeopathy is totally unscientific, ineffective nonsense. Don't risk it.

This is what the NHS has to say about homeopathy: "There's no good-quality evidence that homeopathy is effective as a treatment for any health condition"

Taking local produced honey for a year has not stopped but help ease hay fever for a few people I know . Definitely Keep taking the asthma meds though !!

I saw a child die from asthma in my A&E dept recently ( dates & age vague for confidentiality).
Please do keep her on the meds until you have some proper asthma specialist advice

If you do buy some homeopathy 'medicine', don't forget to water it down to make it go further.

No OP, just NO.

If you want to indulge in homeopathy, you might as well just give her a big drink of tap water because it probably does more to alleviate symptoms than expensive sugar pills with magic water soaked in.

I just wanted opinions on it as it's very vague on the internet...

I wouldn't take her off it as I said earlier her health and well-being is the most important thing to me. I certainly wouldn't try anything now as the pollen count is far to high.

The mood swings and irritability really concerns me which are side effects of meds.. I hate seeing my happy little girl not coping well in her mood.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to help this. She does meditation which helps her.

She hasn't had any allergy test but massive triggers are
Heat
Cold
Wind
Pollen
Coughs,colds,virus

You could look at introducing some alternative medicine ALONGSIDE the montelukast, but not instead of. If it's bad enough to need the montelukast, you're creating real danger if you muck about.

I'd highly recommend acupuncture as an adjunct to western medicine, as a medium- to long-term aid to reducing symptoms/tackling underlying causes (FWIW, the acupuncturists I know are a scathing about homeopathy ). But please don't reduce or remove any western medicine for asthma - work on reducing the symptoms long-term.

I'd also push hard for allergy testing. It's better to find a root cause if you possibly can. Can quite understand not wanting to have such strong meds, but obviously she needs to be in a position where they're not needed.

Ask yourself this: "If you were struggling to breath, would you want someone to hand you some sugar and water?"

That's all homeopathy is.

I'm sure I read some research last year that the local honey remedy is an old wives tale and doesn't stand up to testing.

Breathing is essential to life so I would raise it with her consultant if you don't think the current regime is working.

If the side effects are impacting her, speak to her doctor about other meds that may be available.
Locally produced honey contains small doses of local pollens and a dooon a day can act as a sort of ‘vaccine’ and help with hay fever symptoms
Homeopathy is ineffective beyond placebo

wyldeducks her current meds and care plan is working for her asthma brilliantly.

I don't know anything really about homeopathy hence the thread I started (however I am learning)

I said I wouldn't change anything until the weather has changed and pollen is much lower or with out consulting GP first which when this happens she will let her have a break from them but review her every few weeks or if needed.

This is her second time of been on them and I requested she went back on them.

The montelukast seems to have really brutal side effects though (I understand an asthma attack is much more)

My GP said there are no alternative meds to Montelukast?

I was "managing" my asthma and allergies with multiple blasts of my blue inhaler and an anti histamine everyday....I'd still end up in a + e not being able to breathe a few times a year.
Dr put me on seretide many years ago. It got my asthma under control and I barely ever have to use my blue inhaler and haven't had an asthma attack in years.
Google changes you can make in her diet to help. You'd have more success with that than homeopathic medicine I think

Is she on a nasal spray like fluticosone? That made a huge difference for ds.

Also allergy testing? Again finding the food and environmental triggers made it possible to try to eliminate them.

We manage it also by never opening windows, never dry his clothes outside, full shower and hairwash before bed and pollen and dust filters in bedroom and living areas. Plus damp dusting and vacuuming every day (or as much as possible) , boil washing teddies, bedding towels and reducing soft furnishings in his bedroom to eliminate dust. That all made a big difference.

The nurses at asthma UK (on the phone are absolutely fantastic). They massively helped me.

Good luck. Asthma is horrendous. And I don't blame you for looking into everything. Homeopathy in my opinion cannot replace the meds and lifestyle changes.

Possibly a daft question, but when do you start with the antihistamines? If you don’t already it can be better to start daily earlier in the year than you need to, rather than waiting until she shows symptoms.

Happy she does usually mange with brown inhaler and blue as needed which is not often when the weather is settled and the pollen is low and she isn't been blasted by freezing cold winds.

She has a really good variable diet when I researched about diet and asthma plus vitamins too as recommended by the doc to help her.

At the minute she takes certrizine twice a day 5ml as directed as I can't chance the pollen. As soon as she presents or I read the count is raising o give the antihistamines.

A lady died on the park by us last weekend from and asthma attack.

I also read that if there are thunder storms pollen particles double which make it even more dangerous for sufferers too.

do not treat life threatening disease with homeopathy.
it. does. not. work.

asthma is a pretty serious disease that can luckily be controlled with medication and reducing/removing triggers.
my parents didn't want me to take steroids for my asthma as child. it's miserable, I can tell you. and I ended up with permanent lung damage.

steroids for asthmatics are life savers. they are generally pretty safe and very effective.
only thing you can do to reduce the need for steroids is removing triggers.

keep the house spotlessly clean, get a hoover with hepa filter.
don't use heavily perfumes cleaning products.
never use air 'fresheners' perfumes/diffusers.
use an air purifier if you can't open windows due to pollen.
boil wash underwear&bedding.
rehome (indoor) pets.

My husband had terrible allergies and until last year was in montelukast and otc antihistamines and still was symptomatic.

He radically changed his diet and eliminated all foods that can cause an inflammatory response in the body..sugar, dairy, gluten,caffeine

He now is off all meds and symptom free and has been able to reintroduce the foods (took a year)

Yes it’s hard but worth it if it works. Pills are only ever going to treat the symptoms not the cause