I Love Homeopathics

My high-tech homeopathic storage ;-)

If you Google homeopathics, you'll get mostly a loooong list of people ranting and raving about how it's quack medicine and they can't believe people actually believe it and how studies have disproven it, blah, blah, blah.That doesn't really matter to me. I find that most of the things I believe about health "have been disproven by studies" at this point. In my mind, what that phrase means is that there's no money to be made in it. Which there isn't, because a tube of homeopathic medicine costs roughly $6. If you don't think it works and you don't want to do it, don't. But it works. And it makes me and my family much more comfortable when we do occasionally get sick.

People often ask me, "What do you give your kids when they get sick?"

The answer is somewhat complicated. My friends who have helped me pack my kitchen during our many moves can tell you what my medicine cabinet looks like - it is a strange mix of minerals, amino acids, herbs, homeopathic remedies, and various other concoctions that you might not recognize. It has actually taken me several years to build up a set of all the various homeopathic remedies that I need to treat the things we regularly deal with. I now have about 20 of the little blue tubes, about 5 white ones, and a few remedies in drop form, all with the funny Latin names that I don't even try to pronounce correctly.

Over the years, there have been so many medicines, particularly cold medicines recalled or proven unsafe for young children. I can't see myself giving my kids most of those medicines at this point. Actually, the only mainstream children's medicine I keep on my shelf is dye-free Benedryl (which is actually Target brand, because Children's Benedryl got recalled and hasn't returned to the shelves as far as I've been able to find.) And we only use that one under rare circumstances. And it doesn't usually work as well as the alternatives we've found.

ANYWAY, homeopathics.

I'm not going to bother trying to convince you that it works, because if you want to go do all the research, you'll do it anyway. OR, you'll just take my word for it (especially since there are zero side effects to them, they're completely safe to use for little kids and pregnant women), and try them yourself. Most of the people that read my blog are already big fans of homeopathic teething remedies anyway, so I doubt I'll have to sell you on this. :)

We use them most often for cold symptoms, and they seem to work best with the kids. I suspect that's because they have less caffeine, and also tend not eat spicy things - mint, ginger, and spicy food wipes out the affect of homeopathics. The more "pure" you eat, the better they seem to work. That could be another reason why the studies show they "don't work."

Several years ago I bought this book, which I really like. It seems to be out of print, but that link has several used copies, or really you could buy any reference book or even use online references.

Here are a few of our favorite remedies, ones I'd recommend you have on hand if you're interested in giving this a try. I'm going to be blunt with the symptoms/remedy descriptions. Enjoy. :)

Pulsatilla: good for ear infections, colds with yellow snot, the kind of coughs that are loose during the day and tight at night, pressure in your head
Kali Bichromicum: colds with green boogers that stick to the inside of your nose.
Nux Vomica: that sneezy feeling that makes your eyes water
Allium Cepa: clear snot that won't. stop. running.
Spongia Tosta: croupy cough
Belladonna: sudden fever, sore throat

I use 2-3 of the pellets per dose, and you can start with a couple doses 15 minutes apart, then continue 2-3 times/day after that. When you get the right remedy, the symptoms literally stop or improve within a few seconds. As you work with these more, you start to understand what symptoms go with which remedy. It is a very intuitive type of medicine - you have to pay very close attention to the symptoms and only use that remedy as long as the symptoms stay the same. People refer to "tracing" symptoms with homeopathics, because over the course of an illness the symptoms change and the remedies change.

Just because it's interesting, here's a website with some more info.
And here's a good post I read recently about using homeopathics for digestion issues.

So, that's a good start! Do you use homeopathics? Do you have some favorite remedies? Are you interested in trying this?