[Dr. Thomas Cowan]
1. a child with a fever must stay in bed or in a comfortable, relaxed
place.
2. To encourage the elimination through the kidneys, he should take warm
liquids as often as possible.
3. The child should be kept warm as the fever needs to do its job and be
allowed to “burn out” the illness.
4. The bowels should be kept open if need be with a gentle laxative or
herbs that encourage bowel movements.
Ferr-p.: First in fever of unknown origin.
A sick child can listen to stories read out loud, but otherwise the only
other appropriate activity is rest.
The less mental stimulation in the form of computer games, movies, etc.,
the better. Illness is a serious and energy-consuming task; there is no room
for anything else in their lives, only rest and recovery.
If parents followed just this simple advice, nothing to bring down the
fever, just warmth, calm resolve, careful observation, lots of fluids, keeping
the bowels open, and rest, we would have far fewer problems with
chronic disease than we have now.
There are also other interventions that we can use that work with the
processes I just described.
Erysidoron 1. This medicine which is made from the honeybee (Apis) and
the plant Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade) works with the four bodies that
are involved with inflammation. The whole activity of the bees speaks of its
relationship to warmth and physical structure. It is said that the temperature
in the center of a naturally made beehive is exactly 98.6°F, the same as the
healthy human temperature. The hive, which encases this warmth, is made of
perfect hexagonal crystals. It is as though the bees are saying to us, “We are
the picture in nature of the perfect relationship to warmth encased in the
perfect physical structure.
You, my friend, are struggling to find this relationship, I will help
you find the way.”
Belladonna is a plant that lives in the damp, dark swampy undergrowth,
and out of this fluid realm it develops a poison that makes us wake up. It was
given the name belladonna because women used it to instil an extract of the
berries into their eyes to cause their pupils to dilate, which was considered a
sign of beauty, hence bella (beautiful) donna (lady). The poison literally
wakes us up, opens our eyes, and makes our emotions and feelings more acute.
Belladonna treats the emotional body struggling with the damp, fluid realm of
the swamp to bring a resolution of all that swelling, mucus, pus and other
wateriness that is the hallmark of so many childhood
illnesses. This medicine is given in the dose of 5 to 10 drops every 2
hours in the case of a fever and serves as our basic aid to guide the child
through the illness.
Remember that the common thread in treating any inflammatory illness is
to help the child work off the infection. Just as in a compost pile, or a pond
that has had some garbage or pollution dumped into it, an infection is nature’s
way of digesting unwanted debris. If you put the wrong stuff in a compost pile,
it will get an “infection” as the new, probably more powerful bacteria try to
digest this unwanted stuff. Similarly, a polluted pond will produce algae
growth to digest the pollution. We call the algae an “infection” but it is
really a kind of digestive process. In the child with a fever, the white blood
cells do the internal digestion, helped along with the fever.
Our task is mainly to keep the elimination channels–sweat glands,
kidneys and the bowel–open to allow the body to efficiently remove digested
debris. When this goes wrong, the child becomes “congested” and ends up with
more serious infections (pneumonia).
We can help prevent an “infection” getting out of hand by increasing
elimination.
1. increase the sweating, a major avenue our bodies use in eliminating
any debris. In former times, sweating herbs such as peppermint, yarrow and
elder flower teas were given to all sick children as these diaphoretic (sweat
inducing) herbs help the child to “sweat it out.” We all know that many
illnesses are gone the morning after a good sweat. These herbs should be given
in hot water as the warmth further encourages the sweating process.
We also know that the elder flower has its own anti-viral,
immuno-stimulating effect while yarrow helps the liver detoxify poisons and
peppermint soothes the GI tract. These herbs and other diaphoretics are found
in the formulation called Diaco by Mediherb, which is given at the dose of 1/8
to 1 teaspoon every 2-4 hours to encourage sweating.
2. Andrographis comp, a mixture of Andrographis, Echinacea angustifolia
root, and Holy Basil. (If they can’t swallow tablets, I use plain Echinacea
liquid).
Andrographis comp is Andrographis, otherwise known as “king of the
bitters,” which helps activate a very important principle of natural medicine,
that is to support what the body is already doing. We help the sweating
along with warmth and herbs, we encourage elimination with gentle laxatives.
Andrographis enhances the normal exit strategy of the body for poisons, which
is to conjugate (make soluble) the poison in the liver and then
excrete it through the bile. It is sort of like bagging garbage and then
taking it out to the curb. Bitter herbs help stimulate the flow of bile,
thereby making it easier to eliminate the poisons and the bacteria that our
white
blood cells have digested. This is why bitters are included in virtually
every traditional herbal formula. All healing involves elimination and
Andrographis is the king of this process. (It is also very bitter!)
Echinacea is an immune enhancer that helps our white blood cells
recognize and move to the site of the infection. It should be used in virtually
all infections at any site.
Holy Basil is known as an adaptogenic herb, that is, an herb that helps
us adapt to stress, including the stress of an illness. Adaptogenic herbs work
by increasing cortisol production, which has a mild anti-inflammatory effect,
thereby keeping the inflammation from getting too intense. The dose of
Andrographis comp is 1-2 tablets every 2 to 4 hours depending on the intensity
of the illness. For those children who can’t swallow tablets it can be
dissolved first in hot water and then disguised by honey or apple sauce.
If this doesn’t work, use plain Echinacea possibly mixed with licorice root to
sweeten it. My experience with treating children with nasty-tasting
medicine is that when they need it, they will take it as long as the
parents are convinced it is right. When they get better, they refuse to take
any more, as if to say, ‘Now I don’t need the help, I’m OK on my own.” That is
when I stop the medicine.
3. Congaplex from Standard Process. This preparation is a mixture of
natural, whole food sources of vitamin C, which helps the activity of the white
blood cells. I also give thymus extract, as the thymus is the organ that
makes T cells, which participate in overcoming infections. This
preparation helps keep the illness brief as the thymus gland is responsible
also for making the antibodies that are part of the recovery process.
The dose is 1-2 tablets every 2 hours for about 1 week, or until
completely better.
The rest of the medicines are specific to the site of the infection.
There is Bronchafect for bronchitis/pneumonia, Urico for infections of the
urinary tract, Apis/Levistecum for ear infections, and Euphrasia comp
for throat and sinus infections. These herbs are available through
Mediherb.
Food and Drink
Diet for sick children. The food and drink should all be warm to hot, to
encourage the warmth principle. During sickness, the protein content should be
reduced because the waste that we are eliminating during illness is
coming from the protein in our diets. However, fats encourage the
healthy production of needed warmth. Fat transports vitamin A, the main
nutrient needed to help our immune system. Healthy fats and soup broth should
be the mainstays of our “sick” diet. Hot chicken soup, based on homemade
broth –the famous “Jewish penicillin”– with cooked vegetables and a bit of
cream or coconut milk is perhaps the ideal sick meal. Generally sick
children are not very hungry so the warmth and nourishment of frequent
bowls of hot soups is the perfect diet for them. Smoothies made with egg yolks,
fresh fruit and whole yoghurt, cream or coconut milk are another good choice,
although they should not be served cold. Of course, children should be given ½
to 1 teaspoon high-vitamin cod liver oil at all times, but especially when they
are sick. It can be mixed with a little water or fresh orange
juice, or given with an eye dropper.
We started this exploration of the proper treatment of illness in
childhood by examining the difficulty in changing some of the ways in which we
think, or in today’s parlance, the paradigms in which we believe. In my view,
there is perhaps no paradigm that is in such urgent need for revision as
our approach to the illnesses of children. In our almost messianic quest to
wipe out childhood disease–through vaccinations, antibiotics and fever-reducing
drugs–we have produced a wasteland of children who are literally chronically
sick and tired, spending lives feeling uncomfortable in their untransformed
skins. It is as if we have prevented caterpillars from becoming butterflies
because the time of immobility as a chrysalis can be dangerous. Well it is
dangerous, at least a little, but it is more dangerous–in fact deadly–to never
allow a child to fullfill his or her destiny and become a butterfly.
We urgently need to respect the transformative power of illness, to
pluck up our courage and not succumb to those who promise better health through
injecting us with poisons, or harsh anti-life medicines that become less and
less effective. And more than anything we need to believe in the healing
powers of our children’s bodies, so we can give them the gift of confidence in
their own strength as they embark on the challenges of adulthood.
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