Posted by Michael Katzenberg on Oct.15, 2009

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Even if you’re not concerned about H1N1, as a parent of a young child, you probably dreaded the inevitable return of the cold and flu season. Your child may have already come down with a cold or the flu after going the whole summer without one. If your child is very young, you’re probably aware that many over the counter cold and flu remedies now carry warnings that they should not be administered to children under the age of two. Some cold remedies even say that children younger than six should not take them. Parents are instead cautioned to use only a humidifier and perhaps saline drops for sick infants and toddlers, and simply allow the cold or flu run its course. Yet it’s difficult for parents to just sit back and do nothing when their child is suffering.

Fortunately, alternative remedies are now readily available in health food stores like Whole Foods, in drug stores like Walgreens and CVS, and even in Walmart. Many of these remedies are homeopathic, although some may be herbal remedies. Some of them are even labeled for children’s use. This article provides a brief overview of homeopathy and homeopathic remedies, and describes a few of the remedies available for children and infants.

Homeopathy works on the notion that like cures like. Extremely small doses of a substance are administered to relieve a particular condition or set of symptoms. Given in large doses, the substance would actually cause those symptoms in a healthy individual and might even be poisonous. Yet as Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, discovered over two hundred years ago, these substances can cure many illnesses without causing side effects or complications. This fact has made homeopathic remedies very attractive for treating children and infants, but it’s important to note that homeopathic remedies do not mask symptoms like other over the counter and prescription medicines do. Instead, they target an illness directly.

Each remedy is made for a certain set of conditions. If someone does not exhibit these specific symptoms, then the remedy will not likely do anything for her or him. For example, Pulsatilla may be used when a child has “thick, yellow-green, bland (non-irritating) mucus,” has a “wet cough in the morning, and a dry cough at night,” the child isn’t thirsty but “craves fresh air,” and “desires company and sympathy.” In contrast, Allium Cepa may be used when a child’s “nose runs readily with a thin, clear, burning nasal discharge” with “much sneezing,” the child feels “better from cool fresh air” but is “worse is in warm room after rest”, has a tickling sensation in the throat, (Schmukler, p. 66-67). However, a child doesn’t need to have all the symptoms for the remedy to work (Schmukler, p. 249), so a parent can focus just on the type of nasal discharge and then choose the appropriate remedy even if the other symptoms are difficult to determine.

Judging symptoms is particularly difficult with very young children who can’t verbalize their feelings, leaving a parent wondering what remedy to use. Luckily, there are many remedies now available that take some of the guesswork out of diagnosing cold and flu symptoms. The most common are made by two different companies, Boiron, Inc. and Hyland’s. You can check out each of these companies on their websites (www.boironusa.com and www.hylands.com). Boiron, Inc. makes “Chestal” for coughs, and “Oscillococcinum” for the flu, while Hyland’s makes “Sniffles ‘n Sneezes 4Kids” for the common cold, and “Complete Flu Care 4Kids,” among other remedies, including one for teething.

“Children’s Chestal,” and “Sniffles ‘n Sneezes 4Kids” are good examples of the multi-remedy formula available in drug stores as opposed to the single remedy medicines commonly used by homeopaths. Dana Ullman points out in her book Homeopathic Medicine for Children and Infants that combination medicines are not considered true homeopathy by some homeopaths because they make it difficult to determine which particular remedy is actually resolving the health issue (p. 233). However, unless you are able to consult a homeopath, or can figure out your diagnoses using a book on homeopathy, these combination medicines may still be very helpful and often more effective than traditional over the counter medicines.

Since some homeopathic remedies are produced from parts of animals, vegetarians may want to closely examine the origins of the ingredients whenever possible. For example, “Oscillococcinum” contains Anas barbariae hepatis et which is made from the heart and liver of a duck because it was discovered that most ducks carry every known flu virus in their digestive tracts (Ullman, p. 143).

While only a licensed homeopath or doctor should be consulted for more serious or chronic illnesses, parents who wish to take an alternative approach to helping their children deal with the symptoms of minor colds and flu will be grateful that homeopathic remedies are easier to find and use than ever before.

References

Schmukler, Alan V. Homeopathy: An A to Z Home Handbook (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 2006).
Ullman, Dana. Homeopathic Medicine for Children and Infants (New York: Penguin Putnum, Inc., 1992).

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