Administering Homeopathic Remedies
Many childhood health problems can be treated effectively and gently with homeopathy. Home administration of homeopathic remedies is ideally suited for acute situations-conditions that attack your child suddenly-rather than conditions medically termed chronic (illnesses that develop slowly and persist over a long period of time).

When you give the right remedy, it will work quickly. Experienced homeopathic physicians say that the "wrong" remedy will usually cause no harm. Once your child's symptoms improve, discontinue the remedy. It is possible for a child to experience an aggravation or increase in the symptoms being treated, an effect caused by the Law of Similars. Should your child's symptoms be increased by a remedy, stop administration of the remedy.

Homeopathic remedies come in pellet, tablet, and liquid form. Pellets and tablets are generally the best form of homeopathic remedies to use for children. You should avoid touching them with your hands, as this can decrease their effectiveness. Shake the pellets or tablets into a clean spoon or the top of the bottle, and then place them directly into your child's mouth and tell her to let them dissolve rather than chewing them. Homeopathic pellets and tablets are mostly sweet milk sugar (lactose) that melts in the mouth, so it is generally easy to persuade a child to take them. If you are giving a remedy to an infant, you can dissolve the pellets in water and give the mixture to your child in an eyedropper.

The liquid remedies-homeopathic tinctures are not generally recommended for children because of their high alcohol content. However, as with herbal tinctures, if you put them in very hot water and let the mixture sit for five minutes, much of the taste of the alcohol will evaporate.

Homeopathic remedies work best when taken at least thirty minutes before or after eating. Clinical practice has shown that strong flavors (such as mint products), odors (paints, perfumes, etc.), foods and beverages that contain caffeine, and camphor or camphor-containing products (such as mothballs or deep-heating ointments-which should not be used on children anyway)-al1 decrease the effectiveness of the remedies, so all of these substances should be avoided when using homeopathic remedies.

Unless the treatment recommendations in Part Two specify otherwise, use the following guidelines when administering homeopathic remedies.

For a severely acute situation: For a problem such as a headache or fever, give your child one dose, every fifteen minutes, for one hour. If you see no change after four doses, you probably have the wrong remedy and should choose another.

For a less acute situation: For a problem such as a runny nose or a sore throat, give one dose, every two hours. Once symptoms start to improve, you can continue the remedy at less frequent intervals. During this stage, give your child one dose, three times daily.

A homeopathic remedy should be given for as long as it is needed. For example, if your child's headache is gone fifteen minutes after she takes a headache remedy, she can stop taking the remedy. If the headache returns four hours later, try the same remedy again. Once your child feels better, she no longer needs to take the remedy.

Homeopathy is a highly individualized form of treatment that requires careful observation of your child's physical symptoms as well as her emotional reaction to illness. It is a gentle and noninvasive form of natural medicine that can work particularly well for common, acute childhood health problems.

From Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child by Janet Zand, N.D., L.Ac., Robert Rountree, MD, Rachel Walton, RN, ©1994. Published by Avery Publishing, New York. For personal use only; neither the digital nor printed copy may be copied or sold. Reproduced by permission.