Biochemic Treatment of Children Problems

Infant’s Troubles

Infants, due to sudden exposure to external environment and various changes within are, liable to suffer from one or another ailment which require immediate attention. Some show signs of deficiencies. All can vary well be controlled by the indicated tissue salts.

Calc. Phos. To promote growth of tissues, bones and teeth. For diarrhoeal troubles of infants.
Ferr. Phos. For feverishness, dissolve (3x) few tablets in warm water and give frequently.
Kali Phos. For irritability.
Nat. Mur. Late to walk and late to talk.
Nat. Phos. and Mag. Phos. for various digestive troubles and for infantile colic; crying, restlessness.
Silicea. Poor development and delayed milestones.

Dentition & Dental Troubles

This period of natural development of a child is often associated with mild to severe pain, restlessness, irritability and excessive drooling. Child wants to chew or bite always. Maintenance of nutrition and soothing are must.

Dental caries: Tooth decay, commonly called cavities, is caused by bacterial action. Cavitics being on the surface of a tooth, various types of bacteria form breeding colonies on the enamel which is further destroyed deeply due to conversion of food sugars in lactic acid and reaches to dentine, pulp and lastly root canal irritating nerve and destroying the tooth.

Calc. Phos. Tardy dentition. Teeth develop slowly and decay rapidly in which no other remedy has a wider or greater influence. An important remedy for teething infants, children and expectant mothers.
Calc. Fluor. Enamel, rough and deficient, rapid decay: tooth becoming loose. Vomiting, spasms and incessant crying during teething.
Ferr. Phos. If the child is having fever. Inflammatory toothache, bleeding after extraction with swelling.
Kali Phos. Severe pain in decayed and filled tooth. Bleeding gums.
Mag. Phos. If a child is having dry, spasmodic cough, twitching, colicky pain. Teeth sensitive to touch or cold.
Nat. Mur. When the child drools too much.
Silicea. Gums painful on slight pressure, gum boils, abscess at the root.

Bed Wetting (Enuresis)

Involuntary urination during sleep by a child over three years of age, often attributable to poor parental training or emotional disturbances. Physical conditions aggravating it are phimosis, pinworms or cystitis. Excessive intake of soft drinks, tea, coffee, etc. can cause it.

Ferr. Phos. and Calc. Phos. 6x given in alternation. If worms are present, treat for them also.

Worms

Various parasitic invertebrates which infest especially the GIT, usually when the ova are swallowed. Roundworm. Trichinella spiralis, hookworm, pinworm, whipworm, tapeworm are some varieties infesting human beings. Personal hygiene and good sanitation are some measures to be taken for prevention.

Calc Fluor. Long, round, threadworms with tendency to squinting.
Ferr. Phos. Threadworms with tendency to pass stools of undigested food.
Kali Mur. Small white thread worms with itching at the anus.
Nat. Phos. Is the principal remedy for all kinds of worms Round, long or thread worms. Pain in the bowels, restless sleep, picking at nose, itching of rectum and grinding of teeth; with acidity.

Rickets

A deficiency disease affecting the bones of infants and children. Cause is lack of vitamin D in the diet which in turn affects calcium and phosphorus metabolism. Absence of sunlight is another contributing factor. It becomes apparent between 6 months and a year. Baby’s growth is slower and bones are soft and bent. Abdomen protrudes and chronic diarrhoea is common. Malformation results if not treated in time.

Calc. Phos. In delicate children. Sponginess of the bone, delayed closure of fontanelles, retarded dentition, emaciation, lateral curvature, swollen condyles, spina bifida, nonunion of broken bones, Pott’s disease. Diarrhea during dentition with much flatus, child cannot hold head upright. Great emaciation.
Kali Phos. Atrophy of the bones.
Nat. Mur. Thighs are notably emaciated with slight pliability of the bones.
Nat. Phos. Poorly nourished children with tendency for rickets. Passing clay-coloured stools with much acidity.
Silicea. Open fontanelles, head too large and rest of body emaciated, with pale face, abdomen swollen. Ankles weak; profuse sweat on head and feet. Extremely chilly. Swelling and suppuration of glands and ulceration and necrosis of bones. Deep abscess.

Scurvy

It is deficiency disease, which may be acute or chronic in which bones and teeth are affected by internal and external bleeding. It is caused by deficiency of vitamin C in the diet.

Infant may show weight loss, crankiness, bleeding gums, swelling of long bones and signs of acute pains when attempting to move legs. Adult shows weakness, gums bleeding, loosing of teeth and internal haemorrhages.

Kali Phos. & Nat. Mur. 6x alternately.

Atrophy

Atrophy or marasmus: Children emaciated due to poor nutritional status, either poor assimilation and absorption or some existing physical disease i.e., vitamin deficiencies, worms, etc. Child has retarded growth and development and achieves milestones e.g., walking, talking late.

Calc. Phos. Scrofulous diseases of children specially affecting bones, defective assimilation of food. Delayed dentition. Diarrhoea: abdomen flabby. Pale, sallow complexion. Child has an old sunken look.
Kali Phos. Wasting disease with putrid smelling stools. Atrophy of bones.
Nat. Mur. Rapid emaciation around the throat and neck, irritable, slow to learn to talk, chilly. Earthy complexion and constipation.
Nat. Phos. Marasmus of bottle fed babies, swollen abdomen: enlarged liver. Colic after taking feed, stools contain undigested food and milk.
Nat. Sulph. Inherited sycotic constitution; bloated abdomen; flatulence; stools large, yellow, gushing; worse in morning.

Measles

Measles is an acute and highly infectious disease occurring mostly in children. The disease known as German measles is a milder form. Special care should be taken by women during pregnancy to avoid contact with infected persons. Epidemics usually occur during the winter months and it is believed that the infecting agent is a filterable virus.

Measles usually begins like an ordinary cold, with cough, watering of the eyes and nose and a high temperature. In four or five days eruptions appear gradually running together and extending down the body. The room should be kept darkened if the eyes are affected and the child given a jigsaw puzzle or game in preference to reading.

About the ninth day the eruption disappears, with a bran-like. shedding of the outer skin. Measles are contagious and it is possible for infection to be carried from one place to another by clothing or other articles, or by an infected third person. There is always a risk of complication such as bronchitis or pneumonia and special care should be taken during convalescence. Medical advice should be sought.

Ferrum Phos. Is the principal remedy given every two hours as long as the eruptions are not out perfectly, and the cough is troublesome.
Calc. Phos. During convalescence.
Kali Mur. May be followed or alternated with Ferrum Phos, if the tongue is coated, cough hoarse, glands swollen, deafness etc. are present.
Kali Sulph. If the eruption is suppressed, dry skin.
Nat. Mur. If excessive tears and saliva.

Chicken Pox

Chicken pox is an acute contagious disease of children characterised by feverishness and an eruption on the skin. It occurs in epidemics and the incubation period can very from eleven to twenty-one days after exposure to infection.

The first symptom is feverishness with aching of the back and legs. Within twenty-four hours there is an eruption of red pimples, which later become filled with a clear fluid. These vesicles eventually form small crusts which scale off in little more than a week.

The child must be isolated from other children for fourteen days from the appearance of the rash. Scratching should be discouraged or the marks on the skin may remain. In some cases shingles in adults are thought to be due to infection from chicken pox. Medical advice should be sought.

Ferrum Phos, and Kali Mur are required in the early stages. It is not necessary to give many doses as the disease is mild and runs a short course. These remedies will reduce general suffering.
Kali Sulph. When eruptions are checked; alternate with Ferr. Phos. to promote perspiration.