DOING THE RIGHT THING
As a parent, you always want to do the ‘right thing’ for your child, and if there is something that can help prevent illness, you’re willing to do whatever it takes. You make sure that your babies and young children eat well, get plenty of sleep (some nights!), enjoy lots of fresh air and exercise; you enrich their lives with music, dance, art, and sign language or a second language, and in my day and age (early 80’s), a ‘good’ parent vaccinated. No questions asked. In the 80’s, you trusted your doctors to know what was best in terms of your child’s health. (Truth be told, my husband and I hated the whole idea of our babies being poked and made to cry, but we did what we thought was best at the time.)
An alternative to vaccination? There wasn’t one that we knew or heard of, and it did not occur to us that it would be OK for our kids to have the same illnesses that we had as children (measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox). As young parents today, you do have a choice! You can make an informed decision about whether:
- to vaccinate conventionally (which may have damaging long-term health consequence),
- to be vaccine free and use homeopathy to treat the illnesses, or
- to use homeopathy as an alternative to conventional vaccines.
Maybe you have even heard the name mentioned in parenting groups and chat rooms… Homeoprophylaxis or to keep it simple, HP.
JUST A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR
Not quite a spoonful of sugar but a tiny milk-sugar granule of homeopathic prevention for contagious disease! 24 years of published research from Dr. Isaac Golden and 250 years of homeopathy being used as prevention in infectious disease epidemics are compelling evidence that there is an alternative to vaccination that is safe, non-toxic, and it works.
Today’s post is all about homeoprophylaxis and where to find reliable information on what it is, how it works, and what research is current.
DOES HP WORK?
In a word… Yes, according to Dr. Isaac Golden’s extensive research.
(Dr. Isaac Golden’s 7th-edition and most recent of his book Vaccination & Homeoprophylaxis?: A Review of Risk and Alternatives is a must-read if you are considering using HP as an alternative to vaccinating your child for any or all of the infectious illnesses currently on the vaccine schedule. You can order it from his website or from one of the homeopathic booksellers listed in the Resources section at the end of the newsletter.)
One of the concerns within the homeopathic community, though, is the question of whether or not HP ‘lasts’ a lifetime. Even vaccinations do not ‘last,’ and ‘booster shots’ are being given routinely to high school and university-age young adults. Vaccination does not mean immunity. As a rule, only an encounter with an infectious disease will confer lifelong immunity. Dr. Golden’s protocol, similar to the vaccine boosters, has the HP given over a long period of time, well into school age.
TO HAVE THE ILLNESS OR NOT?
Some homeopaths are of the opinion that it is preferable for a child to actually have the illness and, therefore, acquire life long immunity to the infectious disease (much like I had measles, mumps, rubella, etc. as a child). But there are some illnesses, such as whooping cough, that can have extremely serious complications in babies under a year old. HP can be a reassuring alternative if being vaccine free is the first choice in your family. Dr. Golden addresses all of these concerns in his book. He is fair and non-judgmental as regards an individual’s choice.
“Some homeopaths…conclude that it is desirable to allow a child to contract a disease and treat the disease according to the Law of Similars.
This argument is appealing in theory, and can be sustained where both parents and practitioners wish to follow this approach. However, there are complications in practice:
(a) Some diseases can be tragically severe in tiny infants, even with reasonable treatment. In the case of whooping cough, for example, I would rather prevent this disease in a three-month-old infant than have to treat it. I would certainly see prevention of meningococcal disease as a far better option than treatment, as the disease can be rapidly fatal.
Without doubting the effectiveness of homeopathic treatment such treatment presumes that an accurate prescriber is locally available, and somewhat ignores the suffering for both child and parents while treatment occurs.
(b) Many parents are not impressed with the argument that a child should be allowed to contract every disease and, if no alternative method of protection is offered, they will resort to conventional vaccination.
Although it may be appropriate to express one’s views concerning the value of treatment rather than protection, hopefully very few practitioners would refuse to offer assistance to parents who disagreed with what those parents might see as a theoretical or unrealistic option.”
WHERE I STAND WITH HP
My first choice is to see you and your baby/child and determine what is the best single homeopathic remedy to support your child ‘constitutionally.’ This is the ideal situation. If you have an extremely healthy baby, this may be a challenge…in a good way! But most babies come into the world with strong preferences that get expressed quite visibly (e.g. whether they breast feed/eat a little or a lot, perspiration as some babies are born hot and sweaty while others love warmth because they are on the chilly side). Babies express preferences on how they are held and burped, and may have sensitivities to noise, light, and motion. You know your baby’s preferences best!
If, after reading and doing your research, you want the whole HP program, I can provide that. I suggest the protocol as set out by Dr. Golden, which includes Pertussin (whooping cough), Pneumococcal (pneumonia), Lathyrus (Polio), Haemophilis (HiB), Meningococcal (Meningitis), and Tetanus. Other nosodes are available (Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Chickenpox), but homeopathy can be very effective and keep the most uncomfortable symptoms to a minimum. Plus…you can have your own at-home kit for prevention and in the event of an outbreak (e.g. there was an outbreak of mumps in the 25-year-old age group here in Alberta about five years ago. Both my adult male children did not want to risk getting mumps, but also did not want to take the vaccine [it was recalled because of too many anaphylactic reactions to the vaccine…students quit breathing right on the spot]. We were able to use homeopathy as prevention that time.)
If you want an individualized program, that can be arranged as well.
RESOURCES AND LINKS
Dr. Isaac Golden’s website. He is the ‘go to’ guy for HP.
The Society of Homeopaths’ website article on Cuban Homeoprophylaxis in an infectious Leptopirosis outbreak.
Homeopathy World Community has excellent interviews, articles, archived radio blogs, and information…check it out!
This week’s handout – Vaccination Damage: Good Intentions Gone Wrong.
So many more options than when I was a young parent! My hope is that this information will help you understand HP, so you can make safe, non-toxic choices for your precious little ones.
