Winter in the northern climates is fast approaching, and if you are like me, you are already making plans to hightail it out of the snowy storms to warmer havens for at least a couple of weeks this winter! The trips can be expensive AND much needed when December, January, and February move into longer, darker days and our bodies are craving natural Vitamin D3.
Our guest blogger today, Carol Berlin-Miller, is a recent graduate of the Western College of Homeopathic Medicine and has some personal experience with sick kids on the perfectly planned holiday. Here she shares some great advice on how you can head off disaster by carrying some basic homeopathic remedies with you!
Health Vigilance on Holiday!
By Carol Berlin-Miller, D.C.H., CCH (Cand.)
Do you watch your health on holiday or are you too distracted?
Envision this. You are at an outdoor restaurant in a beautiful resort where the pool glistens in the tropical sunlight. You are meditating on the wonderful sounds of the extravagant birdcalls and the caressing sound of the nearby water fountain. Your waiter arrives bringing your senses back to your task at hand and that is what to order. Just as the waiter has left your attention is once again drawn away but this time to another table. You see a lovely young family at a table where the plates are almost all empty and ready to be cleared away. They have three children and two of the three are surely preschool age. You think this is what is so important, to be able to take time out of our busy lives to regroup and make great memories for our children to take into adulthood with.
It is not long before you observe the food on one of the plates has hardly been touch. The child who is one of the preschoolers has pushed her plate forward and looking at her face you realize this isn’t a child who is ready to eat, change and then jump into the pool that beckons. Her eyes look droopy, her cheeks slightly flushed and she is laying her head over her arms that rest on the table.
You try not being obvious with your observation but it is hard because as a homeopath that is what you are taught when in with a client and what naturally spills over into everyday activities. The dad now is putting his hand to his child’s cheek, while in the other arm he rocks a toddler who is squirming and ready for some pool time. The mother is looking over at them in despair and the oldest child sits quietly taking in the expression on her mother’s face. She knows that one of her parents is going to be spending this glorious day not as planned but in a hotel room nursing a sick child and possibly searching out medical advice.
It is scenarios like this that take me back to how I was introduced to homeopathy. There we were, starting a trip planned to see some of southern Austria and resting in a beautiful chalet that gave breath-taking views of the mountains that we needed to cross the next day. We are a family with one toddler and one child on the way and wanted to get this trip in before the second child came along, making it harder to take such a tour.
As it happened my daughter started complaining of an earache. I remember thinking ‘how could this happen now?” but I knew that illness does not follow a schedule and I needed to be proactive.
The outcome of that day, luckily for our family, turned out to be a positive one. It took me into an Austrian “apothecary” or pharmacy where the woman who assisted me knew quickly what I needed and came back to the counter with a small vile. She explains to me that it was a homeopathic remedy that is in the form of ear drops and that I was to apply quite often and until symptoms subsided. She assured me that this would work and I need not concern myself about traveling with a sick child.
Within the next 24 hours, my daughter forgot about her sore ear and our entire family enjoyed our long anticipated holiday of family pictures and meeting the locals in the farm and lake area of southwestern Austria, not to mention almost crossing into Italy!
This was my first introduction to the possibilities of homeopathic medicine. I still find these days how amazing those little white granules of remedies work and how they have changed my life. Over the years most of the minor medical emergencies I have handled on my own. I am so grateful for my daughter’s sore ear that day. Yes, I continued on from that Austrian experience to see what else homeopathy had to offer. It has never let me down, but only increasingly convinces me of its promise and power.
It is interesting to me how homeopathic medicine was incorporated into the European health system 20 years ago. Another feature back then with the European apothecary, is that very little product was found in front of the reception counter, requiring a person to consult with trained individual. In comparison, here in North America we find 80% of products in our pharmacies are self-serve. The personal interaction with trained staff is a valuable asset, which encourages visits to a trained practitioner when needed.
Thinking back to that family at the resort and how much money and time, not to mention the energy that went into the planning of their trip, makes me more determined. Homeopathy is a great resource and there are many educators whose wish is the same as mine. That is to ease the suffering that need not be. I am more and more conscious that illness and suffering affects not only the individual but also the whole family.
Below are some remedies for earaches to have in your homeopathic travel kit when traveling with a child. Please be vigilant when traveling.
Belladonna. This remedy is useful for earaches that start suddenly and when the child has intense pain that throbs. You may observe a bright redness of the outer ear or ear canal. There will be a fever and the child will be sensitive to light, noise, or being jarred. They may cry out in their sleep.
Pulsatilla. This remedy is indicated when the child is clingy and irritable, or changeable mood from happy to irritable. Their pain may be worse at night and in warm rooms. They will have little or no thirst. You may observe a discharge of yellow/green color from ear or nose.
Mercurius. These children are extremely sensitive. They do not tolerate temperature changes. You may observe them sweating profusely at night. Their breath may be offensive and they will have increased salivation and swollen tonsils.
Chamomilla. This is a great remedy for earache that coincides with the teething period. These children are hyper-irritable, aggravated by touch, and relieved by being carried or rocked.
Hepar sulphuris. This is another remedy when you observe hyper-sensitivity. They are aggravated by touch or exposure to cold. Their pain may extend to the throat and there may be a thick discharge from the ear or nose.
Give the 6th, 12th, or 30th potency every other hour during intense pain, and every four hours when the pain is mild. Relief is often experienced after a couple hours. If the child is still in extreme pain 24 hours after starting treatment, consider taking them to emergency. Consult a homeopathic practitioner if the pain has decreased to a mild discomfort but is persisting since another remedy or change in potency may be needed.
Today I sit here writing this article as a recent graduate from the Western College of Homeopathic Medicine. Our clinical supervisor Donna Powers has asked me to write this article and this I do with much gratitude.
Carol Berlin-Miller is a graduate practitioner of Western College of Homeopathy – Classical Homeopathy and is also a candidate with the Council for Certification in Homeopathy, which is a national regulatory body. She anticipates completing her requirements by spring of 2015. Also a registered sonographer of 11 years, Carol has kept up with her continuing education and stayed active with the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers. She practiced as a sonographer at the University of Alberta hospital and the Dartmouth hospital in Halifax.
Carol believes that homeopathy is a great resource to ease the suffering that need not be. She is passionate about education, seeing that homeopathy becomes available to all, and stopping the series of events that occur when a health concern is mishandled and unnecessary suffering follows.
Thanks, Carol! And I hope everyone gets their dose of sunshine this winter.
Yours in health and healing,
Donna
