B K Goswami Immediately before an attack the face of the child becomes pale and he is found heedless to his nearest surroundings; unconsciousness follows soon and convulsions start next. During a fit the jaws remain tightly locked and the fingers tightly clenched with the thumbs inside the fists. This state passes away soon when the child becomes very drowsy.
Antim tart, Apis, Gelsemium and Pulsatilla are thirstless as a rule. Arsenicum, Calcarea, Mercurius and Phosphorus often have extreme thirst. Arsenicum may want frequent sips of cold water but the Arsenic patient often desires hot drinks and is better from heat in general, both internally and externally. Bryonia has thirst for large quantities of water at infrequent intervals. Phosphorus wants ice cold drinks and to chew cracked ice.
The delicate child, with silky hair and waxen skin, who develops severe headaches upon application to school work, severe nosebleeds, the tendency to take cold, sensitive to every breeze, emotionally unstable, is not manifesting a series of unrelated conditions; and we must recognize it before the X-ray reveals a lesion if we are fair to our healing art and to the childs future.
The most favourite site of these bacilli to settle down is the pharynx on and around the tonsils, other common seats being nose, soft palate and larynx. They do not enter into the blood but poison the blood from their original seat in the throat. They also poison the nervous system and heart in consequence of which prostration and cardiac exhaustion are noticed all through the course of the disease.
Cholera Infantum is not a real cholera but is a dangerous type of summer complaint of children. It is characterized by frequent purging and vomiting in association with a rise of temperature. The stools are watery and copious. Dehydration and consequent weakness are always obvious accompanying factors. Hand-fed and bottle-fed children upto the age of two years are its more common victims than the children at breast and the elderly ones.
The diarrhoea ceases in the vicinity of 10 a.m. and the child remains well for the rest of the day. Podophyllum diarrhoea, though begins in the morning, has neither of these features, on the other hand it continues throughout the day though becomes less frequent in the afternoon. It is notorious for gushing diarrhoea, copious in quantity, exhausting the child every time.
Immediately before an attack the face of the child becomes pale and he is found heedless to his nearest surroundings; unconsciousness follows soon and convulsions start next. During a fit the jaws remain tightly locked and the fingers tightly clenched with the thumbs inside the fists. This state passes away soon when the child becomes very drowsy.
These are situations when either the patient is raving and and tossing with terrible pains or the disease is fast developing endangering the life or may be a situation when the vitality itself is ebbing down. The situation demands a hurried prescription. But truly speaking this is not what is actually meant by the term ” hurried prescription”; it is in fact, a well considered one as will be evident from its instantaneous result.
The chief characteristic symptom of this condition is a husky voice resembling crowing or croak from which, probably, the name “Croup” has been derived. This crowing is termed as “stridor” and is a sure indication of insufficiency of air supply to the lungs causing great difficulty in breathing. The stridor is noticeable only during an attack. Fever and cough are two of its accompanying features.
Sulphur kids are warm-blooded with some eruptions on their skin; unhealthy skin. They cannot keep their feet covered during sleep and kicks off the covering. The child is very pleased with his position and possessions. In the absence of a clear-cut indication for any other drug Dr. Jahr recommends this drug in the 30th potency for a week and claims to have obtained success with very few exceptions.
Our materia medica is rich with rectum and stool symptoms peculiar in children alone and we so frequently come across such symptoms that in the writers opinion a practitioner of homoeopathy can alleviate his difficulties to the minimum in the treatment of children if he can master those peculiarities. Very often he will find his guiding symptoms here.
No words of consolation will pacify the child, the more you console her the more she is raged. If you give her a doll to play she will throw it away on your face. These modalities are very characteristic of this medicine. In addition you may have green diarrhoea with colic, fluent coryza and one cheek red and hot while the other pale and cold. Constipation is contraindicated in Chamomilla.
Sometimes the Arsenic thirst though very intense, may equally put the physician off. Usually in the burning thirst the child very frequently drinks in small sips just to keep the mouth moist. But water aggravates the neuralgic pain, and causes vomiting immediately after drinking. Hence the Arsenic kid sometimes refrains from drinking, although he has intense thirst.
Coffee and chamomilla are the principal remedies for sleeplessness of children. Both have mental irritability and both are useful during dentition. Green diarrhoea; one cheek red and hot while the other pale and cold; and relief from carrying the child to and fro are the characteristics of Chamomilla while skin affections and sleeplessness from itching skin determine the choice of Coffea.