ASTHMA IN CHILDREN


ASTHMA IN CHILDREN. Has Homoeopathic anything to offer in these cases? The members of this Society know, and I know, that Homoeopathy is probably the only system that does really cure these patients and prevents them from having a life of half invalidism and suffering.


There appears to be a steady increase of allergies in children. This is shown mostly by eczema in small babies and later, after a year or two, or even before, by asthma. I do not know now other parts of the country are, we certainly have a great deal of asthma in children in Southern California, and it appears to be markedly on the increase. What is the increase. What is the reason for this increase in allergic conditions? It is because we are more proficient in diagnosing such conditions or are there real reasons for these annoying and troublesome manifestations?

Do you suppose the almost universal use of all of the inoculations of babies from six months on into adult life may help to cause these conditions? Personally, I feel certain that this is having its effect even though it does not show up at times until the second or third generation. Also he over use of the powerful drugs of today as penicillin, streptomycin, aureomycin, sulfa drugs and the various new allergy drugs cannot help but change the human economy. I feel satisfied that all these tend to increase tends to overcome future troubles and ailments instead of producing them.

Most of these cases are sensitive to all kinds of things; as food, pollens, certain wearing apparel, etc. Babies are probably most often sensitive to milk, eggs, wheat and orange juice.

I do not believe that there is any doubt but that allergies are transmitted from one generation to another. I have seen if often in my own practise, an allergic mother, some of her children, or all of them will also be allergic. I had one family who had asthma for three generations.

The most common allergic manifestations, eczema, asthma hayfever and urticaria, are certainly on the increase, at least in Southern California, and there must be reasons for it. The hayfever and asthma sufferers of Southern Californian, due to pollens, usually enjoy these conditions more or less the entire year as we always have numerous pollens, although these cases are usually aggravated at certain times when the pollens that they are particularly sensitive to are more prevalent.

However, there are cases of hayfever and asthma that are relieved for a number of years on coming to California. If these patients have the proper homoeopathic treatment, then it may never recur. Babies and small childrens eczema and asthma are usually due to food, although if not cured, they later develop sensitiveness to various pollens and other things.

Has Homoeopathic anything to offer in these cases? The members of this Society know, and I know, that Homoeopathy is probably the only system that does really cure these patients and prevents them from having a life of half invalidism and suffering.

It is slow process in curing these cases and usually takes at least one to five years. Occasionally we get a case that responds quickly but that is far from the rule. In my early years of practise, I expected to cure these cases quickly but I find that it is seldom done. It is seldom that one remedy will cure these cases but usually takes a series of remedies. Of late years, I tell patients when they bring their asthmatic children to me, that I am sure that I can help them and probably cure them, but that it will take a long time to do so.

I tell them that unless they are willing to give me plenty of time, that it is useless to start at they will only be wasting their money and my time. There are plenty of discouragements in handling these cases but if we have the perseverance and patience we will succeed with good homoeopathic prescribing. It is certainly a great satisfaction to be able to cure these young patients and save them from untold suffering and loss of time in the years to come.

I have not given any cases that I have cured because as I said before, these cases usually require several remedies over a long period, Pulsatilla, in my experience, is probably the greatest and most frequently indicated allergic remedy in the materia medica.

I have not perused the literature or given the latest so- called scientific investigations in writings this paper so it will not be considered scientific in the light of modern medicine. I have simply endeavored to give my experiences and observations in treating these cases homoeopathically after thirty-seven years in the practise of Homoeopathy.

DISCUSSION.

DR. ROGER SCHMIDT [San Francisco, California]: I certainly agree with Dr. Smith that there is a tremendous increase in allergic manifestation in children-maybe not so apparent in adults-and that the treatments of those conditions are getting more and more complicated as we go on. I think this is a domain where the nosodes are of great help and something indispensable. One of them especially-Tuberculinum-is very essential.

My acute remedy for most f these acute manifestations could be Ipecac. rather than Pulsatilla-at least in the region of San Francisco Ipecac. has been an admirable remedy to cope with the situation, but of course you need to go into the constitution.

DR. HARVEY FARRINGTON [Chicago, Illinois]: I can confirm Dr. Schmidts experience with Ipecac. Now some of us have had the idea that certain remedies are deep-acting and others are light- acting, and among the latter is Ipecac. but in one or two cases where asthma had appeared after the suppression of an eruption, Ipecac, relieved the first seizure and, in one case in particular, a small girl of six had her asthma every time she caught cold and in the second attack rash come out on the face and the child had no more trouble afterwards.

DR. ALLAN D. SUTHERLAND [Brattleboro, Vermont]: Ipecac. is listed in Boenninghausen as one of the remedies to be thought of in the complaints arising from the suppression of skin eruptions. Strangely enough, it ranks four in Boenninghausen.

DR. FARRINGTON: I didnt know that.

DR. H.A.NEISWANDER [Pandora, Ohio]: About a year ago, I had something happen to me that was very interesting. I inherited an asthmatic patient from one of our neighboring physicians who became ill. The patient had been sent on an allergist and had had all types of allergy tests made. The child had a lot of asthma-a young girl, a beautiful girl. She had a terrific conjunctivitis. She was sent to several physicians, to an allergist, and also to a skin man. They couldnt quite figure out why she was developing all these symptoms, could do nothing for her, and she gained no relief.

There was another specialist, an eye, nose and throat man, a little nearer home and they took her to this man. When she developed an acute attack, she was so sick she couldnt go to the specialist and I was called in to see her. I treated her. She recovered from the acute attack quite readily. They told this to this nose and throat man. He sent word, “You go back an ask you doctor what he gave you”.

He wanted to know that the remedy was that I gave her. He wanted to give it to her. I told them that I gave her the homoeopathic remedy. Just how I gave it-that was my job.

He insisted that her terrific conjunctivitis was due to the wind. I told them before she was allergic to penicillin. Each time she went there, this doctor put penicillin in her eyes for a conjunctivitis. Each time, she developed an aggravation. Finally, they insisted it was due to penicillin. He said, “Well, this time we will try it out. We will not give her any.” That time she had no aggravation.

She finally decided she would got to some specialist in Columbus. He worked with her and she made some considerable recovery until the other day. Her father came to me and said, “I thought we had her well but she is developing the same thing over again. She has a terrific dermatitis. She has had more or less asthma. She has had some conjunctivitis”.

I said, “Well, that man is a specialist and an allergist. They dont treat patients like we do. We try to get rid of the cause of it with our remedy”.

He wanted to know what it was. He brought her in. The next day he called me and said that she was better. I think I gave her Veratrum that time, a 200th if I remember right.

But this allergy in children has been a very interesting thing. I believe that a great many of our old school friends are beginning to see what it means as they watch some of the things that happen at home, when they see these sudden deaths of young men and young women, people that they know have been given one vaccine after another and enormous amounts of them, and they drop over, some of them, dead like that; and some of them develop a paralysis or some other thing; even their own friends cant find out what it is due to except that it is medication of some sort. I believe that homoeopathy is gradually coming into his own.

A. Dwight Smith
Dr A. Dwight SMITH (1885-1980), M. D.
Secretary-Trasurer, I.H.A.
Business Manager, The Homoeopathic Recorder.
Author of The Home Prescriber Domestic Guide.
Dr. A. Dwight Smith was born in Monticello, Iowa, in 1885. He graduated with an M.D. degree from Hahnemann Medical College in Chicago in 1912, and in 1921 moved to Glendale, California. After spending a period in the Army Medical Corps he did a residency at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia specializing in pediatrics. During his many years of practice he was president for one year and secretary-treasurer for thirteen years of the International Hahnemannian Association. He also served as editor of the Homeopathic Recorder, for thirteen years. Dr. Smith also held the position of editor of the Pacific Coast Homeopathic Bulletin for over forty years.