Obstacle to Cure

Alright, I am changing tack with this blog! Homeopathy is not accepted in this country. Despite the age-old debate that it is not scientifically proven and therefore does not work, in many countries today, professional homeopathy commands respect, interest, inspires a great conceptual challenge and provides relief, cure and ease to many patients who never gave up, who had carved a new and healthier life path for themselves.


Working as a homeopath for the past decade had enriched my life in inconceivable ways. One cannot put a price on being able to help oneself, family, friends, one’s animals with every complaint and illness that arises. This is quite apart from one’s professional practice where strangers approach homeopathy to draw help from it. My family have no health bills, we have no veterinary bills. At any time, a member of the extended families or any friend or associate can turn to me for homeopathic help. My personal health has completely transformed from the sick and lack-lustre child that I used to be. My immune system is resilient and strong.

But despite the obvious blessing the practice of homeopathy brings to the health of oneself and others, it is still described as ‘anecdotal’ and must be a quack-medicine. ‘Anecdotal’ is a scientific way of dismissing personal related experience and invalidating it. It is a strange and perverse way of turning reality into its opposite. Mainly on the premise, that it is only what everyone or what the majority experience as true that makes it real. Think Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci. But my intention here is not to get caught up in the conventional discourse around homeopathy.

I want to state that in my capacity as a homeopath, I have encountered scorn, condescension, mockery, laughter, derision, anger, astonishment, bewilderment, ignorance, challenge, apathy, indifference, disrespect and scepticism. I have no problem with healthy scepticism. I can respond to challenging debate if I so choose (there are many times when it serves no purpose other than a clash of egos). Some of my most sceptical patients became the sincerest advocates of the efficacy of this medicine. But I must admit that I have been shocked by attitudes here, which go way beyond the usual opposition to homeopathy which any homeopath hardens themselves to as a matter of course while they get on with their job. I have a problem with the undercurrent of shocking, personal disbelief and mud-slinging that seems to exist here. Perhaps this runs parallel to decreasing faith in all parts of life, and bitter cynicism caused by hardship and despair. People mock anything outside their own experience or belief-system, just because they find themselves justified by the ‘authority’ of current scientific understanding (which of course is always limited by future discoveries that have not yet occurred). It is just as well that science hasn’t yet informed us that love, joy, sorrow and emotional pain do not exist as they cannot be proven by a clinical trial although they have made a good attempt at trying to say these life-experiences are merely explained by chemical reactions in the brain. Some of homeopathy’s greatest detractors were sceptics who happened to be objective and therefore could allow their previous beliefs and knowledge to be shaken by new insights and a higher level of understanding. They were mature enough to do this as their ego diminished in proportion to what they realised they didn’t know as time went on, the deeper they delved into sickness and the more they realised their own personal limitations in their lives.

Homeopathy does not need belief in order to take effect. But to close oneself to it, is to block new possibilities for receiving a different kind of help. The most frustrating and painful obstacle that I have had to endure in this profession is facing the occasions where I know a person could be helped but they are closed to it and will not open themselves to receiving. And therefore my hands are tied. A broken heart can cause a person to avoid love, a person who scorns and repudiates the approach of love can isolate themselves from the very thing they need most in their inner being. A person who has learned not to trust, regards even the most worthy person as having an ulterior motive or a personal agenda which surely can have nothing to do with caring. A person who has not come across much altruism and principle will not hold out their hands to another and make the journey towards a better kind of life.

The lost potential for children to take a different road, for adults to have a different life merely from a simple ignorance due to the prevailing wrong convictions of society around them is the source of my greatest grief as a practitioner. For that there was no training which could prepare me. It is a constant struggle.



Question & Answer?

I have not been posting regularly to this blog in recent times but want to get back into the swing of it! And also make this more interactive!  I have a list of topics related to health for children, Mums and babies but also many other topics. If you have been a regular visitor or are an interested visitor to this blog searching for help or answers on health issues ...why not get in touch with a question you have about how to help yourself with homeopathy regarding a problem that you have had recently? I will publish both your question and my answer. All queries will be treated with care and understanding.  Perhaps you may also wish to get in touch privately with your query. I look forward to hearing from my visitors! 

The Mystery of the Blood

Ever wondered why drugs can make you feel 'not yourself'? Or why some drugs can cause side-effects like depression? Have you ever wondered why it is that your diet can have such a dramatic impact on your life and your sense of well-being and how you feel?
You are welcome to come along to this free lecture given by Swiss Naturopath Christopher Vasey on the Mystery of the Blood. This is more than just a discussion of physical health because as well as incorporating an explanation of how the proper functioning and health of the physical blood affects our health , this topic expands to deepen one's understanding of how healthy blood also affects also the mind and spirit. Christopher Vasey's recent book entitled "The mystery of the Blood" is part of Grail World Edition Book Series . For more info  see : http://www.grail-uk.org/

When: 22nd October 2011 @ 2.p.m.
Where: Dublin Writers Museum, Parnell Square, Dublin 1. Ireland.
Admission Free- All welcome.

Constipation in Babies

Many babies suffer from this complaint. So much so that it is often considered quite 'normal' . But there is always a reason why and it is better to solve the underlying problem rather than giving regular symptomatic relief .

What do I mean by constipation?

Constipation does not only refer to being in pain, having a distended abdomen, or being in pain producing a bowel movement. It can also refer to painless infrequency of bowel movements and general inactivity of the bowel, even when it seems not to bother your baba.

A healthy bowel is one which eliminates waste matter regularly!

There is a difference between breast-fed babies and bottle-fed babies when it comes to frequency of bowel movements as it is more common for breast fed babies to have less movements. However, Mum should note  in the case of an infrequent bowel movement, whether the baby's abdomen is soft, their appetite remains healthy and has not reduced in any way (it is easy to attribute a reduced appetite to teething and other complaints), whether there are any noises, gurgling, gas or fermentation in the baby's belly, and whether the consistency of the stool remains soft, and whether there is any straining when the baby does have a bowel movement. If none of these symptoms are present, it is probably okay. 

Here are some suggestions of homeopathic remedies to use if your baby becomes constipated:

Silica 6x/ 6c/ or 1 dose only if 30c. Use this if baby's poohs are hard and small and dark and are produced with much strain and effort. Also if you notice that the stool does actually recede after baby has tried to go (if you catch baby poohing!) . Use if the constipation starts up coinciding with difficult and slow teething. And particularly if your baby's appetite is poor and they are not gaining weight satisfactorily.

Calc-carb 30c. This is useful if your baby seems to be not bothered at all in any way by being constipated and the bowel just seems inactive. This baby is a placid type, who gets a bit sweaty round the back of the head, is pudgy with chubby cheeks and contented. The constipation may accompany teething as well or not. And they may have trouble digesting milk or be sensitive to lactose or milk protein.

Lycopodium 30c. This is where the baby will be irritable with the constipation, and very 'gassy' lots of burping and/or farting alongside the complaint. Instead of having a poor appetite, they seem to never get enough to satisfy them and particularly get hungry at night-time. They will also be clingy and fussy in general from the discomfort and their abdomen will be distended or hard as a rock.

Nux-vomica 30c. Give this to an impatient, determined baby! Who can be irritable but is fiercely independent rather than clingy and who is experiencing alot more frustration with developmental milestones than other babies. Give this also where the baby has had any conventional medicines that have upset the system or where the baby has had to have had laxative to produce a bowel movement. This baby will be trying to go the loo and will strain and push but nothing will come out and all their efforts will be in vain.

Also, if your baby is constipated and has had a number of antibiotics use Infant Probiotics (I find the Udo's Choice Brand excellent)  to restore the friendly bacteria in the bowel and aid bowel health. But only give the probiotic after an antibiotic rather than during their treatment. It is always a waste of money to take probiotics while taking an anti-biotic - the antibiotic kill the probiotics off as fast as they go in. The infant probiotics are perfectly safe and can be mixed in with yoghurt for older babies on solids.

Breast-feeding Mums remember to check your own diet and make sure your baby doesn't have a cow's milk sensitivity and make sure you, yourself are not dehydrated and drink plenty of water and eat fruit. Do not over-do the fibre in your own diet though.

When babies are on solids as well as milk feeds - this is an obvious one, I know...but give them fruit ( not too much banana) and remember to give them water as well.

Constipation can have an overall effect on depressing immunity, toxifying the body, holding back development, preventing assimilation of nutrients and contributing to poor growth and picky eaters; so it is not a 'small' complaint in relation to your baby's overall health and well-being!

There are many other natural  remedies and tips for alleviating constipation as well as homeopathy but that is for another day!

Teething Rash

A long time since posting - busy with motherhood !
If your baby is dribbling and drooling so much that it becomes excoriating and they develop a rash around the mouth and chin, use the following to soothe and relieve: Aloe Vera Gel, Weleda Calendolon / Calendula Ointment and or Nelsons Hypercal. You could also apply a little Lavender Oil neat to the skin.
as well as that try using a cotton bib with a reinforced, thicker neck which can absorb alot of liquid before it gathers on the skin. Tesco supply these and the o+ months bibs do fit older babies. The principles are the same as for nappy rash. Try to keep them as dry as possible.