When people learn that I love homeopathy and natural healing they usually have some questions. I’ve learned that the majority of us are so used to the dominant medicine model that we have grown up thinking that the reason it has become the dominant model is because there were no real effective alternatives for the treatment of disease, injury and illness. I’m here to tell you that this is simply not true in most cases. There is hope, read on.

There is a big movement continuing toward “natural” things. This is so great, and really thrilling and there is so much to learn. Homeopathy is just one corner of the natural medicine genre, but I believe it to be the simplest, most effective, time-saving, and cost-effective method to natural healing that there is. Many people who are well familiar with herbs, supplements, oils etc have little knowledge of homeopathy and it’s reaches. When I discovered homeopathy I felt as though it must be the best kept secret!

The truth is, that there are many things that modern, dominant medicine gives us that are good, and even life-saving and changing. There’s no denying that, but having choices is key and it is both sad an frustrating that we are only presented with one basic model of care when we are taken into a hospital, or walk into our doctor’s office. There are thankfully many integrated approaches now, but again, homeopathy has been largely ignored.

So, as I said before, I usually get questions about what “I do” (i.e. what homeopathy has to offer) for xyz ailment. Probably one of the most common I am asked is, “what do you do for a fever?”. My short answer to that is “nothing”. Fevers are friends and my practice is to not give anything for a fever, but rather, allow the immune system room to work, and thus educate itself and grow stronger. When we allow the body to resolve an illness on it’s own we are encouraging the design of our wise creator and it is a beautiful teaching moment for our kids. I use language like “wow! God made your body so smart! It knows that there are bad germs inside you and it is heating you up like an oven to kill all the bad guys!” Now that my child understands that this fever is God’s own design to keep them healthy, we all agree that to make it go away before the job is done is not wise. This is also a beautiful reflection of other hardships we sometimes walk through as believers. Refining fire is not usually so pleasant, but it is certainly not our enemy.

So, what do I do if a fever is very high? First of all, I must have a predetermined definition of what is “high” and what justifies aiding the body in it’s job. I will only give a remedy if I feel that my child’s symptoms strongly indicate a remedy, or if they take longer than a few hours to work through the illness. So, for instance, a sudden onset of a high fever (103 or more) with red cheeks, glassy eyes, and burning skin would point me easily to belladonna, and I would give it right away. I’d say I give a remedy about 75% of the time for any given illness. I also keep Coloidal Silver and Goldenseal and astragalus on hand and give those tinctures if there is a cold being passed around. This is good support for the body especially for a cold which oftentimes I don’t see a remedy strongly indicated.

Now, for things like a flu virus, I will give a remedy at first signs of illness (usually oscicillococcinum) and then also prophylactically to the other family members to help protect them from susceptibility or shorten the duration and severity of what’s going around. So far, this approach has worked wonderfully.

I’ll never forget the first time one of my kids got really sick. Michael was about 13 months old when he came down with a terrible stomach flu. I’m talking fever, vomiting and diarrhea all at once for a full day and night. I remember being very concerned that he would become dehydrated because he was waking up through that night with bile diarrhea and with every sip of water would immediately throw up again. Worried about this, we called our family doctor’s 24-7 line and spoke to him directly. (this was a dominant doctor, not a homeopathic one) I remember feeling so un-cared for as he drily said that our son would be fine, and to just give him some gator aid. Well, I knew that wasn’t an option! And, really I thank God that this is the response I got from him because if he had told me to bring him to the ER just to be checked I probably would have done it.

Instead, I was forced to wait through the night and pray that he would be better in the morning. When he was not better at all in the morning I decided to call my homeopath. She asked me a few questions and quickly prescribed a remedy. I had it on hand too, because I had already purchased my kit! Within and hour of just one dose Michael stopped vomiting, and his diarrhea ceased. He was able to drink water without vomiting it back up again and he made a swift full recovery and was never that sick again, to date!

“What do you do about infections though?” Pennicillin is thought to be the most important discovery for modern medicine. We are slowly catching on though, that we have only created a monster we have no cure for by the use of antibiotics. Antibiotics follow the heart and soul of the allopathic medical model. Waging war is the philosophy modern dominant medicine follows, and because of this we have lost sight of the fact that our body will wage it’s own war, and we need only give it the proper tools to aid in the fight rather than totally take over the natural order. Giving antibiotics can sometimes be necessary, but rarely. They are grossly over-used from our doctors calling in a prescription over the phone for an ear infection to our kitchen counter hand soap!

We’ve created super bugs and immature immune systems that have never finished a fight and therefore have no experience. So, yes, homeopathy can be used for in situations in which dominant medicine calls for antibiotics. From ear infections to sinus infections, I have seen homeopathy handle it. Really, when I say homeopathy handled it, that is not accurate, it is our own body that handles it! Homeopathy is just a tool, a catalyst, an ally.

There has only been one time so far that we have been forced to resort to dominant medicine. When my 18 month old came down with pneumonia we spent several days in the hospital. We were grateful for the care we were able to receive, as it saved her life, and this is an example of two things- one of them is that dominant medicine has things to offer, the second is, that we had literally had no other options close by. Though there are other available treatments for pneumonia, they are not practiced and accepted by the dominant model and therefore were unavailable to us in our time of need. This was frustrating, and if ever I felt like a fish out of water it was the time I spent in that hospital watching my little girl struggle to breathe while sterile doctors and nurses came in and out and everything was cold, and we felt so alone and uncomfortable.

So if you have a question about this, that or the other thing, I’d love to hear about it! Perhaps I haven’t had a specific experience with whatever it is you are wondering about, but I will definitely give you some helpful info to begin researching.