A Mother's Guide to Raising Healthy Children--Naturally (50 page)

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Authors: Sue Frederick

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BOOK: A Mother's Guide to Raising Healthy Children--Naturally
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sive talking. Sherrie told her prescribing physician she no longer wanted to take Ritalin.
After discontinuing Ritalin, and after taking only one dose of
Veratrum album,
her grades improved, and Sherrie's parents reported that her behavior drastically improved. Over the next year and a half, Sherrie needed only two more doses of
Veratrum album,
then discontinued it completely because she was doing so well.
The ADHD and ADD Epidemic
ADHD, once called hyperkinesis or minimal brain dysfunction, and ADD are the most common mental disorders among children, according to information posted on the Web site of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the federal agency that supports nationwide research on the brain, mental illness, and mental health. These disorders affect 3 to 5 percent of all children, and perhaps as many as two million American children. NIMH reports that two to three times more boys than girls are affected.
ADHD is a diagnosis applied to children and adults who consistently display three common behaviors over a significant period of time (at least six months): inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. ADD is a diagnosis applied to children or adults who display inattention and impulsivity without hyperactivity.
Inattention
is defined as having a hard time keeping focused on any one thing and becoming bored with a task after only a few minutes.
Hyperactivity
is defined as intense restlessness, fidgeting, and inability to stay still. An impulsive person is one who is unable to curb immediate reactions to things, makes inappropriate comments, and is unable to wait for things. These behaviors must be displayed excessively, pervasively, and over a long period of time in order for the child or adult to be diagnosed with ADHD or ADD.
According to NIMH, the causes of ADHD and ADD are unknown. For a while, scientists believed that all attention disorders and learning disabilities were caused by minor head injuries or undetectable damage to the brain brought on by early infection or complications at birth. Based on this theory, both disorders were first called minimal brain damage or minimal brain dysfunction. Scientists later rejected this theory because it could explain only a small number of cases.
 
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In 1982, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) held a major scientific conference to discuss causes of ADHD and ADD. After studying the data, scientists concluded that diet (such as artificial flavorings, preservatives, and sugars) was not responsible for most cases of ADHD or ADD. Many alternative practitioners disagree with this finding, however. Ullman notes that in her practice she has found some correlation between the disorders and sugar and food additive consumption. "Dietary approaches undoubtedly do work for some children, but not for many others," she explains.
Meanwhile, scientists at NIMH have used a positive emission tomography scanner to observe the brain and found important differences between people who have ADHD (or ADD) and those who don't. In people with ADHD or ADD, the brain areas that control attention are less active than in people without ADHD or ADD. Researchers are still unable to determine why this occurs. Scientists also are investigating the theory that a mother's use of cigarettes, alcohol, or other drugs during pregnancy may have damaging effects on the brain of the unborn child. Many children born with a condition called fetal alcohol syndrome, caused by a mother's excessive use of alcohol during pregnancy, also exhibit hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity.
The three most common medications prescribed for children with ADHD and ADD are methylphenidate (Ritalin), dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine), and pemoline (Cylert). These medications belong to the class of drugs known as stimulants and can be addictive. These stimulants don't cure the disorder; they only temporarily control the symptoms. For example, the calming benefits of Ritalin last only four hours. NIMH lists side effects to Ritalin that include weight loss, diminished appetite, slowed growth rate, and sleep disorders.
A Kinder, Gentler Treatment
"We've treated over 1,400 children [with ADD and ADHD] homeopathically and seen many cases where there's been a dramatic turnaround," says Judyth Ullman. "Homeopathy treats the whole person, and it zeroes in on what's most unique about each person. Children with ADD and ADHD are very unique, so it's an excellent match."
 
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Homeopathy treats ADD and ADHD effectively by bringing the individual into balance, she explains. "Homeopaths treat people with ADD [or ADHD], not the ADD itself. The treatment is considered safe, without the side effects of Ritalin and other medications; and the effects lasts for months or years rather than four hours. It's also very inexpensive."
One of the common questions that Ullman is asked by the parents of ADD and ADHD children is if Ritalin and homeopathy can be administered together. This is a decision between the patient and the prescribing physician, she says. However, homeopathy can be given simultaneously with Ritalin, and as symptoms disappear, the Ritalin can be phased out. If parents are afraid to give up Ritalin, we can treat the child while they're still on Ritalin. As soon as we see that the homeopathy has really worked, we work with the prescribing physician to take the child off Ritalin."
Homeopathy doesn't just treat symptoms, says Ullman. "We look at the whole person. ADD and ADHD are not acute conditions, such as colds, that can be treated symptomatically. They're chronic conditions which must be treated by trained, professional homeopaths." Homeopathy works on a deep and lasting level. "It's not a quick and temporary fix, like Ritalin," she states.
Ullman's career as an ADHD specialist began unintentionally ten years ago. One of her family-practice patients was a foster mother who adopted very difficult children and began bringing them to Ullman's clinic to be treated homeopathically. "Some of these children had been abused, and some had ADHD. I had some really wonderful results with those children. So I began presenting their cases at conferences, and it generated a lot of interest from other physicians. Now it's my specialty. My husband and I actually do family practice, but we get mostly ADD and ADHD kids because of our successes with them."
Ullman has plenty of compassion for parents who are being pressured by school officials to put their children on Ritalin. "You have to do what's in your heart. I think it's important not to be pressured to make decisions. We offer an alternative to Ritalin. But we don't criticize people who put their children on Ritalin. They're doing what they think is best for their kids. However, if you're going to use homeopathy for your ADD or ADHD child, you must consult with a homeopathic practitioner."
 
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Chapter 12
Flower Essences
Helping Children Stay Healthy
When I first heard about flower remedies in the 1980s, I was skeptical. The concept seemed vague to me. I couldn't understand how a diluted flower essence could bring about deep and lasting emotional change. I began trying them on myself, with good results. Still, I thought it might be chalked up to the power of suggestion.
When my daughter was four years old, I went through a painful divorce from her father. I took her to counseling and spent many hours talking to her about the pain we were both feeling. Out of desperation, I started taking the flower essence walnut, which is used to help people through a painful transition. I gave it to Sarah as well. This is when my deep respect for these remedies began. She had an almost instant beneficial effect after taking the remedy, and I felt better as well. Today these remedies are a part of our lives, and we take them to help us get through difficult situations. I'd like to share the following story with you.
When Nancy Buono's second child was born, her first child, then four years old, got sick and stayed sick for a year. This formerly healthy little girl (who appeared to get along fabulously with her new brother) suddenly had raging ear infections, high fevers, and eventually shingles. "I tried everything to help herfrom herbs and nutrition to conventional medicine. Nothing worked. When she got shingles at five years old, I knew we were in trouble," remembers Buono.
A friend brought Buono some Bach flower essencesdiluted plant extracts that address emotional imbalances, believed to be at the root of all
 
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disease. "I took one look at holly [given for jealousy] and realized that my daughter was jealous. We had been so close until her baby brother was born. She was too sweet to act outright jealous, so it made her sick instead."
Buono gave four drops of holly, four times a day, to her daughter. Within one week the shingles were gone, and her overall health improved rapidly. Buono believes the flower essences helped her daughter resolve the sibling jealousy that was the underlying cause of her ill health.
Simply put, flower essences are dilute essences of flowers designed to treat emotional distress. They're used not to treat physical illness directly, but to treat the individual's negative emotions, such as fear and worry. However, they often have a positive effect on overall health as well. "It's important to understand that holly is not a remedy for shingles. The flower essences resolve emotional issues and turn negative emotions such as jealousy into positive ones such as love," explains Buono, now a flower essence practitioner for sixteen years in Tempe, Arizona. "And when the emotions are in balance, the body has more energy freed up to heal itself."
Dr. Edward Bach, a British immunologist and homeopath, and creator of the Bach flower essences, believed that disease is a manifestation of the conflict between the personality and the soul. Buono elaborates, "Our outer self gets pushed and pulled by desires, and our inner self knows who we truly are. The flowers reconnect the inner and outer parts of ourselves and, thus, eliminate the dis-ease."
By changing our negative emotions into positive ones, for example, from fear to love, we rediscover our natural balance and thus can prevent disease, explains Barbara Mazzarella, author of
Bach Flower Remedies for Children.
"If we use flowers to correct negative states and reestablish equilibrium in children, we may well end up with fewer distressed adults," she explains.
"Flowers help us peel back the layers so we can get to our true selves, which are loving, caring, considerate, and strong," says flower essence practitioner and educator Patricia Meyer, who has worked with flower essences for twenty-eight years in San Mateo, California. "We're working from the heart when we work with the flower essences."
 
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Flower Doctor
In the 1930s, Dr. Bach became dissatisfied with medicine and its emphasis on injections and foreign substances introduced into the body. He believed that physical illness was a manifestation of an emotional imbalance, and that all human beings contained the potential to heal themselves if they worked within the perfect pattern of nature.
As a lover of nature, he recognized that certain flowers contained positive energies that could help transform our human negative emotions, such as fear, into love. Eventually, he abandoned his thriving medical practice and moved to his grandparents' cottage in Wales, where he created the thirty-eight flower essences we know today as the Bach Flower Remedies.
He began his work by meticulously observing the plants and their traits. He kept journals describing each plant's characteristic, such as late-blooming or showy, hardy or fragile, and sensitive. He developed an elaborate method of cultivation whereby the flower is cut in a way that prevents the collector's hand from touching the flower. The clipped flower is caught in a crystal bowl of spring water held just below the plant. The remedy is created from the blossom of the flower, which is believed to be the most connected to the essence of the plant. He believed the flower essences could bring out our loving naturesand thus bring us gently back to health and harmony.
Bach's thirty-eight essences address seven areas of emotional discord: fear, uncertainty, loneliness, insufficient interest in present circumstances, oversensitivity to outer influences, despondency, and excessive concern for the welfare of others. The North American Flower Essence Society, working from Bach's knowledge, has since added another thirty-four remedies, bringing the total to seventy-two.
Flower essence practitioners consider the remedies vibrational in nature, much like homeopathic remedies. They are highly dilute substances, like homeopathic remedies, and their effect does not come from any direct biochemical interaction within the physiology of the body. Rather, they work with energy fieldssomething quite foreign to Western scientists. In fact, flower remedies are considered to be catalysts that stimulate the inner transformation process. And the good news is, they're side effect-free.

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