I've never considered myself the earthy, crunchy type. Blackstone, yes, in some ways. But me, I'm a city girl born and bred. So the fact that I now find myself taking my boys to a homeopathic pediatrician is a bit odd. That I drive them out to the middle of no-where, down a dirt road to a hundred-year-old farm house for their office visits, well that's just bizarre.
I met Dr. H (H for homeopathy) way before he became our pediatrician, when he treated me for depression. He's actually pretty commonly known in the state. While a good percentage of people will look at me sideways when I tell them we use a homeopathic pediatrician, you never know when someone's going to say, "Oh, I've seen him," or "My sister uses him." Dr. H was recommended to me by someone Blackstone worked with at the time. My mood swings were pretty erratic, I was having trouble sleeping, had crying jags for no reason, and was generally all-around miserable. However, I didn't want to go on medication, it had that whole stigma for me and it's common knowledge most of that stuffs not good for your sex drive (at least that's what I'd read/heard). So, I'd been refusing to see a doctor about it. I was still teaching then, and I figured after I quit, it would get better. But then Blackstone asked me to see Dr. H., and I couldn't really come up with a good reason not to go, so I went. I spent a good 30 minutes or more being grilled about my physical, mental and emotional state. Everything from what I ate and drank, my sleeping habits to mood swings, energy levels, bathroom habits, and what I wanted to improve on. The concept behind homeopathy (in my own words) is that in order for the body to be healthy , your mental, emotional and physical health must be in balance. If any one of those areas if off, then they're all off. If your body is out of balance, if there's anything wrong, then that can be corrected by introducing the necessary minerals/remedies into the body.
After my thorough grilling, Dr. H put me on Aurum, which is a gold compound. Who knew my problem was that I needed more gold in my life. He also suggested I stop drinking coffee and not use anything menthol. I actually did go off coffee, one of several times in my life, and I took the Aurum and I felt better. I gradually started introducing coffee after a time, though less of it, and I kept taking the Aurum until I got pregnant. At that point I stopped because even though it is unlikely it would have caused any issues with the pregnancy and I had asked my OB and Dr. H., I figured if I could, I'd rather not be taking in anything I didn't need while I was pregnant. And funny enough, while pregnancy is known to make women moody and emotional, I was the most level I'd been in my entire life. I had slight case of post-partum after Trouble was born and went back on the Aurum again, which helped as it had before, but eventually I went back off and haven't felt I needed it since. But if I did find myself emotional, weepy, and lying in a puddle on the floor, I'd definitely use it again. Now, I DO NOT recommend anyone who has depression use Aurum, that's not how homeopathy works. I would suggest that you consider seeing a homeopathic specialist and have your own work up done, if you're looking for a less traditional means of treatment.
So you might think that since Dr. H is a licensed pediatrician and he had been a big help to me, I would have picked him immediately to be our pediatrician. I didn't. I was not into the idea of driving all the way out to the middle of no-where, and felt rather confident I could find a local pediatrician that would fulfill our needs. And we did have a great pediatrician. She was a lovely woman and a good pediatrician, but Trouble was not your ordinary baby, and modern medicine was not really being very helpful. He was a terrible nurser and had to be supplemented with formula. He spit up at least half of everything he ate, and by spit up, I mean projectile vomited after every feeding. He and I passed back a constant case of yeast infection/thrush while he was nursing. He constantly had skin irritations, baby acne, eczema and cradle cap. He was constipated since the moment he was born and we tried everything and took him to see every specialist. We gave him prune juice, aloe vera juice, caro syrup, goats milk, cod liver oil, olive oil, warm baths, thermometer and vaseline, suppositories, laxatives and enemas (and I'm probably leaving some things out). We drove him to a special physical therapist in CT once a month. We saw pediatric gastro-enterologist at Hasbro several times. Nothing helped. Everyone told us his constipation was a mental issue, not a physical one. And they were right, because once he had the mental capacity to choose between going himself and getting an enema, it got better. But before that happened it got so bad he'd only go once a week when we gave him the enema.
Add on top of this his inability to hold down an antibiotic, if you got him to swallow it, 30 seconds later he'd vomit it back up. He developed allergies and asthma, his eyes were so bad during spring they swelled so he could barely open them. By the time he was about six months old, we'd switched him to Dr. H., and that has worked well for us. Dr. H. may not be crazy about prescribing antibiotics or steroids, but he will when they're necessary. But seeing that these standard treatments didn't tend to work well for Trouble, I was fine with that. And when I call Dr. H. at 9 PM on Saturday night and tell him that if I don't a get a prescription of liquid steroid tonight, Trouble will be in the ER by morning, he calls it in that night and I'll have the prescription by 11. And LT, he's still yet to have been on an antibiotic in his life, and I'd like to keep it that way unless he really needs it.
We work on a campaign called Keep Antibiotics Working (KAW) at my office and i have learned so much about the mis use of antibiotics and I agree whole heartedly with you on that point. I am also excited to read about this type of medicine. I know that sometimes medication is necessary for people who are depressed but I really feel it is so over used and am constantly amazed at how easily people will take drugs that have no studies of long term affects completed
Posted by: Liz | April 29, 2008 at 12:03 AM