Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, Modern and Classical Homeopathy - Successful Cases

Internal Conflict - A Boy with Bouts of Rage is helped with Homeopathy

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 00:03:00 GMT

IN BRIEF

A boy with frequent bouts of intense aggression, mostly directed at this mother, is completely relieved of his state after a few doses of homeopathic Ignatia amara.
His problem may have started due to his mother's intense feelings of internal conflict and sadness during the pregnancy.

An eight-year-old boy with intense bouts of rage

“My son will grab my face and twist it, try to head butt my mouth, bite, kick out my knees, punch me in the stomach, pull my hair and scratch me. Most recently he went for the knife drawer, that’s when we made the appointment with you,” his mother, Kyra, reported.

Her eight-year-old son Bryce had started to show intense behaviours from the time he was nine months old, including being violent with toys. This intensity increased around age three when he started to chase the other kids with butter knives.

“He screams into my face that he hates me and wishes I wasn't his mom. He can have total meltdowns over anything, screen time, tomatoes in his salad. It can be worse with low blood sugar but 99% of time we have no idea what set him off. We’re all walking around on eggshells, because he can explode at any moment. He may also threaten to hurt himself with scissors when angry. In generally he tends to be very quiet, as if he can’t express himself, then suddenly he just flips, the feelings just take him over.”

When looking at his baby photos I picked up on a sense of sadness and mentioned it.

“Yes, sometimes I feel as if he never stops crying. He can just cry and cry but does not want to be comforted. Many healers we have consulted have commented that he carries sadness.”

This boy had never received any vaccines, otherwise I might have been suspicious of this as a factor when she started showing streaks of violence already at 9 months. I carefully asked about the pregnancy:

“My relationship with my husband was going through a difficult stretch at the time. He was struggling with the looming responsibility of taking care of another child and drinking a lot. He can have intense feelings and behaviours when drunk with almost violent outbursts. I threatened to leave him if he didn’t quit drinking. I was very upset and felt so much sadness, grief, fear and anxiety, a whole mix of emotions. With all this I was also feeling conflicted about the pregnancy, thinking ‘what did I do, I shouldn’t even be pregnant’. It was a rough year.”

I thought that perhaps Bryce had been affected by this deep inner conflict both of his parents felt about the pregnancy, but especially by his mom as she carried him obviously. Such feelings and the stress hormones that go along with them can transfer to the baby.
It was also noteworthy that Bryce took out his anger almost exclusively on his mother, who is a near angelic woman, very sweet, kind and beautiful and who reported making every effort to not escalate his emotions, instead developing tremendous patience and
loving him unconditionally through it all.

In fact, the whole family loved him deeply and understood that he could not help his intense feelings.

Ignatia amara

Bryce got a remedy called Ignatia amara, starting with only 6C once a week. Ignatia is another well-known remedy in homeopathy, mostly used for ailments from grief, disappointment and unresolved or unresolvable inner conflict.

“Bryce had a notable response to Ignatia with intense breakdowns following the first few doses. He screamed so much his eyes popped out of his head and he punched and kicked me. He was aware of the effect the remedy had on him and that it brought out anger and rage and 'made him evil' on days three, four and five after taking it. He also broke out in a splotchy full body and face rash.” (Please note, mom had not followed my instructions to contact me immediately if symptoms got more intense, just for the record. Also, I was glad I only used 6C to start.)

“On the positive side he asked me to lie down with him, then pretended to perform surgery on my heart and brain to erase the effect of anything bad he ever did to me!”

“One day he had an extremely violent attack, threatened that I was not going to live much longer and attempted to tear my face off He was upset because dad had said to no tv, it had nothing at all to do with me. About 30 minutes later I was able to sit with him and gave him an extra dose of Ignatia. Immediately after he took it, he said he was sorry and that he loved me and gave me lots of kisses and hugs.”

I was shocked to hear about this attack as well as the quick turnaround.

“Overall, he is still very intense but there are more days between bad breakdowns now.”

Within about a month the meltdowns were vastly reduced, then completely stopped and he became much more open and communicative about his feelings. The crying spells also stopped. Ten months later the gains were still stable. There were no more attacks of rage and the whole family was much relieved.

Ignatia amara is not known as a top remedy for rage and aggression, however, it can be a great remedy for grief, disappointment and states of internal conflict, which can certainly cause anger and even rage.

Made from the strychnine-containing seeds of the Saint Ignatius tree, the remedy has been used in homeopathy for more than 200 years. It is one of our top remedies for states of grief where the person can’t express their emotions. And of course this case points to the connection between the mother’s emotional state during pregnancy and the state of the child.

“Ignatia is one of the top remedies where the mother was vexed, mortified, or experience marital torture during her pregnancy with the child,” Faroukh Master [1].

References

Masters, Faroukh J., Clinical Observations of Children’s Remedies, Lutra Services BV, The Netherlands, ISBN 90-74456-11-

Aggression with Intense Remorse

A 16-year-old youth on the autism spectrum suffers from bouts of aggression and violent tantrums followed by intense remorse, even suicidal ideation. A special homeopathic remedy greatly helps him and his family.
Read more...

Aggression with Intense Remorse

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 03:08:17 GMT

IN BRIEF

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

A Young Man with Violent Tantrums

Alexander is a 16-year-old youth with a basket full of different diagnoses, including autism, ADHD and OCD among others. The main problem, however, is bouts of intense aggression to self and others, including the family dog as well as other children on the school bus and at his school.

“From the time he was two years old he has scratched, pinched, pushed or choked us, covered our mouths to prevent us from breathing and used his nails to dig into our flesh. He mainly acts out like this if he feels you have wronged him or said no to something. He may stop hurting you for a few minutes but then will come back for more revenge when he remembers he was mad. Even if the person had nothing to do with why he was upset he will hurt them and make them cry as a way of releasing his anger. He also does this to our dog. He will pull our dog’s ears, pinch his skin and kick the dog as he walks by.”

He would also hurt himself: “He will bite his thumbs, peel the skin of his fingers and toes, pull out his eyebrows and hair and hit his head on the floor when having a tantrum.”
Moreover, his behaviour was so problematic at school that he received at least one or two serious incident write ups per week, because he has made someone bleed or hurt in a serious way: “I am afraid of him, and staff at school feel he can't be trusted for a minute while being around other students.”

Remorse

After hurting someone Alexander would suffer from intense remorse to the point of acting suicidal: “He gets very upset with himself after he has hurt someone and can’t forgive himself. Then he will make a motion of slicing his throat or to put needles into his arms, cry excessively for at least an hour while apologizing and asking if we’re mad or sad at him. He does not have a high level of developmental understanding, so this gesturing really scares us. When your child doesn’t know how to bathe himself independently or spend 20 minutes alone, it breaks your heart to think that he understands what suicide is.”

The family feels that the aggression started when he was put on psychiatric medications at age 2. At the time I saw him he was still on several psychiatric meds, including Risperidone, Apiprazole, Guanfacine and Escitalopram, all commonly used medications in the autism population.

“We question if these are the cause of his current severe aggression issues and significant weight gain of more than 60 pounds over the past year. Xavier’s excessive, impulsive, violent tantrums are directly linked to the start of these medications. He did have tantrums, scratched and pinched before these medications, however, not to this extent, or with the lack of emotion on his face when he is aggressive towards others. He makes you wonder if you need an exorcist or a doctor.”

In addition, Alexander has some other challenges, including severe drooling, which required him to always wear a bib.

So here we had a young man with developmental challenges who was nearly full grown, big and strong, with explosive attacks of rage with violence towards others as well as apparent suicidal ideation. This behaviour was not only displayed at home but also at school and the family and teachers were afraid of him and felt they could not trust him.

Lyssinum

What was striking in Alexander’s case was the degree of remorse he experienced after his attacks of rage, as well as the drooling. This immediately made me think of a very special homeopathic remedy called Lyssin, aka Lyssinum, or Hydrophobinum, originally derived from the saliva of a rabid dog in 1833 [1]. It is safe and one cannot contract rabies from it, in fact, potencies higher than 12C no longer contain any of the source material. Compare that to rabies shots which contains tens of thousands of killed rabies virus particles.

Rabies is a very serious viral infection usually transmitted via animal bites (including from foxes, bats and stray dogs), which causes encephalitis. The victim gradually becomes more and more deranged and violent as the virus attacks the brain and proceeds to attack and bite other creatures, which then continues the cycle. Vampire and werewolf lore is thought to be related to rabies. Domestic dogs and people who develop rabies often appear very remorseful after attacks as they did not intend to bite, they were just taken over by the virus.

The feature of rage alternating with deep remorse is a well-known symptom of this remedy. Alexander was not naturally aggressive at all, in fact, outside of attacks, he was very loving and helpful to his family members as well as in his school and towards other students.

Alexander took Lyssinum 30C initially about once a week.

Because the family wanted to wean him off the antipsychotic medication, I also shared information about a couple of supplements that could be helpful, including EMPower Plus by True Hope [5] and Lithium orotate.

In short order Alexander’s aggression was much reduced, he was able to get off the Risperidone and lost 40 lbs in two months. He needed Lyssinum less and less often. A year later he is only on a small amount of one last medication, he is happy, no longer aggressive and - as a bonus - the drooling is also history!

Lyssinum indications

Lyssinum may be indicated with an etiology of a dog, or other animal bite, whether or not the animal was recently vaccinated against rabies. I have seen numerous children and adults develop Lyssinum symptoms after dog bites. One young boy became aggressive, growled, hid under tables, pretended to be a dog and developed a fear of werewolves after being accidentally bitten by a dog two years prior. The remedy cleared things up within a few months.

One of my autism kiddos suddenly developed aggression and started growling after doing very well for many months. Careful questioning revealed that the family had moved in with the grandmother, who had a small, grumpy dog that had nipped the boy repeatedly. Lyssinum saved the day.

As mentioned, it may also be indicated in ailments after rabies shots, even in previous generations. One of my other autism kiddos suddenly became aggressive and started growling and biting during her homeopathic care. I found out that her father had been given a series of rabies vaccines after being bitten by a bat long before she was born. Lyssinum helped again.

Another possible etiology is torture or ritual or recurring physical, emotional or sexual abuse, again, also sometimes from previous generations. One of the first symptoms a rabies victim experiences is an intense anticipatory anxiety of something terrible about to happen to them, not unlike the state of a torture or recurring abuse victim. I have very successfully used this with several of my autism kiddos who were bullied and/or felt traumatized by certain therapies, such as some ABA therapy.

In practice we may or may not always know about one or more of these etiologies, but if the symptom picture is clear the remedy can be given regardless.

It is likely an underused remedy in homeopathy. I use it in my practice at least once a month. Often it comes up as a layer remedy, meaning that it is just one of many remedies a child may need in a sequence over time.

Autism and aggression

Aggression towards self and others is a very serious problem in the autism community and increasing as more and more children are being diagnosed. Various researchers estimate it at affecting between 35-60% of children with autism.

The majority of those on the autism spectrum are boys, but of course they grow up to be big, strong men, often with a developmental age of a young child.

When testosterone kicks in during puberty aggression often escalates. This case demonstrates the potentially lifesaving effectiveness of homeopathy and supplementation in such cases.

Homeopathy has the potential to be highly effective in addressing anger, rage and aggression in children and adults if the remedies are carefully chosen and the cases closely monitored for a few months.

Homeopathy should become the first line of defence in such cases rather than the use of psychiatric medication, or worse, institutionalization.

References:
1. Allen, H.C., Materia Medica of the Nosodes, B. Jain Publisers, Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, India – 110055

Creativity Unleashed - A Girl with Autism is Helped with Homeopathy, including Homeopathic Ultrasound

Sun, 02 Jun 2024 17:41:30 GMT

IN BRIEF

A child with a diagnosis of autism and pervasive developmental disorder greatly improves with homeopathy, especially a remedy made from ultrasound. The remedies also helped her to start painting beautifully!

A Girl Diagnosed with Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder

Malia was 2 years and 10 months old when her mother first consulted with me in January of 2022. She was diagnosed with autism and pervasive developmental delay.

She had only just started to point and was very delayed with her speech, using only one word to express her needs occasionally.

Her eye contact was poor, she had sensory issues around noise, became easily overstimulated and frustrated and hated having her hair brushed. She did not interact with other children at daycare at all.

She was very hyperactive and restless and hated being constrained in a stroller: “She is moving all the time. She only spends one or two minutes on an activity and then quickly moves on. It’s very hard for her to learn if she will not sit still and listen or look at our mouths when we talk to see how we are forming words. She has trouble following two step instructions.”

She also had a history of constipation and was not yet potty trained or even aware of stool in her diaper. She was a very picky eater and had difficulties chewing and swallowing.

During the consultation mom followed Malia with her phone and I was able to observe just how restless this child was, aimlessly wandering from room to room, touching this, picking up that for moment, then moving to another place again. This went on throughout the entire hour of our visit.

Health History

The pregnancy with Malia was good and healthy. Mom had a DTaP shot and a few ultrasounds, she could not remember how many. The baby got vitamin K and Hep B shots at birth and the regular vaccine schedule later.

“Within two hours of being born the problems started, she could not stop crying, could not be soothed, could not sleep and was nursing all the time. At six months constipation started and after her shots at 12 months (MMR and Pedvax Hib) her mouth hung open with her tongue out and she was drooling. Her development stopped between 12-18 months.”

To me the restless wandering really stood out and Malia received US as her first remedy, although she also had obviously been impacted by her vaccines as well.

Homeopathic Ultrasound

Two weeks later mom happily reported: “She is repeating words more and saying new words. She has been calling us mama and daddy. She looks more awake. She has been going to the potty and saying ‘potty’ and is now aware of poop in her diaper. And she is wandering around much less.”

A month later she had taken Ultrasound in 200C and 1M.

“1M US caused loose stools with terrible smell.” (A detox reaction of note). She is much calmer since US. Today she played with play dough for 30 minutes, this would have been unthinkable earlier. Her eye contact is much better, and she is much more connected to us. She will request things and answer questions now.”

I have seen this increased level of awareness and connection also with other children after taking US, sometimes within minutes. One autistic 9-year-old boy under my care who had been exposed to at least ten prenatal ultrasounds went over to his 5-month-old baby brother and hugged and kissed him tenderly within 30 minutes of his first dose of Ultrasound 200C. Previously he had ignored him or even tried to hurt him.

Disconnection is a key feature of children with autism. They are generally not that interested in interacting with others.

Homeopathic Proving of Ultrasound

From the proving: “As the painful influence could not be avoided, the only option was to shut down. Four of us expressed a desire to be alone: ‘I only want to be alone and to meditate.’ – ‘I want to disconnect, to curl up into a ball, tighter and tighter, in order to keep the light and the noise out.’”
“This is how a soul is taken, the heart of a living being sacrificed on the altar of technology. But now we reclaim our soul, we rage, we scream. You will hear us until you return what belonged to us. We are asking for the return of our sacred, innermost place. Give us sanctuary, give us quiet!”

During provings, healing symptoms can be experienced as well. Both sides of the equation are expressed.

We continued with US and then added a remedy made from the Hep-B vaccine she had at birth. After this Malia suddenly started painting! Mom sent me photos of her artwork and it was astounding, demonstrating a wonderful sense of shape and colour in a such young, barely three-year-old.

From then on Mom noted that whenever she stopped painting, she needed a higher dose of US again. It was amazing! It was also interesting that the combination of the US and Hep-B vaccine remedy is what helped with this, as of course the Hep-B vaccine is usually the first vaccine given after birth.

Health, Happy, Creative and Brilliant

It has been a little over two years now since I first started working with Malia and I’m happy to report that she is now by all accounts a neurotypical, healthy, happy, creative and absolutely brilliant child.

She just turned five, is social and talkative and already excelling in math.

Mom just messaged: “She is SO smart. She took one look at a page with isolated shapes of different countries and knew every single one! I have no idea how, we don’t go over that at home or in school. She does have a globe she loves though and is very interested in geography.” Mom sent me a photo of the page with the shapes, and I only recognized half the countries…

Malia had a lot of different remedies to help her recover step by step, but the US remedy was one of the most important ones for her.

From the proving: “I feel grounded again, strong and safe.” - “I am calm again.”
“I am home with myself again. Now I can reconnect with others, this was not possible before.

“I go to the deepest and darkest part of the ocean. This is the womb of creation. My heart is opening and expanding. I touched the core of life.”

“I hear angels whisper and giggle. Their message is love.”

Homeopathic Ultrasound - an Indispensable Remedy in my Practice

Based on the proving information, research and my and other’s clinical experience, prenatal ultrasounds have the potential to destroy the sacred space of darkness and safety in a mother's womb, create overstimulation of the senses and potentially the need to shut down and disconnect. In sensitive babies or with frequent and extended ultrasound exposure this may trigger or contribute to symptoms of ADHD and autism. Girls are more protected against developing autism, but extra ultrasounds may negate that protection.

Homeopathic ultrasound may become an indispensable remedy to help heal such children and hopefully contribute to protect our children in the future from harm through such unnecessary exposures, returning creation of human life to the sacred wisdom of nature.

References:

Guenther, Roland, Summary of the Trituration of Ultrasound, October 2014, https://vancouverislandhomeopathy.com/ultrasound/, retrieved online May 19/24

The Tasmanian Devil - Homeopathic Ultrasound Helps A Boy with Severe Hyperactivity

Tue, 28 May 2024 04:29:12 GMT

IN BRIEF

A boy with a diagnosis of ADHD with very poor focus, extreme restlessness and trouble controlling his body improves with a homeopathic remedy created from ultrasound. The family had nicknames him 'The Tasmanian Devil' because he never stopped moving and often ran into people.

The Tasmanian Devil

Sawyer, a 9-year-old boy had a diagnosis of ADHD with very poor focus, lack of impulse control and trouble controlling his body. He was also diagnosed with a speech and articulation disorder and sensory processing disorder.

“We call him the ‘Tasmanian Devil’ because he never stops moving, running, jumping, and climbing”, mom shared. “And he is always in a hurry. He also has trouble controlling his body and often runs into people and accidentally hurts them. He puts his clothes on backwards, his shoes are on the wrong feet, he hates taking the time to brush his teeth, he can’t wait to get to the next thing. He is also argumentative and must have the last word or tries to make up the rules or gets very silly and makes silly noises.”

Sawyer also had fine motor skill issues plus, of course, was in too much of a hurry to write neatly. Mom showed me some of his writing samples which looked like chicken scratch.

I was able to observe the boy on camera during the appointment and he was constantly on the go, including jumping and swinging in large a playroom and running laps between rooms.

A Fussy Baby

“Sawyer was very fussy and demanding as a baby and was always vocalizing although his speech was delayed. He just made a lot of noise, constantly. The toddler years were tough, too, he was into everything, everywhere, always running off, getting into people’s cars.”

I felt a bit flummoxed by the fact that he only had two prenatal ultrasounds - over the past ten years I had learned that some children with extreme restlessness had been exposed to more than two or three prenatal ultrasounds and that a homeopathic remedy made from ultrasound could be quite helpful in such cases. I did mention this to mom and received a confession in an email in short order:

“I was working as physiotherapist when I was pregnant with Sawyer, as was one of my colleagues at the time. We often would ultrasound ourselves quickly at work on the clinic ultrasound to see our babies. I forgot until today!” Aha!! There is was then!

Sawyer received homeopathic ultrasound of course.

On follow-up after two months: “With US he immediately seemed more content, less on the go and not needing to be told multiple times to get his shoes on. In the morning, he can now get dressed and brush his teeth by himself, this never used to happen. I watched him write the other day and his writing was much better, more legible, he took his time more! And he has only put his clothes on backwards once since taking the remedy!”

He has done very well on US and some other remedies since.

Ultrasound and ADHD?

Perhaps many cases of ADHD are at least partially related to prenatal ultrasounds? What is it with the epidemic of ADHD? And, of course, almost all children on the spectrum are also hyperactive, often severely so. Most of the children I have seen who have benefited from homeopathic US were extraordinarily restless, often wandering or moving aimlessly from place to place. Many of them were also clumsy, often running into things or people, dropping things.

From a homeopathic proving of ultrasound [1]:

“I feel restless and in a hurry.”

“I am overstimulated like after too much coffee, I need to rock back and forth on my chair. I am impatient.”

“I had little patience with my family.”

"I feel invaded, disrespected, raw and exposed.”

“I have a sense of great vulnerability and I feel helpless.”

“A dark force is penetrating me; it reminds me of Star Wars.”

This remedy has become a mainstay in my practice, I always think of it now when I see a great irritability and fussiness from birth, excessive restlessness and aimless moving around and/or if mom had extra prenatal ultrasounds.

Notes: A number of homeopathic pharmacies produce the remedy, including Helios Homeopathic Pharmacy in the UK, Remedia in Austria, Hahnemann Apothek in Holland and I&E Organics in the US.

References

Roland Guenther, Ultrasound - Summary of the Trituration of Ultrasound

Trashing, Yelling and Whimpering in Sleep and Clinginess, a Child with Birth Trauma is Helped with Homeopathy

Sun, 03 Sep 2023 20:37:57 GMT

IN BRIEF

Traumatic births have the potential to impact children for many years if not for life. Homeopathy has the potential to help such children. This case describes a girl with very restless sleep as well as shyness and clinginess to the mother which may have been related to her traumatic birth.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Thrashing, crying, yelling and whimpering in sleep

Malia, an adorable 5-year-old girl was seen because she was crying out, yelling and whimpering in her sleep most nights. She would also thrash her arms about and sometimes kick her legs. Her parents were wondering if she had nightmares, but Malia was never able to report dreams.

When she was younger Malia had sometimes been inconsolable in her sleep and if mom tried to console her it would only make her worse so she would have to let her cry it out.

They were worried about her and this situation was also very disruptive to the other members of her family.

Shyness and clinginess

In addition, Malia was reported to be extra attached to her mother. She would be very timid and shy around new people and refuse to acknowledge them. Even with adults and children she knew and had spent plenty of time with she would look down and not answer direct questions from them.

During the interview Malia was able to answer some questions but she whispered the answers mostly to her mother. She reflected long before answering. Sometimes she did not answer at all.

Sadness and fears

"She has a tendency to sadness, it is her default emotion", mom shared. "She is triggered very easily by simple events and comments. She will hang her head or curl up and make herself small. She cries easily in general.

She has a fear of the dogs and is timid around them, and recently has developed a fear of the dark."

A traumatic birth

"I think she has birth trauma", her mother reported. "She was born prematurely and therefor in a hospital. Her lungs were underdeveloped so she was taken to the NICU about an hour after being born. The tried several times to put an IV into her tiny arm until they were successful.

"She was also treated for jaundice. She was too weak to nurse so I pumped breast milk and fed her via syringe. I refused all medications during the birth but was given Pitocin after she was born to encourage delivery of the placenta.

"I was also traumatized by our birth experience. She spent 7 nights total in the hospital, during which time one of us, myself, my husband or my mother in law, were almost always with her, however, due to the jaundice treatment she had to be left in her bed for extended times.

"At the NICU they did a lot of testing and gave her a lot of heel pricks, it was terrible to witness, awful to watch, she just screamed and screamed!"

Pregnancy

The pregnancy with Malia had been beautiful and uneventful until five weeks before her due date when mom started leaking amniotic fluid and went to the hospital. The hospital staff were concerned and would not let her leave again.

After 24 hours mom allowed them to break the water, labour started and Malia was born within two hours. Then her breathing became laboured and she was taken to the NICU.

Food likes and dislikes

Malia likes to eat noodles, ravioli, broccoli, bacon, mangoes, kiwis and oranges. She loves butter and can eat it by the spoonful. She also likes sushi and octopus. She has an aversion to zucchini, cooked greens and cooked carrots.

Family history

There was a family history of some abandonment, abuse and alcoholism in grandparents and great grandparents.

Assessment and plan

This was a five-year-old girl with a history of a difficult birth and subsequent NICU stay with medical interventions which may have been traumatic for her.

She seemed to have nightmares, sleep disturbances and possibly a history of night terrors and was very clingy towards her mother.

These symptoms were pointing to a remedy called Stramonium, which is often used after someone has developed nightmares, night terrors and various fears after frights and/or abandonment.

Plan: Stramonium 30C twice a week for two weeks.

Follow-up two weeks later

Mom accidentally gave Stram 30C twice a day instead of twice a week!

"Malia slept peacefully for two night, but then in the 4th night she was inconsolable and called for me but pushed me away at the same time, as if my presence made her aggressive. She was restless in the 5th night and peaceful the 6th night.

"During the 8th and 9th night I had to sleep with her all night, she was yelling, thrashing, pushing me away. The next day she told us that she remembered a scary dream."

In my opinion Malia had an aggravation from the remedy as she had it a bit too often. I explained what happened to mom and she stopped giving the remedy. I asked her to update me in a week.

One week later

"I'm happy to report that Malia has slept peacefully in her bed for the entire night for 3 nights in a row! She has woken up in a rested and cheerful state. Her sleep settled down as soon as I stopped overdosing her. Thank you!

Three weeks later

"Malia has not needed any more Stramonium. She is doing really well, waking up ready to go and excited about her day. She used to wake up very tearful and needy. She is way more confident now and started horseback riding lessons. She is only clinging to me for 30 seconds now in new situations."

A wonderful result from Stramonium! Mom understood to give the remedy as needed if any symptoms came back. There have been no more problems since.

Discussion

Traumatic births have the potential to leave imprints of trauma in the system which can remain for years or even life. Homeopathic remedies have the potential to help the organism gently release and heal such imprints and trauma, freeing the individual to more fully enjoy their lives.

Stramonium is only one of many different remedies that can be potentially helpful in such cases. The remedies are given for the individual and their unique state and history, not a particular condition.

In any case, this child did remarkably well on just a few doses of this wonderful remedy Stramonium, a mainstay in my clinical practice!

A Child with Day- and Nighttime Wetting is Helped with Constitutional Homeopathy

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 21:12:55 GMT

IN BRIEF

An eight-year-old boy who would frequently wet his pants during the day as well as during the night and who was quite fastidious and organized is relieved with an interesting homeopathic remedy.

By Anke Zimmermann, Bsc, FCAH

Persistent Daytime Wetting

Jamison, age 8, was seen in my office in December of 2015. His mother was concerned that Jamison was still wetting his underwear during the day as well as at night. He was wearing a pull-up at night but the daytime wetting was especially concerning to mom.

"We have to change his underwear up to four times a day", Mom shared. "He does not void his whole bladder. We're wondering if he is just too engaged in whatever he is doing to notice. He loves to draw complex stories based on Super Mario Brothers, creating whole new worlds. We thought he would grow out of it, but that has not happened, so here we are!"

Mom had brought some pf his drawings for me to see and I noted that they were very complex and detailed. While in my office he also spent most of his time drawing and it was a bit difficult to engage him as he was so focused on his creation.

"He likes writing stories as well. He wrote a series of stories with a couple of friends.

Perfectionism and Intensity

Children's artwork can provide some interesting clues for homeopathic remedy selection

"Jamison can be a perfectionist. He can get easily frustrated if things aren't going the way he intended, especially with his artwork. Then his reactions can be quick and extreme. He makes up his mind about how things should go and then gets frustrated if it does not go as expected.

"Jamison makes plans the night before for the next day and gets all his clothes laid out to wear the next day. He loves knowing the sequence of things and likes to make lists. He plans pretty far out, for example he will save up money for certain purchases like Lego sets. He even included the sales tax in his savings plans. This has been going on for a few years. When he was four he went through a phase of being super focused on math, all he wanted to do was count, add, subtract things, it was super intense.

"When he was was younger he had a very regimented script for going to bed, he had to say certain questions and answers three times, I had to put him down in bed, tuck him in a certain way, wipe his nose, give him a butterfly kiss, ask if he was okay, ask if he wanted his door open and a certain amount of light on, it was exhausting

"He likes to collect things, especially Lego, he is very particular about his collection. He also has a collection of stuffed animals, he keeps them in a particular order and takes them with him to different locations.

"He gets worried about upcoming things. Going back to school on Mondays, especially after holidays, can be hard for him. He may cry or get sad or get a stomach ache in anticipation. He does not like to take risks, for example, he will not go on rides at the amusement park.

Health History

The pregnancy with Jamison was easy and he was born naturally and easily. He did not sleep well for the first two years and wanted to nurse every two hours around the clock. He was very attached to his mom and wanted constant physical contact. He continued to be very affectionate and loved to come home and cuddle with mom.

Generals

Jamison loves pizza, chicken pot pie, raw carrots and broccoli, bagels, ravioli, lasagna and chai tea. He will drink five cups of chai tea a day. Sometimes he also likes Earl Grey tee, green tea or plain black tea was well as hot chocolate.

He always has to have a water bottle with him.

His sleep is generally good. If he sleeps with mom he will rub his feet on her all night or snuggle up close. He is not restless and wakes up fresh and ready to go.

He perspires on his forehead when active and likes to pour water on his head when sweaty.

Analysis and Plan

Jamison is an eight-year-old boy with persistent day- and nighttime wetting. He gets very engrossed in drawing and writing and previously in math, and may be too focused to bother going to the washroom.

Of note was his intensity, tendency to perfectionism and planning, including laying out his clothes the night before, needing a very specific bedtime routine and making detailed plans regarding purchases, as well as saving for them including the sales tax, an unusual focus on money for such a young child. He also had anticipatory anxiety about returning to school after a break with stomach aches and was afraid to go on rides.

It looked like an Arsenicum album case to me and Jamison took Arsenicum album 200C, two doses in 24 hours.

Arsenic oxide

Follow-up April 2016 - Four Months Later

Everything had been well for four months after the remedy! Jamison noticed when he had to use the washroom and had been completely dry at night as well.
Just recently mom noticed a slight return of the bed-wetting.

Assessment and plan:
The remedy was correct and he needed another dose. He took Arsenicum album 200 C again. Arsenicum is a good constitutional remedy for him, it is not a specific remedy for bedwetting. Homeopathy treats the whole person, not a condition.

Follow-up October 2017

I had not heard from the family for 1.5 years as all had been well. Jamison was now ten years old and brought in because he was experiencing stomach aches with pains in the upper abdomen as well as pain in his legs. This was worse when he felt rushed. It started after he went back to school following his summer break.

If he wakes up and it is 7 am he gets really angry, he wants to wake up at 6:50.

"I have no time to get to the bus!"

The same thing happens at the end of the day around 7-8 pm, he can have a meltdown because he feels he is running out of time to get to bed.

"He has intense emotions for sure, it's like a recurrence of his earlier state", mom said. He has a tendency to be critical and is sensitive to loud music, gets agitated.

Assessment and plan: It looked as if the old Arsenicum state was coming up again with anxiety around time and planning and stomach aches and leg pains. He got Arsenicum album 1M and all has been well since.

Discussion of Arsenicum album

Arsenicum album is not a very common remedy in children constitutionally but comes up frequently in acute conditions, such as colds and flus, digestive upsets and respiratory problems, especially certain asthma states.

Constitutionally is suits children who seem overly mature for their age and concerned with order, time, being neat and tidy and financial matters. They tend to be anxious and safety conscious, not risk takers. Planning and organizing comes naturally to them. Some of these kids are very particular about looking clean and neat and want their clothing changed if it gets any stains on them, and their hands washed if they get any food, paint or dirt on them right away.

They can be vert detailed-oriented and this may show in their writing or artwork or in the way they organize their toys.

They can be anxious about many things, including being on time, their health, overanxious about everything. They may be restless and wander around or go from parent to parent. Anxiety may be brought on by a strong fright, new situations or an illness.

Arsenicum album can be a wonderful balm for these children and help to sort out any health issues they may have, including, as in this case, bed-wetting!

Homeopathy and Constipation in Babies

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 21:21:32 GMT

IN BRIEF

Constipation in babies can have many causes, including adverse reactions to vaccines and medications, which is often overlooked by conventional medicine.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Constipation, Colic and Irregular Bowel Movements in Infants

I am regularly contacted by parents whose infants or children are suffering from constipation, sometimes from birth, sometimes from the time they were a few weeks or months old. This can be highly distressing to both parents and babies as the babies are often in pain with colic and straining to pass stools.

There can be many reasons for constipation in infants, including sensitivities or allergies to food the mother is consuming or components in infant formula. Often a change in diet or formula will be helpful.

Constipation after Vaccines

What is less well understood is that regular childhood vaccinations can trigger abnormal bowel function in some infants. The stools may become abnormal in odour and texture, and/or the baby may develop constipation or alternate from constipation to diarrhea. Abnormal bowel function may also be triggered by early use of antibiotics. The following case study illustrates how the Hepatitis B vaccine given at birth affected one baby and how a remedy made from this particular vaccine helped her.

Carmen, 9 months old

"Carmen has dealt with constipation and irregular bowel movements since her first week of life", her mother reported. "Her constipation appears to be getting worse; she recently went 10 days without having a bowel movement. Things got worse when we introduced solids. She has very foul smelling bowel movements. We have tried many interventions (prune puree, prune juice, Miralax, glycerin suppository, gripe water, probiotics, castor oil massage) with minimal success. Her constipation doesn’t seem to bother her until it has been several days. Then, she strains for a long time, trying to go.

"Carmen's bowel issues have created a lot of stress for her caregivers. Sometimes her constipation causes her discomfort and she can be quick to scream and cry."

Medical History

Mom had a normal, healthy pregnancy, worked full time and commuted for two hours a day. She received a flu shot during the pregnancy and received several ultrasounds. All this is common and routine during conventional prenatal care.

Doctors wanted to induce the birth at 38 weeks. Labour was complicated by a long pushing phase as the baby was stuck in the birth canal. Mom had an epidural for 8 hours and tested positive for Strep B and received IV antibiotics during the delivery.

Baby Carmen received a routine vitamin K shot and a Hepatitis B vaccine shortly after birth.

Abnormal Stool Odour

"I noticed that Carmen's stools started to smell sweet and yeasty starting about a week after she was born. Then the odour started to change to a foul smell and the colour of her stools became green and brown rather than a healthy mustard colour. Then it just got progressively worse and worse, even though she was mostly breastfed for the first several months. I did notice that she could not handle me having any amount of cow's milk protein, she would immediately get gas and scream and scream.

"She pretty much had colic from the time she was two weeks old until three months. We had a to bounce her to soothe her.

"At four months old Carmen had a sleep regression and it remained. She will only sleep next to us, cuddled in our bed and she is quite restless in her sleep. She sweats a lot on her head while sleeping."

Assessment and Plan

Since Carmen had trouble with her bowels from birth I suspected that either the antibiotics Mom had during the delivery or the Hep B vaccine may have been contributing factors. The sleep regression and gradual worsening of her constipation caused me to suspect other vaccines as well. This baby may have just been sensitive to components in the routine childhood vaccines.

It was worth trying a homeopathic remedy made from the Hep B vaccine, Engerix, Carmen received at birth.

Plan:

Engerix 30C twice a week.

Dramatic Improvements from Hep B vaccine Remedy

One week update:

"Carmen pooped 5 times the week after taking her first dose of Engerix 30C. She was fussy for the first couple of days. She also appears to have a slight improvement in her sleeping. By the end of the week her poop was more yellow and sweet rather than foul and greenish brown."

After two weeks:

"Not pooping every day but every 3-4 days."

Plan:
Engerix 200C as effectiveness seemed to be waning.

Two month into care:

She has been responding well to Engerix 200C and has a bowel movement about every day.

Three months into care:

Bowels are no longer a problems, mom stopped giving Engerix 200C. Baby is now teething and fussy with it and needs Chamomilla probably. The constipation is completely resolved much to the parents' relief!

Discussion

I have literally seen hundreds of children with abnormal bowel function related to vaccines. These children generally improved very well with homeopathic remedies made from some of the vaccines they received.

GI issues are a huge problem in the autism community. Often children who developed autism already developed abnormal bowel function before descending into autism.

Abnormal bowel function in babies and children should be considered as a warning sign that the child may be experiencing adverse reactions to vaccines or and that further vaccines may place them at an increased risk of developing autism or other neurodevelopmental challenges.

Arching the Back, Tics, Shaking Fits, Eye Blinking and a Crooked Smile after Vaccination Improve with Homeopathy

Fri, 25 Nov 2022 23:03:41 GMT

IN BRIEF

A baby began arching her back and developed body tics, shaking fits, head twitching, eye blinking and a crooked smile after routine vaccinations. Homeopathy relieved her symptoms.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, December 2022

Shaking fits, becoming stiff and arching her back

An adorable 6-months old baby, whom I will call Elizabeth, was seen on April 6, 2022. Her mother reported:

"She was an easy baby at the beginning, but after 2 months became very fidgety. Now she started these shaking fits, with her head banging on my shoulder repeatedly. She also makes involuntary, jerky movements with her hip and her head is twitching suddenly.

"She also gets very stiff and then stretches out her whole body and arches her body back. She has small fits here and there and a couple of big ones 2-3 times a day. Overall they are more common in the evening from 6-10 pm. Last Monday we took her to the ER because we were worried about seizures. She had an EEG for two hours, but we were told it was normal, so we're a little confused and concerned."

Pregnancy and delivery

"When I was three months pregnant with Elizabeth her brother was diagnosed with a serious health concern. I felt very upset and we were trying to find help for him, with many appointments. I didn't eat well, was barely eating in fact. I was crying every night, I used to go into my closet and just cry. Why, God? I feel like I went through a real grieving process. I just remember feeling so stressed out and sad.

"I had extra ultrasounds with Elizabeth because she measured small, so I was sent to a special place that had a better ultrasound machine to check again. I had 5-6 ultrasounds.
I was a bit overdue, and they popped my water to start the labour. "

Infancy

Elizabeth had a vitamin K shot and Hep-B vaccine after birth. Mom reported that Elizabeth suffered from a lot of congestion and coughing for the first one to two months, and that the parents used a lot of saline nasal spray to help her.

Then her sleep pattern changed:

"She used to be able to sleep in her own crib in her room, but then she started waking every two hours and I have to nurse her back to sleep in our bed."

Elizabeth had received the following routine vaccines:

Hep B (Engerix) at birth and at one month
HepB-DTaP-IPV (Pediarix), HiB (Hiberix), Prevnar 13 and Rotateq at two months
Prevnar and Hib again at four months

Assessment

Elizabeth is a 6-months-old baby who has recently developed body-shaking fits, head twitches, and hip jerking. Both mom and I wondered if the vaccines had played a role in her symptoms. I also wondered if the high stress level during the pregnancy and/or the extra ultrasounds might have made her more susceptible to a vaccine injury. I thought that the onset of sleep problems around two months may have also been an early adverse reaction to a vaccination as well.

In clinical practice I have observed that there is often a 1-3 months' time delay between a vaccination and the onset of of symptoms, which is why the correlation if often missed by parents and doctors alike.

In addition, none of our childhood vaccines were ever tested in clinical trials for more than a few months or at maximum for six weeks (in the case of the MMR vaccine), so as nobody has looked for any symptoms arising after a maximum of six weeks this information is not in the literature and not available to health care professionals who by and large are entirely unaware of the reduced safety testing requirements for vaccines. Vaccine are classified as 'biologics' a special category with different testing requirements than medications, which often need to undergo years of safety testing [4].

Elizabeth got a remedy made from the Pediarix vaccine (Hep B-DTaP-Polio-Hib) in 30C, which she had at two months of age. She had also received Engerix (Hep B) at birth and at one

Improvements of tics and movements with Pediarix 30C

Immediately after the first dose of Pediarix 30C Elizabeth's body tics and hip jerking worsened briefly, followed by calmness for two hours. During the night she went through a phase of hyperactivity but was happy, laughing and kicking. The next day she was very calm in her mother's arms with only occasional mild body jerks and no more head twitching. The following night she fell asleep on her own, which had never happened before. This was interesting and a pointer to the first or second vaccines having had an adverse effect on her sleep.

On April 20 mom gave another dose. The jerky hip movement lessened further. After yet another dose on April 24 the hip jerking recurred slightly.

It seemed time to increase the potency to Pediarix 200C.

Symptoms are almost all resolved with Pediarix 200C and 1M

On follow-up May 11, mom reported that overall, Elizabeth was slowly improving and they were not seeing the jerky hip movements as much. She no longer experienced body shakes or head twitching . We decided to move up to Pediarix 1M, one dose a week. I was happy to see how bright-eyed and cheery the baby looked.

On follow-up June 1, mom reported that she had forgotten to give the remedy as the baby's symptoms had improved so much, with no more head twitching, body jerking, arching and only very rare hip twitching

We discussed going to Pediarix 10M as needed in case any of these symptoms recurred.

Another round of vaccines given

Mom contacted me at the end of July. Elizabeth had been given another round of vaccines on July 11. The parents had agreed to let the doctor give one shot, but did not realize or were not informed, rather, that one shot meant 5 different vaccines in one shot, in other words, the same shot that she had before and most likely had a reaction to and which the homeopathic version of the vaccine had helped!

Elizabeth developed a fever two days later, passed some weird green and mucousy stools and then, by July 21, the hip jerking re-appeared. Mom gave Pediarix 10M and the hip movement improved.

We discussed doing another round of clearing of this vaccine with the previous potencies of 30C, 200C, 1M and 10M again.

Crooked smile after yet another round of vaccines!

Mom contacted me again on August 15 because Elizabeth had developed an eye blinking tic ten days earlier. Her father had taken her for yet another vaccination ten days earlier!

By August 12 the head shaking was back as well. She was also more easily upset over the past two weeks. In addition, she now had developed a crooked smile. A crooked smile can also be a symptom of vaccine-injury. Forrest Maready is an independent researcher and author who wrote a fascinating book titled 'Crooked', which explores the topic and mechanisms of vaccine injury, including the crooked smiles that can be a symptom. I highly recommend it.

We discussed continuing the Pediarix clearing and to add a homeopathic remedy made from Prevnar, which Elizabeth had also received the last time as well as with her first round of vaccines at two months old.

On the next follow-up Nov 25/22 mom reported that Elizabeth was doing much better. Mom had continued to give Prevnar 1M and then 10M.

The head twitching and shaking was pretty much gone and even her crooked smile had recovered!

Symptoms of vaccine injury or vaccine damage

Elizabeth showed several symptoms of vaccine injury which I have observed in my practice on numerous occasions, including:

1) Arching the back
2) Tics and twitches
3) Restlessness
4) Sleep changes with difficulty falling asleep and frequent waking
4) Mood changes
5) Crooked smile
6) Convulsions - Elizabeth did not technically have convulsions as her EEG was clear, however, in my opinion she was not far away from convulsions and had we not helped her body to process these vaccines she may have gotten worse and perhaps developed full-blown convulsions. Convulsions are a known adverse reaction to Pediarix as well as to other vaccines [1].

These are by no means the only symptoms that can develop after a vaccination, there are many more possibilities.

Ted Kuntz, the present president of Vaccine Choice Canada, had a son who developed severe seizures after at DPT vaccine as an infant (Pediarix contains a DTaP component), then developed autism. Sadly his son died a few years ago from complications of his condition. Ted wrote an amazing book on vaccines and vaccine injury, "Dare to Question - One Parent to Another', which I can highly recommend.

The case described clearly shows how homeopathic remedies made from vaccines not only helped her initially but were also diagnostic as her symptoms returned and even worsened with a crooked smile after she received two more rounds of vaccines.

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, Dec 15, 2002

References:
1. Pediarix side effects
2. Forrest Maready, Crooked - Man-Made Disease explained
3. Ted Kuntz, Dare to Question, One Parent to Another
4. The Vaccine Safety Project, Informed Consent Action Network

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Homeopathy Helps a Baby with Tics, Speech Delay, Insomnia and Constipation

IN BRIEF

A 2-month-old baby develops tics and loses all vocalization immediately after her first round of vaccines, followed by the development of constipation and insomnia over the next two months. She recovers with homeopathy.

A Case of ADHD and Auditory Processing Disorder

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 01:26:59 GMT

IN BRIEF

A young boy with ADHD and an auditory processing disorder, OCD, poor social skills, as well as strong violent ideation, improves with homeopathy and CEASE therapy.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, October 11, 2022

Lack of Focus and Strong Interest in Violence

I first met Jake, a handsome, dark-haired, 8-year-old boy, on May 1, 2012. He had been diagnosed with ADHD and an auditory processing disorder about a year ago and was currently attending a special school for children with developmental and behavioural challenges. His mother's main concerns were his lack of focus and his interest in violence.

"I love to watch violent movies, I love all the blood, guns and knives, " he gleefully shared. We were off to a running start!

"I really liked this movie about a guy who was chased by the police because he was killing everyone, and doing incredibly illegal things such as blocking off the doors to a hospital so lives would be lost."

Scorpions and Killer Plants

He dreamt about a giant scorpion trying to kill him, "but I jumped backwards and killed it by landing on it! The scorpion was the size of my room and lots of blood came out of it."

Jake also liked killer plants, including pitcher plants and Venus fly traps.

"The venus fly trap will suck nutrients out of me, and sun dew will make my mouth stick together, then I won't be able to talk. The pitcher plant will make my stomach puff up like a balloon and then pop! and I'll die."

He imagined himself being underwater and killing everything, including little kids. He interspersed this story with a wicked laugh, then told me "I'm stunned with boredness," and added more wicked laughs. Then he said: "Hell is a place where you die and burn for infinity."

Dislike of Tomatoes and Brains

He is afraid of spiders and clowns. He likes all foods except "tomatoes and brains". He loves white bread, potatoes (10), pickles (9), and pasta.

Falling asleep can be difficult, he can lie there and ruminate about things for hours.

During the office visit he created an incredibly detailed drawing with many symbols and a script that looked like Japanese or Chinese even though he had no background in either language or ethnicity. I found it very creative and interesting.

Lack of Social Awareness

"Jake does not fit in, he lacks social awareness and gets in trouble a lot", his mom told me in private."He says he feels lonely, like an outsider. He will act goofy and inappropriate when put into a new environment with new people."

She described Jake as easily frustrated and being unable to follow verbal directions if they are given quickly. He may only hear part of what is said. He may also answer a question but then not remember answering it at all. He sometimes seems very spacy.

It is also difficult for him to tell a story in the sequence of events. He says: "No one can understand what I'm saying, " and feels sad and angry about this.

"He likes to figure out what people's buttons are and will push them. The best way to deal with Jake is by not reacting and staying calm. When he knows he cannot make you react he drops it," his mother told me.

Pregnancy can be a challenging time for couples

A Difficult Pregnancy

Jake's parents were going through a difficult time in their marriage during the pregnancy and mom wasn't very happy about being pregnant initially. Then it was discovered that she had placenta previa and started bleeding at 21 weeks.

She was hospitalized repeatedly for bleeding over the next four months and given two steroid shots to help mature the baby's lungs.

She told me that she felt very lonely during the last two months of her pregnancy as she was staying with relatives to help care for her other child or was in the hospital and her husband only occasionally came to visit even though he only live three minutes away.

The labour was intense: "I broke all of the blood vessels in my face and eyes pushing for two hours." There were complications after the delivery and the baby was separated from his mother.

Chickenpox Vaccine Reaction, Antibiotics

Jake was a happy baby but had a bad reaction to his chickenpox vaccine at age one. His feet swelled up about two weeks after the shot.

He had bronchiolitis at age two and was given Ventolin in hospital, followed by several bouts of croup and pneumonia for which he received antibiotics.

At age four he had a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. The tonsillectomy was traumatic for him, the hospital would not let the parents visit right after he woke from the procedure. He recognized nobody and became inconsolable.

Obsessive-Compulsive Tendencies and Anger

Around age two his mom noticed that Jake was a little obsessive-compulsive. He wanted to always be first to go through the door after coming home from daycare.

If not, he had to be taken back to the daycare and start all over again. He received speech therapy for a language delay.

Then the parents separated when he was three and mom reported that Jake took it hard: "Up until that age he was organized, happy and polite. After the separation and alternating homes he started throwing watermelons at the walls."

Homeopathy may be helpful to alleviate adverse reactions after vaccinations

Bad Reaction to Flu Shot

At age five Jake had the HN1 flu shot and the a severe reaction with a fever of 106 F and convulsions. In grade one would not sit still in circle time, but lie down and rock back and forth a lot.

In grade two he was inattentive, easily frustrated, easily angered, would ruminate about slights, took forever to fall asleep and lick his lips a lot with anxiety. He received a psychoeducational assessment and was placed into a special school for children with developmental and behavioural concerns in grade three.

Assessment and Plan

Because of the early history of obsessive-complusive tendencies and the language delay, the auditory processing problems as well as the bad reaction to the varicella/chickenpox vaccine at age one, I suspected a vaccine injury and decided to start homeopathic care with a varicella vaccine clearing. I was also concerned about the impact the difficult pregnancy may have had on Jake.

Jake took Varivax 30CH twice a week for one week, followed by the same in a 200CH potency for another week, then IM and 10M in the same manner.

I essentially followed Dr. Tinus Smit's method of CEASE Therapy for Jake, a wonderful system developed from his 30 years of experience in helping children with autism and related challenges.

In addition to the homeopathic remedies Jake took ascorbyl palmitate, 500 mg/day, vitamin C, 1500 mg/d, zinc, 15 mg/d and fishoil, the usual supplements recommended and used with CEASE Therapy.

Happier and Calmer

At a follow-up on July 7/12 Mom reported that Jake seemed to a lot happier and calmer. In fact, he had received two compliments in school and after school care on being so calm recently.

After the Varivax 1M he had an aggravation with increased lack of focus and a runny nose as well as some diarrhea. He also slept in which is rare. On the 10 M he slept in again.

"His ability to listen to instructions has improved as has his tendency to revenge." Interestingly she had not mentioned the revenge before.

"And he is not swearing as much. He was often cursing and swearing at school and had been assigned a 'safe spot' for saying in appropriate things there."

I had given his mother Dr. Smit's book, 'Autism - Beyond Despair' and she had recognized many of Jake's symptoms in Anacardium, a remedy Dr. Smits uses in his system of 'Inspiring Homeopathy', a fascinating topic in it's own right, but too much to describe here.

Plan

I repeated the Varivax clearing with instructions to repeat a dose to which he reacted more for longer. Then I added a Saturday remedy, Anacardium 30 CH.

Autism Beyond Despair - a wonderful book that certainly changed my life and that of untold families

Follow-up August 11/12

Mom reported that other children were now much more interested in playing with him, even begging to get him on their teams. That had never happened before.

He still forgets what he has just said. After the Varivax 10M he had a nightmare.

He had some auditory testing again and the technician commented on how much more focused he was now.

He also had an EEG and did very well on it.

He is not talking as much about blood and guts.

Follow-up September 14/12

In an email from September 14/12 mom wrote: "Jake is finishing at the (special school) and will be going into a regular school soon. The staff at the school cannot believe the change in Jake, like day and night. They say he definitely lets go of things quickly now and is able to tell them if he's frustrated instead of just getting angry. He can finish tasks whereas last year he needed assistance. One staff member even said he is a role model for the younger kids!"

His writing was also much improved, previously he had great difficulties creating written output.

I repeated the whole course of Varivax again with each potency given twice a week for two weeks and Anacardium on Saturdays.

Follow-up November 2012

During a follow-up in November mom reported that he still had clear reactions to the Varivax with aggravations in each potency, including a return to the 'old' Jake with lack of focus and increased aggression but was doing very well overall.

Follow-up January 19, 2013

Jake is doing well overall. He is in a the regular public school now but has an Individualized Eucation Plan (IEP) with a focus on his social skills.

His written output is much improved and he is doing quite well behaviourally.

An auditory discrimination test showed him testing at age 4.5.

At this point I decided to tackle the H1N1 vaccine to which he had a severe reaction at age five, using the same protocol as described previously. I also changed his Saturday remedy to Carcinosin 30CH.

Follow-up March 15/13

In March mom wrote: "Things are good. He is amazing, doing homework on his own. He had a reaction to the H1N1 30CH and became really clueless and not able to control an emotional outbreak in school." We continued the H1N1 clearing and Carcinosin.

Follow-up October 11/13 - may no longer need an IEP!

I next heard from Mom on October 11/13: "I just had an IEP meeting with Jake's school. First of all he is doing amazing. The only struggle now is math, focusing when there is noise in the class. We deleted a ton of stuff of his IEP. Socially he is doing really well and they were shocked when I said that I was NOT medicating him and he has gotten this far on homeopathic remedies and some cognitive exercises. It is truly inspiring. They even went so far as to ask if Jake even needed an IEP any more, can you believe it! I just had to share this with you."

Over the last six months Jake has taken a couple of doses of Cannabis and Stramonium for residual spacyness and fears. He is doing very well, but can still improve more.

Using Dr. Smit's method of CEASE Therapy with an initial focus on the vaccines as well as constitutional remedies proved to be a good match for this boy. He is a lovely, bright, highly creative and entertaining young man now.

The Many Stressors Affecting the Modern Child

There are many stressors affecting children these days, from processed foods to family upheaval, frightening and overstimulating media exposure and the use of multiple medications, vaccines and other medical interventions.

I believe that the increased rates of ADHD as well as neurodovelopmental disorders, including auditory processing disorders, are a direct result of a combination of these stressors.

As this article shows a careful case history will help to elicit causative factors in individual cases. Many of these children can be successfully assisted with homeopathy and a few supplements. It is wonderful to be able to help these children and families with safe, effective healing methods!

I also highly recommend this type of practice for other professionals as it is incredibly rewarding for the practitioner. I get good news reports every single day!

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Questions? I offer a free 15-minute meet-and-greet consultation

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A Boy with Speech Delay, Tantrums, Night Terrors and Suspected Autism Dramatically Improves with Homeopathy

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 17:33:42 GMT

IN BRIEF

A young boy with speech delay, epic tantrums, insomnia, bowel problems and suspected autism dramatically improves with homeopathic care.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Stopped Talking after 12-Months Vaccines

Cameron, age 2.5, a beautiful, tall, blonde boy, was initially seen in my office on July 27, 2016.

The main concern was delayed speech, as well as epic tantrums, insomnia and bowel problems. He was just starting to speak and the family was already working with a speech therapist. Cameron had several words before age one.

“After his 12-month vaccines he stopped talking completely. We noticed it gradually over the next two weeks. Cameron was a healthy baby boy who flourished. He sat at 4.5 months he crawled at 6.5 months and laughed and played and was an overall happy baby whom we just loved. He could show me his body parts, use over a handful of words, and even went pee pee on the potty every morning before he was 1! Cameron took his first steps shortly after his first birthday.

"Everything changed when Cameron was administered the MMR and flu vaccines at 12 months. He lost his speech, he no longer progressed with his walking skills and his eye contact began to slowly wither away. I had been quite concerned, but living in Ontario at the time I wasn't sure who to turn to.

"I made an apt with a speech pathologist when Cameron was 15 months old. For $150 she told me Cameron was just fine and there were no signs of autism. She assured me he lost his speech as he was working on a new milestone (!) even though he wasn't walking anymore at that point either. I went with her word, as that's all I had, and carried on.

"When Cameron was 17 months old he had finally just started walking. But he continued to not talk and just babble, his eye contact was delayed and he was couldn't eat solid food everything had to be soft, also he constantly chewed his tongue.

Epic Melt-Downs and Screaming Fits after 18 Months Vaccines

"We moved back to BC and he was given his last set of vaccines for his 18 month round. Around this time his behaviour turned for the worse. He developed epic meltdowns and screaming fits. Nothing I did would fix the situation. My only escape at times would be to just hide in a room and cry, desperate for answers as to why my baby was like this? What had happened to him?

He continued to escalate until I just knew something had to be done! I had a strong feeling inside if medical doctors could not help me or address my concerns then I need to turn somewhere else."

That's when his mother decided that seeing a naturopathic doctor would be a wise decision and found me online.

Sleep Problems and Tongue chewing

"Cameron wakes up 2-3 times a night. Last night he was awake for three hours in the middle of the night. He also won’t go to sleep on his own, I have to lie down with him or else “he freaks out.

"He wants to stroke my arm when going to sleep, he moves his hands up and down, up and down, it drives me crazy!”

When he wakes up at night he comes to the parents’ bed. He can be restless in his sleep and kick and hit his parents with his movements.

"Also, he chews on his tongue all day. It started somewhat when he was six months old. He also smacks and clicks his tongue." I noticed that Caydon was sticking his tongue out of one side of his mouth and chewed on it repeatedly during the office visit.

Stimming, Whining and Mushy Stools

"Cameron taps his fingers on the table when eating. He is very cautious on the playground, especially with the slide or climbing equipment.
At his preschool he engages with other kids and also enjoys some pretend play.

"He is really whiney lately. He has separation anxiety in bigger groups and constantly wants his mother. He was not like that earlier, however, I just had another baby and he may be feeling a bit more insecure since then.

"He was already potty-trained before the regression at 12 months old. Now he won’t use the potty and just holds his urine and stools. His stools are soft and mushy for the last year and have developed a stronger smell. Sometimes there is undigested food in his stool."

Cameron did not interact with me or make any eye contact during the visit. He did not answer any questions.

Image credit www.tylenol.ca.

Health History

"My pregnancy was normal and unremarkable. Labour was long, 24 hours. He did not start breathing right away after being born and was taken to the NICU briefly but returned as fine after only 30 minutes.

"Cameron had a big lump on his head from the birthing process and his parents were told to give him some Tylenol for pain. Mother and son were kept in the hospital for two days.

“He was a good baby. He slept through the night and was very alert and very interested in everything. He had a good temperament.

“He had some eczema on his back and legs for a while, until he was 18 months old or so. It is gone now. He sat on time, at 4.5-5 months and crawled at the end of 6 months. He reacts to Pampers diapers with welts on his bum, but is okay with no-name diapers.”

“He was late with wanting to eat solid foods. We could not get him to eat any solids until he was nine months old and then he would only take rise cereal and avocados. He was choking a lot trying to eat.

"He could not pick up cheerios with his fingers for a long time. Now he can pick up food and feed himself but he still demands help sometimes.”

He was breast fed until 2.5 years old.

Note: He received Tylenol after birth. Being late with wanting to eat solid foods, choking and abnormal stools can often be early symptoms of vaccine injury. I see it in my practice all the time.

Family Health History

His father has bad allergies and chronic sinusitis. He often gets colds and often has problems with his ears. He was not well as a baby and had terrible food allergies. He also almost died of croup as an infant. He had tubes in his ears.

Mother was one of seven children, "the runt of the litter." She was born with a hole in her heart and a defective kidney. She is hypoglycemic and can black out if she does not eat properly. She has been like this all her life.

Maternal Grandmother had bad allergies and bad asthma, but none of her children developed asthma. There is a family history of cancer, the maternal grandmother’s brother, sister and mother had cancer. Maternal grandmother is also hyploglycemic, as is her sister.

Maternal Grandmother was also very ill with ‘Hong Kong flu’ in the 3rd trimester when pregnant with Cameron’s mother.

There is alcoholism on the maternal grandmother’s side and on the paternal grandfather’s side as well.

Maternal grandfather was alcoholic and five of his six siblings are alcoholics.

Mother has a cousin with serious asthma.

Note: Complex family histories with many chronic diseases are a common finding in my practice for children with autism. In my opinion most children on the spectrum were born with certain susceptibilities that may make them more likely to have adverse reactions to vaccines, medications, infections and other stressors.

A family history of alcoholism may point to the syphilitic miasm, which may be a contributing factor for the development of autism in some children.

Assessment

This boy appears to be developing autism spectrum disorder, probably triggered by the vaccines and/or possibly the early Tylenol in association with an inherited predisposition.

He lost his speech following his 12-months vaccines, has a speech delay, makes poor eye contact, does not interact well, does not answer questions well, repeats questions instead of answering them (echolalia), has a stim of chewing on his tongue rather intensely, another stim of tapping on tables, abnormal sleep patterns, digestive issues with mushy and smelly stools as well as a history of difficulties around eating. He is also overly cautious on the playground and has difficulties with transitions, which can cause tantrums.

He had a fairly normal development other than aversion to trying solid foods until nine months which was probably an early sign of the autism/vaccine injury developing. He had several words and was potty trained before his 12-month shots, after which he regressed, lost his language completely, stopped using the potty and developed behavioural issues which he did not have before.

He may have been predisposed as there is a family history of allergies on both the maternal and paternal side. There is also a strong history of alcoholism on the maternal grandparents’ side, which may be linked to the syphilitic miasm.

This boy has not been formally assessed at this time, but his mother, the teachers and myself are all concerned that he may be developing autism.

Plan

I decided to use the CEASE Therapy protocol and put him on a few supplements as follows for two week to prepare his body for the homeopathic detox remedies:

Probiotic capsules of a certain brand with 100 billion organism per day
Fish oil, DHA 600 mg per day
Vitamin C from Acai Cherry Berry at 1000 mg a day
EMP TrueHope multimineral/vitamin, 2 capsules per day opened and given in food

The book that changed my life and that of uncounted numbers of children around the world - Autism Beyond Despair, Homeopathy has the Answers.

FU August 24/17 - Improvements with Supplements!

Supplements were given right away except that she could only find a probiotic with 10 billion organisms per dose and only gave 250 mg of DHA in the fish oil. It all helped him though.

“He stopped having those crazy melt-downs! He used to have screaming fits. It was brutal to get him on the change table. It’s like day and night. He is also listening better.” That was just from the supplements.

“His stools were always so strong-smelling and mushy. Now they are more formed and less smelly.

“His eye contact is a bit better. Within a few days he was looking at me a lot more.”

He still comes to the parents’ bed at night.

He still engages in echolalia and is still chewing on his tongue.

Cameron is interacting a bit more with me in the office today. He seems more present.

Assessment:
Good result with improvements in several areas just from two weeks on some supplements. The biggest change is the cessation of crazy melt-downs.

Plan:

Increase the EMP TrueHope Multi to 3 per day
Sccharum officinalis 6D, 2 pellets per day (to support digestion)
Increase fish oil to 2 Tbsp per day so that he gets 500 mg of DHA per day
Infanrix-Hexa, 30CH, 2 pellets on Mondays and Thursdays for two weeks, followed by Infanrix-Hexa 200CH, 2 pellets on Mondays and Thursday for two weeks, then the same in 1M and 10M. Mother to report any aggravations.

Fish oil supplements are an integral part of CEASE Therapy

Follow-up October 26/16 - Doing a lot Better!

Cameron is doing a lot better.

“His speech therapist is reporting huge changes even week to week.”

He is sleeping better. Before it was a struggle to get him to bed, he was tossing and turning and moving up and down the bed. Now his mother reads him a book and he rolls over and goes to sleep. Before he was sometimes up for hours in the night, staring at the ceiling, this has stopped.

Now he asks questions, which he did not do before. His eye contact is much improved, about 70% better in his mother’s opinion. The speech therapist has noticed it as well.
He is still chewing on his tongue, but about 40% less.

“Recently we were looking at some old videos of him. He was not looking at me, making senseless noises and was chewing his tongue the whole time. I realize now that the noises started when he was about 6 months old.”

“He has been trying to use the potty but is not quite there yet. Now he follows requests, ie, ‘take your shoes off’ and he does. He is finally understanding things and even takes his shoes off on his own.

“The other day we were play-fighting with pillows, then he ran to me, upset, looked me right in the eye and said ‘the pillow’! He’s never been able to express himself like that before.

“Before getting into the car was a fight. We had to force him into the car seat and push him into the seat belt. Now he gets in by himself! He opens up his own door and jumps into the seat. This started about 6 weeks ago.”

His stools are still not the greatest. They are better if his mother is more religious about giving the probiotics.

He is calmer overall. Before he would thrash about on the bed and scream and he could not sit quietly in a room with his mother or watch a movie. He was screaming and jumping and could not concentrate. That is much better now.

Cameron is interacting more with me in the office and even answering some simple questions.

He is on a wait list for an autism assessment, it may take 6-8 months.

Assessment:

Cameron is continuing to improve in all areas. His behavior especially is much better, he even gets into the car and into his car seat by himself whereas before this was a big fight. He is on a wait list for an autism assessment which is a 6-8 month wait. If he was not already receiving intervention he would likely have stalled or deteriorated more.
Plan:

Continue all supplements
MMR vaccine clearing with 30CH, 200CH, 1M and 10M all twice a week for two weeks each as previously

Eczema that was suppressed in the past may resurface with homeopathic care. Image credit Istock.

Follow-up December 21/16 - Return of Eczema and some Regression as well as Improvements with MMR Clearing

"Cameron has developed eczema from head to toe. It broke out after the first week of the MMR course. It was worse on his cheeks. We thoughts he had developed slapped cheek disease. He had some eczema when he was four months old but then it cleared up by using essential oil in coconut salve", his mother reports.

"With MMR 200C and 1M he has regressed again. His temperament got bad again and he has been more agitated and not listening as well, as well as hard to put to bed. He is waking at night again, some nights he is up for three hours again.

"Yesterday he had a big melt-down in a toy store, he just laid down on the floor and refused to move."

He has also had a bad cold with a cough, the baby sister had the same.

He started daycare at the beginning of November and the care givers are concerned about him and are suspecting autism. He is making the strange sounds again.
The tongue chewing has gotten worse again.

Toilet training has not progressed, if asked if he wants to go the potty he says: “No potty! Diaper!” He runs and hides now when he needs to poo.

His stools are getting a bit better, some days they are good, others mushy and foul. The stools are better if he is off gluten and if he takes his probiotics.

He is still wired at night and goes crazy before bed.

Getting into the car is more of a struggle again.

Restaurants can be too much for him and he becomes overstimulated and runs around.

On the other hand his eye contact has continued to improve and his speech is still getting better. He is much better at understanding things and can be told to fetch certain item, ie a paper towel.

He is responding to questions rather than repeating them. His speech therapist still comments on how well he is doing and how quickly he is improving.

His mother is concerned that the MMR clearing has set him back.

He has just turned three.

Many parents with children on the spectrum feel that the MMR vaccine was one of the main triggers for it.

Assessment

He is experiencing an aggravation from the MMR clearing and a return of old symptoms as in the recurrence of eczema as well as relapse of some of the previous symptoms.

His mother was supposed to get in touch if he gets worse, but she did not get around to it and three months passed without a follow-up while she continued to give and increase the dose of MMR. This is what can happen when parents don't follow-up with regular appointments so I can monitor the children. Unfortunately this is a common occurrence, even though I explain the importance of regular and ongoing follow-ups to parents from the beginning and throughout the care programs.

I explained the aggravation and reassured his mother. If I had known about the relapse and the eczema I would have advised her to stay with a lower dose of the MMR vaccine clearing for longer and/or increased or changed the supplements to help his body detoxify.

The eczema may have started as a result of the first or second round of vaccines and was then possibly suppressed with the essential oils salve his mother used.

Or maybe it was unrelated, but I doubt it. Now he is really covered in eczema on both arms and legs as well as his entire trunk and a bit on the face. This may not be a bad sign as I explained to his mother, as eczema is a lot less disabling and serious than autism.

The good news is that his eye contact and speech have continued to improved, but he also has regular interventions with the speech pathologist which is no doubt valuable for him.

Plan:

Increase the TrueHope EMP to 4 a day.
Increase the vitamin C to 1000 mg twice a day
Add Broccoli extract, ie Nuco Broccogen 10, 2 capsules a day to control microglial activity and support liver function and detoxification
Add Ascorbyl palmitate, 500 mg twice a day to reduce inflammation
Give magnesium, 500 mg in water before bed
Give Epsom salt and clay baths daily
Discontinue MMR clearing for two weeks, then restart with MMR 30CH for two weeks.

FU - Jan 3/17, Email

FU January 3/17 email
Mom started him back on the MMR detox. Slept in own bed until 3:45, big for him.
P: Cont with MMR 30C, then carefully move to MMR 200C and up

Defiance, irritability and tantrum are some of the more common behaviour concerns in many children on the autism spectrum. Homeopathy may be helpful in managing these concerns.

FU Feb 21/17

Mom gave MMR 200C and 1M.

Now big tantrums again at night. Hates having diaper changed. Won’t listen, a fight every day. We are moving, it’s a bit chaotic. He is super defiant and has a look on his face like a little brat.

But his speech is getting better every week. Will say things he’s never said before, like: “Hey, what’s going on in here?”

Asks questions and answers questions now.

Now finally says Yes.

But has rages. Licked the wall in a rage.

Can’t get him into the bath for the past 2-3 weeeks.

Does not want to go into the car either.

Expressed a lot of fear: “Mommy, I’m scared!”

But the school is reporting that he is a joy with the other kids now. Before he was pushing the other kids around. Used to be aggressive with his cousins, but now he is a completely different kid!

Goes to sleep great now! Before it would take an hour, now asleep in 15 minutes.
Still wakes after 3-4 hours and comes to parents bed crying. He says he sees a ghost. A man died in the shower of that house in the past and parents sometimes hear knocking and doors closing for no reason.

His eye contact is still a bit off.

He spaces out sometimes.

Finally get referral for pediatrician.

Stool is sometimes solid now, and sometimes still foul and mushy.

Plan: MMR 200C only, no more 1M twice a week for two weeks, possibly longer
Stram 200C one dose
Tub 30C every second Wed

Cameron's case stumped the pediatrician! (Image credit istock.)

March 8/17 Email - Saw Pediatrician Today

"Saw pediatrician today. She said she was on the fence about Cayden as he was not a ‘typical’ case and continuously improving and we know it’s because of your help!

"With everything you’ve helped us with Cameron has gone through huge leaps! Everyone recognizes this weekly. The preschool teachers are constantly amazed at his progress.

"His temper is better, but his fears continue and seem worse. He is petrified of getting into the bath and of bugs. I’m not sure if there is sth else we can give him for the fear of baths?"

FU April 11/17 - Huge Improvements, Talking and Understanding a lot more

"MMR 200C created a huge improvement, he is talking and understanding a lot more. He became happy and calm again . When we started MMR 1M his temper got awful, huge tantrums and meltdowns, he was beside himself, would scream and say NO, NO, and nothing could console him. He was hitting us, was harsh with his little sister, trying to hurt her."

Yesterday had melt-down over mom changing the radio station. She turned it off and he said ‘thank you’.

But: Going on potty every day and asking for the potty!

"After the MMR vaccine he lost his speech, started grunting and chewing his tongue. He had a flu shot at the same time. After that he would wake up in terror. He had started chewing on his tongue already at 6 m."

The pediatrician called and said he was a tough case. Decided to take him off the list for autism services because there were other kids in worse shape. He had been on the list for a long time, 5-6 m.

Eye contact still off a bit.

"The speech therapist decided there is nothing wrong with his speech anymore! He is all caught up! His teachers say he has changed so much, it’s absolutely amazing! The owner of the preschool had told mom she was pretty sure Cameron was on the spectrum but does not think so anymore."

Assessment:

MMR 1M is still too much for him.
Speech is so much better. Diaper changes good now and will use potty.

Plan:

Return to MMR 200C for now.

Email, April 26/17

"Cameron’s preschool is amazed at how far he has come. The owner is very interested in what you are doing and want to invite you to give a presentation on your work.
Cameron is doing much better since back on MMR 200C. Listening better, it’s rarely a struggle to get him changed or dressed. But he is still having night terrors, anything you can give him for that?"

Speech therapy can be very helpful for children with speech delays.

May 9/17 - Reached Another Level of Speech Development

Cameron is still on MMR 200C. Results:

No fighting about getting changed now.
Still has melt-downs, if you take sth away from him or deny him sth it’s the end of the world.
Still has night terrors, but not every night.
Still afraid of bugs.
Melt-downs every morning lately, but pretty good at calming down and then says sorry.
Toilet training is still on and off, says he’s too scared to go on potty. Will hold his stool.
Still chewing on tongue off and on but overall 50% less.
Last week teachers said he reached another level of speech development.
He says please and thank you now. As if a fog has lifted.
Stools are better! For about a month now.
Eczema is way better, still a bit on legs.
Eye contact is better.

Plan:
Try MMR 1M again
Stram 200C one dose, watch night terrors and repeat as needed
Chelidonium 6X daily for liver support.

Homeopathy may be helpful for night terrors and nightmares in children

FU June 13/17 - no more Night Terrors

MMR 1M, once a week, been tolerating it well. Last week mom gave it twice.

He is doing much better on days when he takes it, as per comments from school.

He says things like: “Submarines are very similar to spaceships.” Mom asked how? “Submarines are in the water; spaceships are in the air.” Asks: “Can we go and have dinner out there?”

Night terrors are okay now. Still wakes and comes to Mom’s room sometimes, but is no longer out of it.

Great play skills now, using lots of imagination.

Chewing on tongue is worse since MMR 1M started, also tongue clicking. Stimming with fingers also.

Mom feels that the flu vaccine he had really affected him too.

Very into music. Even at age 2 liked to sing and pretend he was playing guitar, sang before could talk.

"Otherwise he is now a happy expressive little boy! He has full on eye contact, his vocabulary is continuously getting better all the time and his level of understanding has increased 10 fold! It's like blockages in his brain have been lifted! He's a new little boy full of happiness, love, and eagerness to learn and grow! He can answer questions and understand everything you say. He can express himself, whether it be that he's hurt or his cold or hungry.

"This expressive language was completely unheard of half a year ago! With each treatment of Cease Therapy I am seeing more and more positive results.

"It's like he reaches a new level and moves on to the next healing chapter.

A: Still progressing. Asks questions now. No more night terrors. Still some chewing on tongue and stimming with his fingers.

P: Continue MMR 1M until he no longer reacts or responds, then increase to MMR 10M
Stram as needed if night terrors return.

FU Aug 10/17 - Can really have Conversations now

MMR 10M now. Big change!

More real talking. Can really have conversation now.

Not been aggressive or any side effects.

Not as many melt-down, but still has moments.

Wears underwear now instead of pull-ups. Potty trained at night now. Still uses diaper for bowel movements.

Sleep: Still waking up every night to come to our bed, but not as restless. Before would hit and kick Dad in sleep.

Child development team came to his preschool to assess him. Said not too concerned.

Is okay with baths again! Letting mom wash his hair without problems, before he screamed!! Let’s mom brush his teeth and allowed dentist to examine his teeth!! Would not let him 3 m ago.

A: Great improvement overall.
BM still in diaper.
Still chewing on tongue.

P: Cont MMR 10M, then Infanrix Hexa.

The Infanrix Hexa vaccine is a hexavalent (6 in 1) vaccine usually administered in babies at 2, 4 and 6 months. Image credit Wikimedia, attribution Whispyhistory, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dec 21/17 - Infanrix-Hexa Detox

I have not seen Cameron for four months. He's been on the Infanrix-Hexa vaccine remedy. Infanrix Hexa is a combination vaccine containing antigens for diphteria, polio, pertussis, hepatitis B, Hemophilus influenza B and tetanus, which most infants receive at 2, 4 and 6 months. It also contains aluminum adjuvants, formaldehyde and a number of other additives.

"Cameron has been so great for the past few months. He's come through another blockage it seems. He turned 4 yesterday! He's pretty settled in who he is now.

"For a while there he wasn't doing well. While I was detoxing the Infanrix Hexa he was very spacey, not following orders, confused and with some irrational behaviour. Since I've finished the detox he totally improved. In the meantime I managed to get him back on the autism assessment waitlist. He will be assessed in January. The whole team who does the initial testing will be present, I thought I'd mention it to you and see if you would be interested in attending. It may be good way to get the word out on what it is you specialize in."

I never was invited to attend the assessment although I agreed to come.

FU April 21/2018 - Suddenly Angrier than Ever!

"The last two months have been very difficult for Cameron's behavious. My father died in February and my husband and I are separating. We separated last year in September for three months and the kids and I stayed at my mother's home. Then we got back together for a bit. There was fighting and the kids witnessed it.

"Cameron is angrier than ever before. Sometimes I think he is possessed by demons. He won't let me talk to him, he just covers his ears. He has epic melt-downs like never before! He screams at the top of his lungs. I give him time out and he just screams and screams! Once he is past the emotion he will apologize and say: 'Mom, you're my best friend, I'm so sorry, I need you.'"

"Now Cameron is constantly making dinosaur noises and is bouncing off the walls. He is so unbalanced now and is constantly hurting his little sister. He is aggressive with my mom's dog."

At that moment the penny dropped in my mind and I asked about the dog.

"It's a Miniature Pinscher. He is terrible with the kids and will growl and nip at the kids. Some time ago he nipped Cameron in the back of the neck and drew blood. Cameron is terrified of him now.

A dog bite can sometimes create a state requiring the remedy Lyssin or Lyssinum. Image credit Istock photo.

"Cameron has also started to complain about feeling weak after walks now, he has to rest after walks."

Well, this was new development. After having improved so much with his anger and irritability it was back in full force and worse, moreover he was making loud dinosaur noises (a kind of growling) all the time now. The kids had witnessed their father fighting with their mom and in addition grandma's dog had been nipping and biting Cameron for quite some time.

I thought that maybe the dog bites had something to do with his state as I recognized the pattern of growling and aggression in association with dog bites, as well as the weakness after exertion, plus the quick repentance after outbursts. Muscular weakness is a feature of the remedy which is made from the saliva of a rabid dog. The remedy may also be indicated in a history of repeated abuse or even torture.

No worries, the remedy was made in 1833 and there are no active or dead rabies viruses, nor any dog saliva molecules as they have been diluted out by the process of repeated potentization to the 1M potency. It means that the remedy has been diluted in a 1:100 ratio and strongly agitated between steps 1000 times.

P: Lyssin 1M, 2 pellets today
Repeat Infanrix clearing again

FU May 22/18 - the Remedy helped!

"The pills did help! He's been doing great! He's listening well and his behaviour has been 50% better. A few days after I administered the remedy the teacher said he had such a great day she literally had goosebumps at the change in him and his ability to focus better and express himself He's had a few rough days here and there. I wondered if I should give it to him again?"

Aha, my theory may have been correct!

P: Repeat Lyss 1M.

Homeopathy may help to return children on the autism spectrum to health and happyness!

August 29/10 - Happy, Expressive, full Eye Contact

I messaged the mom to see how Cameron was doing.

"Cameron is doing pretty good, although he's had a few moments lately where he's a bit aggressive with his peers.

"But otherwise he is doing so well! Witnessing the hurdles that Cameron has overcome has been so rewarding! Everyone in his life sees just how far he's come and are truly amazed at his recovery. We couldn't be more grateful to you for your help, you have changed our world for the better!"

Cameron had another dose of Lyss and has continued to do well since.

A wonderful result!

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, September 4/22

Questions? I offer a free 15-minute meet-and-greet consultation

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Fri, 05 Aug 2022 06:38:22 GMT

A Child with Severe Tantrums is Helped with Homeopathy

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 05:52:00 GMT

IN BRIEF

A toddler with multiple, intense tantrums as day is greatly helped with a homeopathic remedy made from ultrasound.

The remedy was prepared by exposing water to ultrasound which was then potentized by a homeopathic pharmacy.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Colicky and Oppositional

On November 1st of 2021 I saw a three-year-old girl, whom I will call Cora, via Zoom. Her mother reported that Cora had developed increasingly severe behavioural issues:

"Ever since she was born Cora hasn't been the easiest baby. She was colicky for the first 8 months and has always cried a LOT, especially during her first two years. Over the last year we have seen her develop into a very bright, helpful, intelligent, happy young girl when everything is going her way, but as soon as we say no to something or ask her to do something that she does not want to do (get dressed, brush teeth, wash hands, etc..) she often has a major meltdown.

"She refuses by saying no at first, but when we continue to "hold our ground" it escalates into her flopping on the floor or she starts slapping herself on the thigh or slapping mom/dad or slapping whatever is around (cabinet, counter, etc. ) and now she is starting to throw things, sometimes on the ground, other times at us, to make an aggressive point that "she does NOT want to do that". Then she starts screaming at the top of her lungs, until she is literally red in the face."

Strong-Willed, Irritable and In-Affectionate

"Frankly, it's quite scary to watch and it breaks my heart so see so much anger in her over something that seems so small to us. My husband and have often had to use our physical strength just to be able to change her diaper, get her dressed, get her in the car seat, brush her teeth, etc, because she outright refuses by bucking her body or becoming a 'wet noodle' and flops around, making it extremely difficult to do simple, daily tasks. Changing her diaper is a real challenge, she will kick her legs and try to get away!

"The fits happen multiple times a day, almost every single day. Her personality is strong-willed and stubborn. She is very particular and needs everything to be exactly as she says/wants or there is usually a meltdown/tantrum. She is also in-affectionate, meaning most days she doesn't like to be hugged, kissed or cuddled. She gets really rigid when we try to 'love on her', pushes us away, runs away and says no!

"She is very independent and will tell us: 'I don't need you!

"She is doing well in preschool, is thriving and really enjoying it and has lots of friends. She is very lively and chipper but lacks co-ordination and trips over hear feet running or runs into walls, regularly. She loves to chase older kids around in the park."

Medical History

She has not received any vaccines except the Vit K shot when she was delivered. Mom describes that she has a 60-70% nutritious, whole foods and organic diet. She also takes a multi vitamin, along with liquid omega 3, vit D, iodine and zinc almost every day. Her mother has a history of PMS.

At this point I was getting suspicious of any exposures or traumatic events during the pregnancy, labour or delivery. If a child has problems from birth usually something happened to her during or before that time. I particularly suspected ultrasound exposure as this can potentially cause a great deal of irritability and restlessness in exposed children based on my experience.

Ultrasounds

""We did an extra ultrasound to find out the baby's gender at 15 weeks. She also had one at 8 weeks and two more later on, including a longer anatomy scan. I also worked with ultrasound procedures professionally every day."

Bingo! This just might have been the issue, ultrasounds!

But there was more: Mom also had a tuberculin test every year and had one while pregnant. And the delivery was traumatic for her:

"The birth was horrible. She had her hands up and it felt like a corkscrew was coming out when I gave birth to her, it was tremendously painful. I felt as if I was being shredded."

Analysis and Plan

There were several factors to consider in Cora's case. I was mostly suspicious of the ultrasound exposure as I had seen similar patterns before and was very familiar with a particular proving of ultrasound a colleague of mine on Vancouver Island conducted. The repeated tuberculin testing and the traumatic delivery were also factors I considered.

(Reading the case again now I'm wondering if she had her hands up at birth to defend herself against the ultrasound, who knows!)

Plan: Ultrasound 30C two doses a week for two weeks

FU Nov 27/22

US 30C twice a week for two weeks.

"After she took the first dose of Ultrasound 30C she got sleepy and put herself down to sleep, that has never happened before. When she woke up, she was grumpy and had some extra tantrums for the next 4 days. Since then, she has been much less irritable and more affectionate and lets me hug her and stroke her hair. She also cuddled on the sofa with daddy.

"The tantrums came back a bit by Nov 20, but since then have not gotten worse again. It's easier to get her out of tantrums and she is a little less strong-willed. We are surprised how quickly things have turned around, before she had 20 tantrums a day, now she only has 1-2 a day and they are much shorter.

"She is maybe not tripping over her feet quite as much as before. When she had the initial aggravation for four days, she was falling a lot more and ran into the wall 2-3 times. This week has been much better even though we've been home all week.

"We can get her into the car seat now without any problems; before she was fighting us every time. She is also willing to go on the potty mostly now. Before we had to hold her down to sit on the toilet and she was still trying to get away. She has only fought us a couple of times since the remedy.

"She is sucking her thumb again; she had stopped a month ago."

Well this was a dramatic change on two weeks of a homeopathic remedy made from ultrasound!

We decided to continue her on Ultrasound 30C as needed for now.

FU April 2/22 (4 months later)

Mom is still using US 30 C as needed, but Cora's symptoms have come back, and her episodes are getting worse again.

Mom gave U 200C twice and felt it did not do anything.

"She is screaming at us, flapping on the floor, loses it with transitions with crying and bawling for 30 minutes.

"Now she is really, really clingy with her daddy. If he has a shower she stands there the whole time crying: "I don't want you to have a shower!" If her dad is at home she asked him: 'Come sit with me, I'm lonely! I'll be lonely over here all by myself!'

"At night she wants to be read one more book, one MORE book. She's been crawling into our bed at night saying she is lonely.

"The emotional intensity is still there, but she has been much more affectionate.

"She also loves the TV so much now, gets upset if it's turned off. Same with the bubble machine."

I thought that this was a very interesting change, suddenly, from not wanting affection at all and being very independent Cora had turned into a little clinging vine, and feeling lonely a lot, especially with her father. She seemed to be needing a new remedy.

I was wondering if this change pointed to a history of possible abandonment so I asked if the parents had felt abandoned in their lives. Cora's mother shared that her own mother had started drinking when she was about 11. She would pass out a lot and Cora's mom had to cook dinner and help look after her younger siblings.

Cora's mother also shared that Cora did not want to latch after she was born.

Between her obvious symptoms of feeling abandoned and lonely, the family history of likely emotional abandonment, which may have left epigentic or energetic imprints that may have been passed down, and the difficulty latching, I thought a milk remedy might help.

There are several milk remedies available in homeopathy, including remedies made from the milk of the cow, goats, pigs, donkeys, a lion, dolphins, dogs and cats among others. These remedies share certain themes of feeling abandoned, alienated and/or isolated, issues with nursing and disruptions in the mother-child bond.

Cora got Lac-maternum, a homeopathic remedy made from the milk of several nursing mothers.

FU July 20/22

I messaged Cora's mother to see how she was doing:

"Cora is doing so much better! This remedy has really worked. I did have to go up to the 200C right away because the 30C did not work even after two weeks of dosing. But the 200C twice a week has done the trick!

"Cora is much more affectionate now. She says, "I love you" ALL the time. She says it so much I joked with her dad and said, 'maybe we are giving her too much of this new remedy because she is so lovey-dovey now!' She hugs us often and just seems happier all around.

"I can't remember the last time she had a 'clingy' episode with her dad and had a tantrum about him leaving the house or because he had to take a shower. She has even noticed this herself and will say things like, 'I didn't cry when Daddy left.'

"She is still crawling into bed with us, but it isn't every night. I have asked her a couple of times why she wants to climb into our bed in the middle of the night instead of sleeping in her own room and instead of saying, "because I'm lonely" like she did before the remedy, she now says things like, 'because I love Mommy and Daddy' or 'because it is nice and cozy in there.'

"So all in all we have nothing to good things to report. I am finally ENJOYING being a parent now! Her and I are starting to understand one another's personalities and connect on a much deeper level than we were before.

"These changes in her behaviour have been invaluable to me and our family and we will forever be grateful for your service! If anything else arises we will most definitely schedule another appointment."

Conclusion

This child, who suffered with extreme tantrums and meltdowns and was highly oppositional, improved remarkably quickly with a few doses of homeopathic ultrasound.

Then another layer of being very clingy and feeling lonely arose, perhaps related to some inherited abandonment issues from the parents, we can't be sure obviously but this history plus the difficulty with latching pointed to Lac- maternum, which entirely relieved her clingyness and feelings of loneliness. An amazing result.

We must wonder how this little girl would have done without homeopathy and how her life might have unfolded with these obstacles in her being. Homeopathy can help to remove such burdens at an early age, freeing the child to develop all of her talents, enjoy good relationships with other and experience a healthy and fulfilling life, which is all every parent wishes and hopes for!

References:
Summary of the Trituration of Ultrasound, Dr Roland Guenther, Vancouver Island Homeopathy
The Milk Remedies, Cassie Everett
Lac Remedies in Practice, Philip M. Bailey

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, August 5/22.
(All photos are professional stock photos from istock.)

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Homeopathy for Severe Intrusive Thoughts Caused by Zoloft

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 22:09:05 GMT

IN BRIEF

A teenager who developed severe intrusive thoughts after being prescribed Zoloft is greatly helped by a homeopathic remedy made from Zoloft.

By Anke Zimmermann, BS, FCAH

Side Effects of Zoloft

In August of 2021 a 13-year-old girl whom I will name Divya was brought to my practice in regards to severe intrusive thoughts which started in March of the same year after she was prescribed Zoloft for depression. The intrusive thoughts were a clear side effect of Zoloft for her and are recognized as a potential adverse effect in the product literature.

She had been on Prozac previously for anxiety and her doctor switched her back to Prozac, however, the intrusive thoughts remained.

The thoughts were persistent and involved her thinking that she would do bad things in the future, to grow up to become someone who would do bad things.

Her doctor then diagnosed her with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Social Anxiety, Negativity and Meltdowns

"In addition Divya is affected by social anxiety, her mother shared.

"She has trouble forming close connections and feels uncomfortable around people.
As a baby she cried all the time and would not separate from me to go to anyone else. She had to sleep on top of me. She didn't like people looking at her. Even though she saw her grandparents every day she would refuse to be left alone with them.

"She can have severe meltdown is a request is made of her, such as doing her homework. Divya also suffers from general negativity and will take everything as an insult. She easily feels judged and criticized, is often in a negative mood and gets angry or sad easily.

Divya's mother and maternal grandfather are and were also affected by social anxiety.

Divya also had severe nightmares and an intense fear of dogs when when she was little.

Homeopathic Zoloft

As the intrusive thoughts were the most recent concern and were clearly linked to the use of Zoloft it was agreed to start care with a homeopathic preparation of Zoloft. Divya took Zoloft 30C twice a week.

According to her mother, the one-and-a-half days after her first dose of Zoloft 30C Divya had no intrusive thoughts at all! The thoughts greatly diminished on 30C over the next three weeks but were still somewhat present.

The following month she got Zoloft 200C one dose and to repeat as needed. The remedy completely stopped the intrusive thoughts and they never returned. We are still working on the other concerns, but this was a huge improvement and relief for her already.

Tautopathy

Tautopathy is a sub-branch of isopathy (‘same disease’) and both are sub-branches of homeopathy (similar disease). Tautopathy uses potentised remedies prepared from conventional medicines, vaccines, or poisons in an attempt to prevent or relieve negative reactions caused by those same substances.

Tautopathic examples include:

- Potentised medications for any ill-effects from them. These can include potentized antibiotics, pain medications, anaesthetics, antidepressants, steroid medications etc.

- Potentised vaccines for the ill-effects of vaccines

- Potentised toxins, such as pesticides, chlorine, volatile organic compounds, toxins such as arsenic, lead etc

Tautopathy can be a quick and simple approach to help reduce the adverse effects of various toxins. Classical homeopathy can be used to address underlying susceptibilies and other factors at the same or at other times.

Both approaches can play a helpful role in the management and potentially prevention of problems arising from drugs, vaccines, and various toxins.

Medication Side Effects

Medications can be useful but can also have undesirable side effects. This young girl developed severe, intrusive thoughts and was diagnosed with OCD after being prescribed Zoloft. The thoughts remained even after the medication was discontinued, which was very concerning as it had been several months!

A few doses of a homeopathic remedy made from Zoloft completely relieved this young girl. Homeopathic remedies made from medications may provide great relief and hope for those affected by medication side effects. Hopefully this knowledge will find its way into the mainstream one day so more human suffering is alleviated.

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH offers distance consultations internationally, including for the USA, Canada, Europe, India, Australia, Pakistan and other countries.

Questions? I offer a free 15-minute meet-and-greet consultation

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Homeopathy Helps a Child with Aggression and Lack of Remorse

Wed, 26 Jan 2022 02:36:01 GMT

IN BRIEF

A little girl who was very aggressive with her baby sister and, moreoever, showed no remorse for hurting her, is successfully relieved with a special homeopathic remedy potentially linked to the spinal anaesthesia her mother received during labour.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Aggression without Remorse

Ashanti (not her real name) was four years old when her mother consulted me. The family was concerned about her recently escalating aggression towards her family and especially her baby sister who was only ten months old. Of special concern was the fact that Ashanti did not seem to feel any remorse about hurting her sister.

"She will push sister down, try to squeeze her tightly, pull her hair out, pinches and pokes sister in the eye. She does something aggressive to her sister about 90% of the time to where we often cannot let sister on the floor when Ashanti is nearby. She will non-chalantly step on baby sister's hands or feet while walking by. I must watch the baby 100% of the time or Ashanti will do something physical to hurt her. She seems to have no remorse for hurting her at all.

"She head-butts, kicks and punches us when angry. She has a lot of energy and can go from zero to 100 for bed time. She has always been very independent and always needs to do things on her own. If she does not like something she will hate it and play refusal or else has a total meltdown. The frequency and intensity of her aggression and meltdowns has increased over the past year.

Extremes of Behaviour

"Ashanti has always been very intense with her behaviour, and very hyper. Her love, anger and sadness are all extremes.

"She did no smile or giggle until she was nine months old. She only shows anger but not sadness.

"She will urinate herself when she is angry, this started when I tried to go back to work a year ago, even though she was already potty-trained a couple of months before then.

"Ashanti does qualify to be diagnosed with with ADHD and Disorder of Dysregulated Anger and Aggression of Early Childhood, or PTSD using the DC: 0-5.

A Traumatic Delivery

Ashanti's mother reported that the parents were not married yet at the time, which caused stress for her and that she had very bad headaches throughout the first trimester of her pregnancy and slightly into the second trimester.

The labour and delivery were very traumatic with the mother reporting that she had felt 'tortured'.

"I was starved and given only two crackers from midnight to 3:30 am. I was crying from hunger during the labour! The doctor scared me into having a C-section by saying that my daughter would be brain damaged if she was born vaginally.

"I was tied to an operating table for a C-section and faded in and out of consciousness. Then they moved into a recovery room where I was left unattended and freezing cold, shivering on the table, still tied up and separated from my baby.

"There was nurse in the room but she totally ignored me! I asked for a blanket and was told I could not have one! And the spinal anaesthesia was so strong that I could not walk at all for 24 hours afterwards! I felt totally traumatized by the experience and very angry! I ended up with post-partum PTSD."

Tantrums and Nightmares

"Ashanti was a good baby, she did not cry much. The first few months were really good. But she never smiled, I felt something was wrong. At 18 month she started to have meltdowns and still has them now at age 4. She will throw herself to the ground, flail and scream a few times a day. She witnessed her parent fighting around that time, we're not sure if that was a factor. But she never grew out of the tantrums.

"When her baby sister was born she was good with her for the first three months. But then she started to hug her too tight and kiss her too aggressively. She also started to get severe nightmares at full moon with yelling, grunting and screaming in her sleep. She'll yell things like: "Give me money! Stop that! I don't like you! This has gotten worse over the past year but she always struggled with sleeping. By 9 months she could not sleep or nap without being able to touch us."

"I also had bad nightmares as a child. My mother was a victim of child abuse, with a lot of violence and witnessing violence. She later became addicted to prescription medications. She also has no remorse, will not apologize. She'll just cover up everything."

Fears and Generals

"Ashanti is slow to warm up to new people and places. She very much dislikes unclean places. A family member is a hoarder and she hates going over to their place and will cling to me. I myself also dislike dirty homes and spaces."

Ashanti can't go to sleep without a light on, she will start yelling and refuse to go to sleep. She can't fall asleep without us. She tells the parents: 'I am brave at night".

She is not a picky eater and will eat everything.

She hates covers at night, sleeps mostly on her back, sometimes her left side. She still sucks her thumb and often sleeps with her mouth open.

On waking she is in a terrible mood: "She is slow to wake up and get angry if you're too cheery, then may or may not eat breakfast. Every other day she has a morning meltdown. She gets angry if she's hungry.

Objectives of the parents

The parents had the following objectives:
1) To control the frequency of the meltdowns
2) To be better able to use coping skills to calm down during meltdowns
3) Not to be physically aggressive
4) Not to urinate herself when angry
5) To learn to use gentle touch instead of rough
6) To be able to listen to multi-step directions

Assessment and Plan

Here we had a four-year-old girl with a high level of aggression to her family and especially her baby sister. She was violent to her sister at every opportunity and, most concerningly, showed no remorse. She also had frequent and intense tantrums since 18 months, as well as nightmares during the full moon.

What was very peculiar was that she did not smile or giggle until 9 months. On reviewing baby photos it was striking that she had a very hard look in her eyes from birth.

I was concerned about the traumatic delivery and the fact that the mother got an excessive amount of spinal anaesthesia as she was unable to walk for 24 hours after the delivery.

The hospital records indicated that the mother had received Fentanyl as well as Bupocaine in the epidural. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. In homeopathy we have remedies made from Morphine and Opium and striking keynotes for these remedies are lack of remorse and lying.

Drug addicts are known for lacking remorse and empathy as the addiction takes over their lives.

The child's hard look from birth, her lack of smiling, her lack of remorse and the family history of prescription drug addiction led me to consider the remedy Morphinum, also known as Morphine sulphate in 30C. I also considered homeopathic Fentanyl and Vicodin as well as a remedy made from the epidural (Fentanyl plus Bupocaine) as back-up remedies.

Follow-up two weeks after Morphinum 30C

"Ashanti is showing more remorse and empathy! She is not trying to harm baby sister now. She is playing gently with friends. She now has a childhood look in her eyes and seems much happier. However, her intensity is still there. When she hugs it is still tight, when she loves, it is strong and intense."

Mom was advised to repeat the remedy if Ashanti relapsed.

Three months later

"I wanted to email to say thank you! Ashanti has become a different kid and an amazing big sister. It was a huge transformation after such small amount of time working with you. I cannot thank you enough!
My husband had no idea that I was treating Ashanti with homeopathy, and he would start bragging about her changes in behavior, and how much he has loved seeing who she has become. When I confessed, he was shocked and interested in homeopathy!"

Honestly, I was surprised myself, but my theory must have been dead-on as only a couple of doses of Morphinum created such a change in this little girl. What a blessing homeopathy is!

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, January 30, 2022

Image credit: Southwest, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

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I Have Claws and will Defend Myself!

Wed, 12 Jan 2022 21:01:56 GMT

IN BRIEF

A five-year-old girl with aggression towards herself and others is relieved with Lac leoninum, a homeopathic remedy made from lion's milk.

She hated having her nails cut and explained that those were her claws and she needed them to protect herself.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Scratching, biting and hitting

A five-year-old girl whom I will call Sarabi, was seen in my clinic in August of 2020 with a chief complaint of aggression towards herself and others. In particular she will bite and hit herself and scratch others when frustrated. She is the youngest of three.

"Everyone in our house except me has scars from scratches on their arms, " her mother reported. "She gets very upset with me when I cut her nails as she says they are her protection. She feels that being the smallest in her home she needs to protect herself this way."

When I asked Sarabi about her nails she said: "I have claws and I'm protecting myself! I scrape their skin off! If Mom cuts them I can't protect myself when people try to hurt me! I can defeat my (much older) brother with my claws! I scratch really hard until he bleeds! My claws are really small, but they're actually really, really good at scratching people. Sometimes when I'm angry I bite myself really hard. I get angry when my brother teases me and when he is trying to knock me over."

"Sarabi will also threaten to hit or bite herself to get her own way, even to the point of saying she will kill herself. She has bruises and bite marks on her arms where she has bitten herself when upset. Another thing that we have struggled with is that she swears a lot and makes rude gestures."

I ask her about this and she replies: "Yes, I do that a lot, but not to strangers, they might be prisoners."

"Sarabi gets upset if she can't do things herself, and if her sister does not want to play with her. She will then physically attack her sister and herself. She can be very controlling and tell her sister what to do and say during play, which also causes sister not to want to play with her.

"These behaviours intensified when her sister (who is two years older) started school and left the preschool where they had been in the same class a year ago. I also began working more around this time and I started weaning her, which all happened in autumn of last year.

"She can be quite tough and often will not cry when you think she would because she is upset or hurt. If you say no to her, she can give you a real glare.

Attached to mother's breasts

"Sarabi is and was VERY attached to the breast. She refused to eat solids and/or gagged on solids before she was one year old. She needed a lot of closeness. I carried her in a sling for the first two years.

I weaned her very slowly, she was 4 1/2 before she was fully weaned. She still wants to 'snuggle booby' at bedtime. She can get angry with me and tell me that my breasts are hers, not mine! She can feel sad sometimes about no longer feeding. She will sniff my breasts if she can. She is also very attached to me in general and is very caring and soft with me, almost like she wants to take care of me."

"An astrology chart we did showed separation trauma. We wonder if it is generational. Sarabi's father suffered separation from his family when he was young. His mother left his father when he was 2.5 and he stayed with his father. A few months later she sent police to fetch him, and then he was separated from his father. Her paternal grandfather was sent to boarding school at four or five years old.

Fear of death and abandonment

"She has had some concerns recently about 'being born last, so she will die last and be left all alone', which is a very big and awful thought to be having at her age. She has also been generally concerned about death and is very anxious about coronavirus, even though we are not. She will not drink from the same glass as anyone in our home for example and won't touch anything without checking if it's okay first.

"She even sees her own father as a threat to her security and will tell me 'You love Daddy more than me'.

"My mother died in December of 2017 after a long battle with cancer. This was very stressful for the whole family. I was always juggling caring for my mother with caring for the children, rushing back and forth between homes, then grieving. Sarabi was very young at the time, but still talks about wanting grandma not to be dead and wanting to see her again. She seems to be very aware of the fact that this means I will also someday be gone.

"We moved house in 2015 when Sarabi was 7 months old. The reason I mention this as stressful is because we have just bought a house that we will be moving into next year and Sarabi was very upset about our current house being 'abandoned'. She doesn't like change and she finds it extremely difficult to let go of things. She won't even let us throw away a piece of paper with a scribble on or an old sock with a hole in it."

Pregnancy and delivery

"The pregnancy was very comfortable, ideal. My favourite midwife was present during the delivery, we lit a candle and she was born withing 30 minutes. We went home from the hospital the same afternoon.

Weak immune system

In addition, her mother was concerned about Sarabi's immune system. She described that the girl had been frequently ill with flus and throat infections over the past few months. At one point her tonsils were very swollen and seemed to even slightly affect her breathing. Sarabi also had a history of recurring pin worms.

Food

Sarabi is a fussy eater and likes to eat chips and crisps very much. She likes white food like milk, pasta, cream. She has never wanted to taste meat. She also likes pink lady apples and olives. She can be sensitive to smells. If someone has BBQ sauce on the table she can't eat her food.

Fear of dogs

I asked about what she is like with animals and her mother reported that she is really terrified of dogs.

"She came face to face with a Husky at age two and suddenly let out a primal scream of terror! She told me she thought the dog was a lion! She was scared of cats, too. One day, a cat followed us and she was terrified. She watched the Lion King movie three weeks ago and was very upset that Simba's parents were betrayed by his cruel uncle and might die.

"Now she really wants to have a cat though, we are waiting to get one.

"She will watch horror movies and is fascinated by scary things, like Halloween.

Analysis

Here we have a five-year-old girl with intense behaviours, including aggression with hitting, scratching and biting as well as a fear of abandonment and a continuing attachment to her mother's breasts. Her symptoms intensified over the past year when, around the same time, she was separated from her sister in preschool, her mother started to work more and she was weaned from the breast, three losses or events of abandonment potentially in her mind.

The symptoms of the continuing attachment to her mother's breast, refusal of eating solids before the age of one (nursing only) and the fear of abandonment pointed to a milk remedy. The question was which one.

Her aversion to having her nails cut because she needed them to defend herself pointed towards a cat milk remedy. We have several such remedies in homeopathy, including remedies made from house cats as well as lion's, tiger's and panther's milk.

I was debating between lion's and tiger's milk, but as she seemed so attached to her sister and mother, I chose lion's milk as they are social cats in which the females stay with their mother's and sisters in a pride throughout their entire lives.

Lac leoninum

I did a bit more research and found a great article on Hpathy titled: "Review of the kingdoms with a brief Lac-leo case", which I sent to the mother for review.
This is what she wrote back to me:

"I read through the description of lion and tiger milk in the article and I honestly see so much of it in Sarabi. Just to name a few, Sarabi is very independent, will not allow us to help her even if she is struggling with something, we even jokingly called her 'struggles' for a while.

"She has a huge problem with being the youngest and was very upset to find out that she would never be older than her siblings. She defines herself as "the brave one". She growls when she doesn't get her way or things don't go her way. She is very authorititative, gives instructions like a boss, points with her whole hand or hands on hips. She often talks to us like she is the adult.

"She loves to play like a lion with her Dad, pouncing and wrestling with him and running at him and jumping on him to knock him over. This is probably her favorite game with him. She does the same with her brother, but he doesn't let her win.

"She has always drawn pictures of her family, especially when at preschool. she is very protective and will speak out against injustice. So fascinating!"

Plan

Lac leoninum 200C, twice in 24 hours, then wait.

Follow-up one month later - no more scratching!

"She has not been scratching anyone, maybe her sister just a bit. There is definitely a shift.
Her anger has not been a problem; she has not been violent or drawing blood.
She is still biting herself. She is a bit better with food, will be resistant to trying something at first, but then will eat it.

We got our cat two days after the remedy. We called him Timba, which means lion!

She has much less separation anxiety now after she went back to preschool. Before it was terrible, but now she has been fine, just going in and playing with friends. She seems much more grown up in comparison. Before she wanted to just stay home. Before she also constantly asked who would pick her up, if we were going to be there again. Not anymore.

She has been playing better with her sister, joining sister in her play more rather than needing to be so bossy all the time.

She has only said she wanted to kill herself a couple of times, it's much better. Her breathing is better, too, not as raspy sounding.

Assessment and plan:

Sarabi is much improved, both in regard to her aggression as well as with her separation anxiety. Repeat Lac leo 200C if symptoms recur.

Two months into care

After the initial very positive improvement some of Sarabi's old pattern of biting herself had returned and mom gave her another dose of Lac-leo 200C, however Sarabi got progressively worse and now is back to biting, scratching, being controlling and possessive and struggling with separation.

It seemed as if she needed a higher potency.

This is very common by the way and to be expected. Often children - and adults for that matter - need to take increasingly higher potencies of a remedy to eradicate the root imbalances in their vital force.

Plan: Lac-leoninum 1M

Three months into care

"Sarabi has improved since taking the 1M potency of Lac leo about two weeks ago, but it didn't go all the way I believe she may need another dose. I did notice an almost immediate relief of the symptoms when she took it though, it was getting unbearable as I was longing for the package from the pharmacy to arrive. She is not attacking and less controlling but she is still biting herself as soon as things don't go her way. That seems to be the last symptoms to leave and the first to arrive."

Plan: Lac leoninum 1M

Three and a half months into care

Lac leo 1M two weeks ago helped a lot, but has not cleared everything. She is still biting herself as soon as she meets any resistance. It is worst if she feels any sense of abandonment. When she was doing better she was trying different foods, including veggies, now she is back to eating just three things and it is hard to get her to go to sleep again.

Plan: Lac leoninum 1M again, order 10M.

Six months later

I had not heard from the family in about six months and reached out to see how Sarabi was doing.

"I have not given her a dose in a few months (note by Anke: good, that means she must have been doing better). Lately she is scared to go the bathroom alone or to be alone in a room. She has a feeling that something or someone is behind her. I was wondering whether to redose or if she needs another remedy?"

Here we may be seeing another remedy come up. For now we decided to have her take the Lac-leo again to see if it would help with the new symptoms.

11 months into care

I reached out again to check on Sarabi:

"I think there was an improvement, then she recently got sick and seemed to have all her old behaviours and symptoms return so I gave her Lac leo again and she has improved again. She still has some fears about spiders and zombies and thinks something or someone is going to appear behind her, but not as intense as before. "

Assessment: The remedy is still working for her. She may need a few more doses to resolve the state, but she has vastly improved from the beginning.

A great result from the milk of a lioness, for a little human lion cub! That is the magic of homeopathy!

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, January 2022

Photo by Roger Brown from Pexels

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A Girl with Severe Attacks of Rage

IN BRIEF

Violence and attacks of rage in children are not only distressing but the child can also become a danger to herself and others. Fortunately homeopathy has something to offer as this case report illustrates.

Read more...

Homeopathic Management of a Complicated Case of Autism, OCD, Aggression and Speech Delay

IN BRIEF

A young boy with autism, OCD, aggression, speech delay and sleep problems improves under careful homeopathic management with many different remedies over several months. Homeopathic management of autism cases can be challenging as remedies may need to be frequently adjusted.
Read more...

A Child with Insomnia, Aggression and Behavioural Problems

IN BRIEF

A 4-year-old boy who developed insomnia and a personality change after being bitten by a dog improves greatly with Lyssinum, a special homeopathic remedy. The case causes a media furor with international headlines. Our own PHO goes on record to claim people can contract rabies from this homeopathic remedy. Curious yet? Read more...

Homeopathy Helps a Child with Aggression and Lack of Remorse

IN BRIEF

A little girl who was very aggressive with her baby sister and worse, showed no remorse for hurting her, is successfully relieved with a special homeopathic remedy potentially linked to the spinal anaesthesia her mother received during labour.
Read more...

Homeopathy for Pre- and Perinatal Trauma

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 02:58:35 GMT

IN BRIEF

Emotionally traumatic events during pregnancy or labour and delivery can leave lasting imprints on both mothers and children. Homeopathy may offer solutions for the effects of such traumas.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, originally published in Wise Traditions Magazine

The Secret Life of Babies

Many years ago, I read the books The Secret Life of the Unborn Child [1] by Thomas Verny, MD, and Babies Remember Birth [2] by David Chamberlain, PhD. Both authors used regression hypnosis to take people back to their birth experience, and both discovered that people often remembered many details of their birth—including who was present, what was said and how the parents felt about the new arrival. They were interesting reads, to say the least.

Ever since then, I have paid close attention to the beginning of life when taking cases. An infant’s precious time in utero, the sometimes dramatic events that take place during labor and delivery, as well as the time shortly after birth all have the potential to affect an individual for life, sometimes crippling the person physically or mentally.

This connection generally remains unknown to the parents of the child or to the adult individual until they seek help for various concerns from a homeopathic practitioner or sometimes a regression therapist.

Homeopathic Case Taking

Homeopaths have long known that a mother’s state during pregnancy as well as events during labour and delivery can affect a child. When taking the case of an infant or child, a good homeopath therefore asks many detailed questions about these times.

The same attention to early experiences is a recommended part of a thorough case-taking for adult clients, although precise information about the pregnancy history and the birth may not always be available.

The homeopath may question the mother about her emotional state during the pregnancy; whether she experienced any traumatic events with strong emotions while pregnant; her dreams during that time; her relationship with her partner, family members and co-workers; any medical concerns and interventions; food cravings and aversions; and more.

This line of questioning is especially important if a child has suffered problems from birth or from an early age, as two cases from my practice will illustrate.

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Homeopathic Management of a Complicated Case of Autism, Severe Aggression, OCD and Speech Delay

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 22:57:42 GMT

Homeopathic management of complex autism cases

IN BRIEF

A young boy with autism, severe aggression, OCD, speech delay and sleep problems improves under careful homeopathic management with many different remedies over 2.5 years. Homeopathic management of autism cases can be challenging as remedies may need to be adjusted frequently.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Autism, OCD and Aggression

When I first met 8-year-old Oliver (not his real name) he had been diagnosed with Autism, severe OCD, as well as suspected PANS and PANDAS.

The most distressing problem for the parents was aggression. Oliver first developed irritability at five months old, which had steadily worsened, especially over the past year.

"He will attack us if he's frustrated with something. He'll go for our faces and claw at our mouths," his mother reported.

In addition, Oliver was obsessed with ripping, tearing and cutting things into small pieces. He was always walking around with a pair of scissors in his hands, cutting paper, cardboard, pillows, textiles and more all day long.

He also suffered from pica, eating sand, dirt, rocks, grass and paper.

Oliver was not yet toilet-trained and still wore diapers. His language was delayed and he only had about 150 single words for requests, people and food.

Sleep was a big challenge as well as he was afraid to be alone in the dark. He needed the lights on and his mother had to sleep with him.

Night terrors after vaccination

Delayed reactions after vaccinations are commonly missed

Oliver had received his first round of vaccines at four months old. A month later he suddenly developed insomnia and night terrors.

"It was horrifying", his mother said. "He looked right through us with his eyes open, but he was gone. This went on for quite a few months, every single night. Before he slept very well. In addition, his engagement with us dropped and he became very irritable and fussy."

At seven months he received his second round of vaccines. A month later he developed eczema on his cheeks.

At ten months he got another round of shots, in spite of the alarming changes after the first two rounds.

“Suddenly his eczema flared. He was tested and was found to be allergic to soy, dairy, dust, grass and trees, even turkey. He reacted to absolutely everything. We bought a new mattress, we were constantly cleaning. Then we took him off formula and his eczema got better."

But the worst was yet to come: By the time Oliver was 13 months old he had lost all of his words. By 16 months he had a badly bloated belly.

Just before he turned two, he was diagnosed with autism.

By that time he was so bloated he could not fit into a swimsuit. His parents started biomedical treatment with supplements, which helped somewhat. They switched to a GAPS diet by the time he was 2.5, but did not observe many gains.

"Overall he has been going downhill slowly since."

A Stressful Pregnancy and Delivery

“I had intense work stress during the better part of the pregnancy due to ongoing
conflicts with a superior at work. I had to do a lot of extra work and felt totally unsupported. I was angry and cried a lot, however, I felt pressure to continue working until just five days before his birth.”

Mom had four or five ultrasounds due to some concerns with the placenta.

Labour and delivery were a nightmare. Labour was induced with a vaginal tablet three days before the due date because his mother had developed high blood pressure.

“12 hours later I was induced with an IV drip of Pitocin, even though I did not want to be induced. I totally felt pressured into it. Contractions then came hard every few minutes. They hooked me up to monitors, the whole situation felt chaotic to me and was not at all what I had wanted.”

Then dilation of the cervix stalled at 8 cm for many hours. She received a morphine shot and went to sleep for a while. At some point the nurses gave her nitrous oxide, which made her feel very irritable and aggressive.

“I’ve never felt that aggressive in my entire life. I could barely control myself. The nitrous oxide also caused projectile vomiting for me.”

“After 28 hours of labour the baby’s heart rate went down, they gave me an epidural and prepped me for a C-section. But the epidural made me feel freezing cold. I could not stop shaking, and here I was lying on the operating table and nobody really did anything about it. I felt almost violated, certainly not honoured.”

"I think I may be prone to adverse reactions from anaesthetics, a few years ago I had a general anaesthetic for dental work and it took me all day to wake up. "

Assessment

Here was an 8-year-old boy with a likely history of delayed reactions to routine childhood vaccines, beginning with night terrors, insomnia and irritability, followed by the onset of multiple allergies and eczema, developmental regression and an ultimately an autism diagnosis with OCD and aggression.

Also of note was the emotionally intense and stressful pregnancy, as well as the complicated and stressful delivery with adverse reactions to anaesthetics, including severe aggression and shock-like symptoms in the mother.

Seedpot of Datura stramonium plant

Stramonium

Oliver received the homeopathic remedy Stramomium as it was a good match for his history of night terrors, fear of the dark and fear of sleeping alone as well as his aggression. Stramonium is a common remedy helpful in symptoms of various neurological problems in children, especially when they are associated with aggression and violence. I have seen this remedy come up frequently after vaccines, as well as after emotional traumas, such as frights, or even head injuries.

Many years ago, I saw a four-year-old boy who also had sleep problems from birth and was overly clingy to his mother. The boy was brought in because he was suicidal and kept asking to die. History revealed that his mother had been stalked and threatened with death while she was pregnant. A few doses of Stramomium cleared the state. The mother's state during the pregnancy had somehow affected the boy, a phenomenon well known in homeopathy.

Stramonium is a fascinating remedy made from a plant known as Angel's or, alternatively and tellingly, Devil's trumpet, based on its beautiful, trumpet shaped flowers.

In crude form the plant is toxic and especially affects the nervous system, causing various disorders of thought and motor control with fear, violence, fits, hallucinations and delirium. The homeopathic process of repeated dilution and shaking removes all toxic elements of the plant, leaving only an energetic essence, which may be used to rebalance a state such as Oliver's.

Oliver did very well on Stramonium and over the next few weeks his aggression drastically diminished and he completely stopped attacking his parents. It also became easier for him to fall asleep and his pica as well as his OCD symptoms diminished somewhat. We then added a homeopathic remedy made from a mixture of vaccines, which greatly helped his speech and cognitive development.

Datura stramonium flower

A Pregnancy Imprint?

Three months into care Oliver suddenly developed what seemed like bladder pain when urinating. He had to urinate frequently and was crying out in pain. He got a couple of acute remedies for this, then developed a new symptom of compulsively spitting and urinating on everything.

“He is refusing to wear clothes and is peeing on the couch and his clothes on purpose. He rips off his diaper and pees a few drops into it. Then he spits into the diaper and licks the urine and spit up in a very obsessive way. He gets extremely agitated when we try and stop him, yelling, screaming, hitting.”

I recognized the remedy, Hyoscyamus, and the day after his first dose this strange and disturbing behaviour completely stopped, much to everyone’s relief.

The emotional situation Oliver’s mother experienced during the pregnancy might have contributed to this layer. Hyoscyamus can be a good remedy in cases where the patient feels like she has suffered wrong and is not good enough, which may cause great distress.

Hyoscyamus niger, henbane

Hyoscyamus niger

Hyscyamus niger, commonly known as henbane, black henbane or stinking nightshade, is a plant with a long and colourful history of medicinal use, including in herbal anaesthetics and in various magic brews for its consciousness-altering properties. In homeopathy it ca be helpful for various behavioural and neurological concerns that may include elements of mania and provocative as well as bizarre behaviours.

Hyoscyamus is one of the more common used remedies in children with insomnia when the mother has suffered wrong during the pregnancy, such as in a work or relationship situation. It is always very important to understand the mother’s state during pregnancy when a child develops problems in infancy or early childhood.

A Miasm Rears its Ugly Head

By our next appointment, a month later, Oliver had developed a new symptom: He was lining up everything in the house, toys, shoes, furniture and became obsessed with smashing rocks with a hammer. Moreover, he was now obsessed with water and with washing his hands.

“He constantly has to go to the washroom to wash his hands. We’re lying in bed at night and he has to get up and go to the washroom to wash his hands a few times, in fact the behaviour is much worse at night.”

This was an interesting turn of events. Yet another layer appeared to come to the surface, a miasmatic layer. Most homeopaths will recognize the needed remedy as Syphilinum, a homeopathic remedy derived from syphilis.

Not to worry, this remedy is made from the killed and sterilized disease organism and one cannot contract syphilis from it. Obsessive hand washing and a worsening of symptoms at night may point to this remedy, which may also be linked to a family history of syphilis and often to a family history of alcoholism.

Mom confirmed my question: “My maternal grandfather and his father were severe alcoholics.”

Oliver got a dose of Syphilinum and almost immediately the hand washing obsession stopped. He also continued to receive the homeopathic vaccine mixture remedy, every dose of which improved his speech further.

Obsessive-compusilve handwashing

Inherited Factors

In homeopathy it has been known for two centuries that children can be born with various predispositions, which may be linked to a family history of infectious diseases as well as cancer. Homeopaths commonly refer to this as miasms. Interestingly, cancer is also increasingly being understood as linked to infections [1, 2].

Homeopathic remedies prepared from infectious materials, such as in Oliver’s case, syphilis, may be indicated and helpful in such instances.

The new science of epigenetics has provided much needed scientific confirmation of such clinical observations.

How Sweet It Is

Dec 2021

During our next appointment Oliver’s mother reported that her son had developed yet another state: He was running around wildly, licking his fingers and touching everything. If the family went to a store, he wanted to touch all the items in the store. He was also obsessively asking for sweets.

At this point Oliver got Saccharum officinalis, a fascinating remedy made from the juice of sugar cane [3]. Children who need this remedy may obsessively ask for sweets, put everything in their mouths, can be hyperactive and overly clingy. They may have an underlying feeling that they are not loved, even though their parents are giving them ample attention and love.

Again, sometimes this pattern is also a type of miasm or epigenetic imprint. I have seen and read about several children who suffered from extreme crying, insomnia and clingyness from birth whose parents had histories of emotional abandonment by their respective parents, or who were adopted [4].

Even though these babies were attended to nearly non-stop by their parents they could not be soothed, needed to nurse or suck constantly, be carried or entertained continuously and could not sleep without being attached to a parent. They also suffered from excessive separation anxiety. Saccharum officinale, a homeopathic remedy made from cane sugar, was helpful in several of these cases.

Saccharum officinale, a homeopathic remedy made from sugar

Interestingly, sugar is often used a symbol or substitute for love. Mother’s milk, the first food that a baby receives by nature is very sweet. Loved ones are often called honey, sweetie or sugarpie and sweets and chocolates are ever popular as Valentine’s Day’s gifts. Saccharum can be a great remedy when a child inexplainably does not feel loved and just can’t get enough attention [5].

Mom then told me that Oliver had gone through a phase of intense separation anxiety from age two to four to the point that she could not be out of sight. At that time, another practitioner had given Pulsatilla and the next day the separation anxiety was gone as by a miracle.

Oliver may have been going through a phase of clearing out some ancestral imprint with Saccharum. The poor boy seemed to be processing every trauma and infection in his family history.

The Multifactorial Nature of Autism and other Developmental Challenges

This is what is happening with such children on the spectrum, their miasmatic backgrounds and various stressors during the pregnancy and birth process damage the vital force and provide a fertile ground for adverse events from vaccines, medications and other stressors to occur, but with careful homeopathic management all these layers can come to the surface to be healed, it is really quite incredible.

The Next Layer

At our next appointment Oliver's mother was not happy.

"He is not doing that well. He is now eating paper constantly, tearing a sheet of copy paper and eating it, 7-10 sheets a day. He will often colour the paper and then cut or tear and eat it. He is cutting everything, paper, his clothes, our shoes.

"His aggression is back, he is hitting, scratching and kicking us and the dog.

"His sleep is also much worse again, he is up between 2:30 and 5 am. In addition he is repeating out loud everything he wants to do a hundred times. For example, when I pick him up from school he wants to go to his favourite restaurant to pick up french fries and he continuously tells me so. I reassure him that yes, we will get the fries but he can't stop asking about it. Then he starts talking about the rocks he has to get from the garden or the scissors he needs to cut the paper. He is also speaking really, really fast.

"His memory seems to be worse. He'll be cutting something in one room and will leave his scissors there, then go into another room and want the scissor but he can't seem to remember where he left them. He becomes frantic and so impatient.

"I also noticed that his ears get read in the evening.

"On the positive side we continue to see language gains and small cognitive gains. He is speaking more clearly, repeating words and spontaneously saying new words.

"Even though he is not in a good place right now, he is still doing better than last year this time.

A Manic Phase

It appeared as if Oliver had now entered a frantic, manic phase. The tendency was already present before, but now it had increased, together with the increased cutting as well as consumption of paper. The night-time waking between 2:30-5, the intensity of the symptoms, the red ears and the impatience and the aggression pointed to Belladonna, yet another plant in the Solanacea family.

Oliver got Belladonna 30C as this is was the potency mom had at home, but I asked her to order the 200C potency as well. Higher potencies can be more useful for very intense states.

After the Belladonna he had an intensification of his symptoms for 1-2 hours after taking a dose, then became more emotional and started crying.

Two days later he was calmer again. The incessant asking for things had completely stopped and his memory was back. The read ears were also better.

"I had noticed red ears on him when he was 3-4 years old", his mother reported. It seemed as if we were dealing with the return of an older phase, which is considered a good sign in homeopathy.

Atropa belladonna, deadly nightshade

Obsessive Cutting, Tearing and Eating of Paper

"However, the cutting, tearing and eating of paper has not diminished at all. He is also biting his nails, fingernails as well as toenails. He is grinding his teeth, he used to do that a lot years ago. He also used to bite the edge of cups and glasses when he was younger."

So it appeared as if an older state had come up and Belladonna had addressed some of it, yet, we still need another remedy for the compulsive eating of paper.

I had repertorized the case and Veratrum came up strongly. It had been on my mind previously, but now we decided to give it a go, especially as Veratrum also has a keynote of desiring and eating ice, something Oliver was also enjoying.

Veratrum album

Veratrum album, commonly known as false hellebore, European white hellebore, white hellebore or white veratrum is another interesting plant with a long medical history in botanical medicine. As a homeopathic remedy it can be useful remedy in children with many kinds of behavioural problems, including hyperactivity, destructiveness, aggression and defiance. The child may be vert intelligent, precocious and creative.

Intense restlessness can be a defining feature, often expressed in repetitive behaviours such as cutting clothes and paper into tiny pieces, eating the eraser, putting many objects into the mouth and impatience. This remedy had been on my radar from the beginning, due to the known keynote of desiring to cut or tear clothes and paper into tiny pieces.

Many of Oliver's other symptoms had vastly improved, but this OCD behaviour of his had not changed significantly.

Plan: Veratrum album 200C.

Veratrum album, wikimedia Planchon, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Positive Effects from Veratrum

At our next appointment Oliver's mother reported that he was eating paper 80% less! When he was eating it he now ate only small pieces whereas before he would crumple up and eat half a sheet of copy paper at a time. However, he was still cutting and tearing the paper.

He was also now fully potty-trained for the past month! Not one accident, day or night!

On the other hand a new symptom had developed again, he was suddenly doing a lot of sniffing and scrunching his face while doing so, and would also suddenly start crying. I was wondering if a grief layer was coming up and considered Ignatia amara.

Plan: Ignatia 30C, continue Poly-vax 50M, Veratrum for cutting as needed

Ignatia amara helps the crying

Two weeks later mom reported that Oliver expressed a lot of rage after the remedy or maybe because he was exposed to a classmate who had strep.

He went back to showing Belladonna symptoms with a hot, red head and ears again, a dose of Belladonna settled him again nicely.

Mom gave Ignatia again and he cried a lot, after that the sad crying stopped for several days.

The sniffing was still present, the paper eating still vastly improved, plus he stopped cutting other objects like shoes, clothes and pillows.

We're still wondering if the strep exposure caused the new sniffing and now also blowing tic. He also repeats the same phrases over and over and blows kisses repeatedly.

Two days ago he became more agitated and hyper again.

Plan: Belladonna 200C, streptococcinum 30C, if crying returns Ignatia 30C

Good video on Ignatia amara

Streptococcinum

There was no change with Streptococcinum at all. He has had a few doses of Veratrum 200C in the meantime and mom just got Veratrum 1M as well. Still taking Polyvaccine 50 twice a week with noticeable improvement of speech after each dose.

Meanwhile Oliver has started to do gross things again such as peeing on the toilet and dipping paper into the toilet. Mom gave a dose of Hyoscyamus and the behaviour stopped right away. He started having pee accidents again, but Hyoscyamus seems to help with that also.

The sniffing tic has changed to a more blowing tic and he also acts as if he is throwing it into the air. Insistent on doing things in certain order, if he forgets a step he will have to start over from the beginning or else has a melt-down.

The rock-crushing behaviour has improved, he does not need to do it every day anymore and when he does it it's shorter and less intense.

Going to sleep is better, two months ago he had to do many OCD steps before being able to go to sleep, including going to the garage and closing and opening the closet door 10+ times.

Overall his cognitive function is much better, he understands things more and his fine motor skills have also improved a lot. Last year at this time he could only draw a big X or O on a sheet of paper, now he can print his name by himself and only 1 inch tall. He can also do up a zipper now, which he could not do before.

I decided to go with a higher dose of Syphilinum in 1M as well as Veratrum in 1M.

May 7, 2021: Jumpy and Hiding

On the next appointment mom reported that the cutting and tearing of paper was still the same.

Now the agitation has come back and he is hammering rocks again. He is very jumpy, like a fight-or-flight state, startled by every noise. Jumps out of his seat if a dog barks. He has had this before, it has come and gone over the years apparently. It was very bad several years ago.

When he gets like that the family uses a big spandex swing, which is like a cocoon, to calm him.

He has had read ears a few times and mom gave Belladonna, which settled him more.

Started licking fingers again and touching things, before would spit into hands or on fingers and then touch.

I'm wondering if he may need Tarentula and ask about hiding behaviour. Yes, he likes going under blankets, covering his head, also likes play tents and houses, which is not unusual for children that age of course.

I'm concerned that he is still cutting, also the startle behaviour which was worse years ago seems to be resurfacing.

I'm asking about music and yes, apparently he has loved music since being a baby. He always asks for music to be on in the car and has rythm.

Plan: Saccharum again for the licking of fingers and touching, Belladonna as needed if mania and red ears appear, Tarentula 30C to try for jumpyness and hiding . Considering Placenta humana for the love of blanket over the head and the positive effects of the swing.

Wolf spider, photo by Dev Leigh on Unsplash

FU June 15/21: Tarentula hispanica

Tarentula 30C had a positive effect on Oliver: "The first few days he was more manic and hyper before bed but then got much better. He had not been calm at bedtime for a long time. Overall he is less hyper. His cutting behaviour has changed, he is still cutting but now he only wants brown paper, not the white copy paper. Started cutting cardboard boxes from crackers and similar.

Now he lines things up in a different way, objects are lined up in a certain order; then he moves them to another location and they have to be in the exact same order as before. Before he lined things up but not in a particular order. The cutting and lining things up consume all of his time."

He still wants to break stones sometimes, but only a few minutes here and there.

Mom also reported lots of frequent urination and reminded me that he had a history of kidney stones. This is the worst thing now, he sometimes has to go every ten minutes and it's disruptive at school.

I'm asking if he is still biting his nails and mom confirmed. He will chew his finger nails down to bleeding and chew his big toe nail also. So far, nothing we have given has changed the nail biting.

"His motor skills continue to improve, he can cut out complex shapes now, which he could not do before. He can also now use a computer mouse at school, also a new skill. His language is much more clear, others can understand him now. He now knows his name, his parents' names and is learning his address. The other day while driving to school in traffic he spontaneously said: 'Busy road'."

I'm concerned about the frequent urination coming back and the history of kidney stones. Have been considering Medorrhinum for some time, nail biting has not changed, so Med may be indicated.

Also, the OCD symptoms keep morphing, and Polyvaccine has not seemed to change them that much. Considering giving individual vaccine remedies now.

Plan: Continue Tarentula 30C as needed, Medorrhinum 200C, add Prevnar 30C twice a week.

One Year into Care

Oliver has been under homeopathic care for one year now. Overall he has made wonderful progress.
He is not aggressive anymore, before he was attacking his parents daily
He is sleeping much better, mostly through the night
He is not destroying things with cutting anymore
Not smashing rocks any more.
Overall less destructive.
Eating only minimal amount of paper now, before at 6-10 sheets of paper a day
He is mostly toilet-trained now
His speech has progressed a lot
Cognitive function has progressed significantly
Fine motor skill has significantly improved

An Ongoing Process

Oliver's case is ongoing. He has made great progress with the aggression as well as with his speech and overall improved cognitive function over the past year. His vital force is very strong, which is why he shows such clear and intense symptoms and responds so well to the indicated remedies.

I never fail to be impressed by the power of homeopathy to stimulate deep and profound healing and feel optimistic that he can continue to improve and add his significant talents to the world.

A Second Year of Care Completed

It is now September 2022 and Oliver has completed a second year of homeopathic care. He has made many more leaps in his development.

FU June 15/21: Positive Results from Medorrhinum, but Return of Rage

Medorrhinum has improved the urinary frequency. He still has some accidents and is still biting his finger and toe nails.

He has also started to take Prevnar 30C.

"Meanwhile we saw some rage and aggression come back. It was very similar to the aggression he showed when we started to work together. He was coming at me, scratching me, pushing me over. He was also much more destructive again and mean to the dog. He is breaking things, hammering rocks again. He is cutting pillows and shirts again. The aggression returned before we started with the Prevnar. I gave him Stramonium again, the 10M really helped.

"He is still cutting obsessively and is also still tearing paper after drawing certain patterns. He draws the same patterns over and over again, but they are becoming much more detailed.

"He is eating ice cubes. Has loved eating ice cubes since he was really little, 20-30 cubes a day.

"When he is in this aggressive state he screams and yells with rage and demands things, especially coffee and chocolate. He will eat coffee grind fresh or used. He also likes to eat whole lemons and limes, and whole jars of pickles. Loves mustard and uncooked pasta and rice.

With Prevnar he may be falling asleep a bit faster.

Assessment: Return of old symptoms, rage and destruction is back.

Plan: Stramonium 10M as needed
Repeat Med 200C
Continue with Prevnar clearing.
Add Sarcodes sanguinea 30C for additional detox support

FU July 31/21 - Aggression settled again

Stram 10M really settled down his aggression again.

He is still cutting everything, has cut pyjamas, computer cords, tupperware, the food in the frigde. Cutting out exact shapes with paper over and over. Gets upset if they are not perfect. He is cutting zig-zag patterns now, that is new.

Starting July 18 he showed increased sexual behaviour, touching himself, getting a lot of erections when feeling agitated. Tried to touch girls his age on the beach. Peed on toilet paper and tried to eat it. Mom recognized he needed Hyoscyamus again and it helped!

He is still urinating frequently, Medorrhinum did not relieve it completely. Mom gave Cantharis.

Still craves coffee and coffee grind, eats it by the handful.

"On the positive side he still still making progress with his speech, it is really clear now. And he did not have an allergic reaction to eating gluten, ate pizza and did not get a stomach ache or any eczema as he did in the past. This is a big change!

Assessment: He had a return of Stram and Hyos symptoms, mom managed well with the remedies. He is continuing to progress cognitively and his speech. Allergies he has had since a few months old are getting better! Still cutting.

P: Continue Prevnar clearing
Give Hyos and Stram again if needed
Try Coffea 30C re coffee craving and need to be so industrious

FU Aug 13/21 - Sexualized behaviour settled again

Try Hyos improved the sexualized behaviour, it is much less. He still has the urinary frequency. Cutting is still the same, socks, shirts, PJs, food packaging.

"Now he has new symptom: A facial and eye tic. A really hard blink then looks up to the left and had downwards, this is constant.

"He is cutting out intricate shapes. He has a black line on his teeth at the gum line, the black has to be scraped off. He had this very badly when he was 2-3 years old.

A: New symptom of facial/eye tic.
P: Staphysagria - black line on teeth, cutting, urinary symptoms.
I'm also considering Agaricus and Lyssinum
Continue Prevnar 200C
Try Carc for eye tic

FU Sept 3/21: New - Need to organize fridge

New symptoms: Organizing the fridge. Takes everything out. Cuts and throws out old veggies. He is very compulsive about the fridge.

His language keeps coming. It is clear, he is able to repeat so much, able to think of words so much more easily.

He is not eating coffee grinds anymore, Coffea seems to have helped!

"Still cutting, no change. He comes downstairs and frantically looks for his scissors, he has to cut his shirt. If we don't give him the scissors he has a panic attack, pants with quick breathing. So we just let him do it. He is still cutting or tearing paper, but the shapes are still becoming more and more intricate.

"The black line on the teeth is still there a bit. Eye tic is still present, a bit different. Now he opens his eyes really wide instead but it is still as frequent. Carc did not help.

"He loves to eat peppers, tomatoes, almonds, lemons, pickles and also olives.

"He has an intensified fear of being alone now. He is aftraid of being alone, the dark, and flying bugs. He calls all flying insects 'bees', even butterflies.

Also, at night he pulls his covers completely over his head. Then he gets hot and uncovers, but then covers his head again.

"Rock smashing is better, only one event in the past 7-10 days. His aggression is so much better. He collects rocks in the garage. He has to take a rock from the front yard, adds it to his collection. They are all lined up in the garage." Mom showed me the garage, there were hundreds of rocks nicely lined up!

Paternal GF is a hoarder, can't throw anything out. But he has a nice, easy-going nature and people like him.

"He is singing now. Nursery rhymes. No more sexual behaviour since Hyos.

I noticed that Oliver was very expressive that day, very talkative with me. Mom says that his ability to learn and focus is so much better.

It is interesting to see how his drawing and cutting has become more and more complex and intricate since beginning with homeopathic care.

A: Tics are still there but have changed a bit. Now needs to organize fridge compulsively. Blankets go over the head.

P: Placenta 40C (blankets over hear, possibly due to traumatic pregnancy)
Prevnar 1M
Carc 200C, 1M, try re tic
Sulphur 30C, I had thought of it before as a constitutional remedy, he is robust, ruddy, olives, pickles, lemons.

FU October 5/21

To be continued

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

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References

Is Cancer an Infection? Dr. Patrick Quillian, https://gettinghealthier.com/is-cancer-an-infection/#_edn7, retrieved February 14, 2021
The Link Between Cancer and Infections, Cancer Research UK, https://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/02/26/the-link-between-cancer-and-infections/, retrieved February 14, 2021
Saccharum officinale, Tinus Smits, http://www.tinussmits.com/3870/saccharum-officinale.aspx, retrieved February 14, 2021
Separation anxiety: a case of Saccharum officinale, Jana Kolenová, Interhomeopathy May 2014 http://www.interhomeopathy.org/separation-anxiety-a-case-of-saccharum-officinale, retrieved February 15, 2021
Mummy does not love me: a case of Saccharum officinale, Manish and Phalguni Panchal, Interhomeopathy, April 2013 http://www.interhomeopathy.org/mummy-does-not-love-me-a-case-of-saccharum-officinale, retrieved February 15, 2021
Chronic Insomnia, Restlessness and Excessive Crying in a Baby, Anke Zimmermann, https://www.ankezimmermann.net/successful-clinical-cases/chronic-insomnia-restlessness-and-excessive-crying-in-a-baby-linked-to-the-vitamin-k-shot-at-birth, retrieved February 19/21

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A Child with Speech Regression and Delay

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 20:02:24 GMT

IN BRIEF

A toddler loses his speech and becomes withdrawn after all required vaccines for his first year are given at once. Homeopathy helps to restore his speech.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Speech regression after vaccination

Adam, an adorable 20-months old boy, was brought to my office in July of 2011 with concerns about his speech. The family had decided to delay vaccinating him until he was a year old, but the doctor then decided to catch him up on all the vaccines he would have had in his first year right there and then and so he received 11 vaccines all at once at this office visit.

Within a couple of weeks the family noticed that he had stopped babbling. He also became very withdrawn. The parents quickly reported the speech problem to their GP and Adam was placed on a waiting list to be assessed for a speech delay or possible autism.

Homeopathy and vaccine damage

Adam's mother knew about homeopathy and was wondering if it could offer something to her son. At the time I had just learned that vaccines, as well as many medications, could negatively impact some children, even contributing to autism. I had also learned that homeopathic remedies made from vaccines, medications and many other substances, had the potential to be helpful in such cases.

I explained this to Adam's mother and we started him on a vaccine clearing remedy for one of the vaccines he had received at the time, Pediacel (DTaP-IPV-Hib a 5-in1 combination vaccine), in a 30CH potency.

Homeopathic aggravation

Flashback to July 26, 2011. The phone rang at 8 am. I picked up the receiver and was greeted by bloodcurdling screams. Suddenly I was wide awake. "Hi, it's Sue, Adam's mom. We gave him his first dose of Pediacel 30CH yesterday and he woke up at 6 am screaming like this. He is inconsolable. What should we do?"

I advised her to give him a bath with Epsom salts and some vitamin C and to call me back in an hour. By that time he had settled down.

This was likely an aggravation or healing reaction triggered by the remedy. Although scary for parents and practitioners alike, it tends to be a good sign, a sign that the body is responding to the remedy and that detoxification and healing have begun. These kinds of aggravations or healing reactions can include mild fevers, irritability, diarrhea, a runny nose, skin eruptions, increased perspiration and restless sleep. They tend to pass in a few of hours to a few days, usually followed by an improvement.

Improvements in one week

Fortunately, Adam's mother was already familiar with homeopathy as well as very forgiving. She understood, and I reassured here, that symptoms can sometimes increase before they get better.

A week later I received an update via email:

"In the last week, we have noticed that he has been more active mentally. He is using hand signals. We had taught hand signals before but he wasn't using them at all until just this past week. He is starting to make more sounds, like "beh" and he hasn't done that for the last several months. He is screeching less."

Over the next few weeks he continued to improve and started to say words again.

Diagnosed with a language disorder

By the time he received his assessment he was diagnosed as suffering from a language disorder and qualified for speech therapy.

Adam recovered beautifully within about six months between the use of homeopathic remedies made from the vaccines he received and nutrition to address any vaccine injury as well as speech therapy, which we all felt was very beneficial.

By December his speech therapist discharged him and the family was told that he was probably just a late talker, but we all thought that he had been on the brink of autism and that homeopathy likely saved the day.

Discussion - vaccines, medications and language disorders

The expanding vaccine schedule may be linked to the increase in speech and language disorders

This case was one of the first that taught me about the potential connection between vaccines and language disorders. We all know that most children with autism suffer from speech or language deficits. After working with homeopathy to address these conditions in children for twelve years now, my sense is that many cases of language disorders are likely related to adverse reactions to vaccines and/or medications and possibly other factors. Although vaccines are a common culprit in my experience, they are by no means the only factor.

I have seen several children in my practice whose mothers took the anti-nausea drug Diclectin during pregnancy, but who were never vaccinated and who developed moderate to severe speech disorders. One mother of five children, all of them exposed to Diclectin prenatally, but never vaccinated, reported that all of her children suffered from speech delays to varying degrees, directly correlated to the amount of Diclectin she had taken. The two children she had taken the most Diclectin with developed no language at all initially.

Predispositions

I would also like to mention that, in my experience, children who suffer adverse vaccine or medication reactions tend to already be born with certain predispositions, which may make them more susceptible to such injuries, likely because their immune systems are more reactive in general.

They often have family members who suffer from allergies and auto-immune disorders or who have problems with chronic or recurrent infections. They also often have ancestors who suffered from tuberculosis, something that is known historically in homeopathy to increase the risk of allergic phenomena as well a tendency to infections, often referred to as a miasm. Personally, I wonder if TB infections create epigenetic changes which could increase future generation's susceptibilities to infections etc, in the process potentially increasing the likelihood of a TB infection taking hold, effectively maintaining the species of TB.

Mitochondrial disorders and MTHFR gene mutations

Of course we now also know that children who develop autism are more likely to have mitochondrial abnormalities and MTHFR gene mutations and I would imagine that research will show that the same is true for many children with speech and language disorders. In other words, it's not as if vaccines or medications are the only cause, it's more that the child's genetic and epigenetic make-up load the gun and vaccines and/or medications and perhaps other toxins or stressors pull the trigger.

In any case though, homeopathy, including valuable remedies prepared from vaccines, may help restore and develop speech in these little ones and to help them achieve optimal development.

Photo credit: KML from Pexels

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Questions? I offer a free 15 minute meet-and-greet session. Book online or call my office at 778-352-0806

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A Case of Speech Delay and Chronic Constipation Helped with Homeopathy

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A Case of Speech Delay and Chronic Constipation is Helped with Homeopathy

Sat, 14 Dec 2019 05:49:23 GMT

IN BRIEF

A toddler with an expressive speech delay, chronic constipation and sleep issues improves with homeopathy.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Expressive speech delay in a two-year-old

In March of 2018 I was contacted by the mother of a 2.5-year-old boy whom I will call Hugo, in regards to a diagnosis of expressive speech delay.

"He has fewer than 20 words and they are not clear. Different words may sound the same. He gets frustrated that others don’t understand him. He understands everything. He has had speech therapy weekly for the past year but there have only been small gains in his speech."

His mother reported that the speech issue started when he was around 9 months old. He had already started to say pop-pop, but then stopped and no new words came.

Bowel problems with constipation

Hugo also suffered from chronic constipation. From birth he did not have bowel movements every day and could not easily release gas. Once he started solids he got really constipated, stools were large and round and painful and sometimes he bled from his anus after a movement.

The GI doctor gave Miralax until age one, which helped, then mom stopped giving it. He tends to hold his stool in, afraid it will hurt.

Now Mom is giving him chocolate ex-lax, she almost has to give him diarrhea for it to work.

The family had already consulted with two different homeopaths who gave Nux-vomica and Alumina for the constipation without result.

They have also seen a craniosacral therapist for the constipation and the speech delay.

Sleep issues

Hugo also has sleep issues. He is hard to settle down for sleep but he still takes long naps, sometimes for three hours.

"His sleep was never that solid, he used to wake every two hours to nurse as a baby and did not sleep through until he was 1.5 years old. He still wakes during the night sometimes.

"We hired a sleep consultant for help, it was somewhat helpful. When he wakes in the morning he is not a in a good mood and will scream for us to get him. Sometimes he is also in a bad mood when waking from a nap."

He sleeps on his belly, sometimes on his elbows and knees, sometimes on his side.

Food and personality

Hugo has a good appetite and eats everything. He craves sweets and breads and loves cheese, which he wants sprinkled on everything. He also loves fruit, especially dates.

In terms of his personality he is very loud and emotional, very intense. Also very sweet and caring and silly. Can get very frustrated if his parents don’t understand him.
He does not want to be left alone at night.

Language delays and developmental disorders

Delays in language are the most common types of developmental disorder. Currently, one out of 5 children will learn to talk or use words later than other children their age. Developmental disorders, including speech disorders and delays, have sharply increased over the past twenty years.

According to Mott’s Children’s Hospital, “developmental speech and language disorders are a common reason for speech/language problems in kids. These learning disorders are caused by the brain working differently. Your child may have trouble producing speech sounds, using spoken language to communicate, or understanding what other people say. Speech and language problems are often the earliest sign of a learning disability [1].”

Autism and speech disorders

Most children with autism have speech delays, articulation disorders or even no speech at all. In my personal clinical experience I have seen speech delays and disorders linked to medication use of the mother during pregnancy as well as adverse reactions to medications, vaccines, other medical interventions such as ultrasounds as well as exposure to environmental toxins such as herbicides.

This is an area greatly overlooked by conventional medicine. Speech and language therapy can be very helpful and I highly recommend them, however, it can work much better if the biological and energetic aspects of these disorders are addressed as well.

Careful case history

The key to addressing concerns such as speech and language disorders with homeopathy is a careful case history, including the child's history, pregnancy, labour and delivery as well as the medical and emotional histories of the parents.

Pregnancy

Hugo's mom was taking Zoloft throughout the pregnancy and the entire nursing relationship for anxiety and panic attacks. She had been on it for ten years. She also took some Tylenol for headaches.

She also had a flu shot and a DTaP shot while pregnant with him and weekly ultrasounds because her OB was monitoring her cervix.

Hugo's father, tragically, was diagnosed with a type of cancer towards the end of the pregnancy and was treated with chemotherapy and radiation. This was of course extremely stressful for the whole family. He was really sick on the chemo and mom was very scared.

Labour came ten days early and took two days. No drugs were used but he was stuck. It took three hours of pushing to him to be born and he had a really big cone head for a while.

Medical interventions for Hugo

Birth: Vitamin K shot

1 month: Tongue tie revision, Tylenol for pain

2 months: Hep-B vaccine. "We were bullied into giving the Hep-B shot. He started crying and cried non-stop until he was 3-4 months old. We took him to the GI doctor, he was given antacids, no change."

3 months: DTap, Hib and Prevnar vaccinations

5 months: DTap, HiB and Prevnar

7 months: Hib and Prevnar

9 months: Rocephin IV antibiotics, got purple spots on leg from a blood test, hospital gave IV Ab just in case for meningitis

10 months: DTaP

13 months: DTaP and Hib

Hugo also had Tylenol on a couple of other occasions for fevers.

Assessment

This toddler suffers from an expressive speech delay, severe, chronic constipation and some sleep concerns. The GI issues may have started with the Hep-B shot he received at two months old. At 9 months he had IV antibiotics as well as two rounds of vaccines at 7 and 10 months which may have contributed to the speech delay.

There may have been predisposing factors as his mother was on Zoloft during the pregnancy and had a flu and a DTaP vaccine as well, plus suffered extreme emotional stress in regards to the father’s cancer diagnosis during that time.

She also had many ultrasounds during the pregnancy, labour was prolonged and the baby was born with an extensive cone head. He also had a vitamin K shot at birth as well as Tylenol on several occasions.

This kind of medical history is unfortunately all too common; the child had many different kinds of interventions, which can all cause potentially adverse effects and this is pretty common, almost the norm, for today's children. The sheer number of interventions makes it difficult to identify causative or contributing factors for developmental and other health problems for most physicians or parents.

Plan:

Hugo was already taking a number of good supplements. We adjusted their dose as follows:
Vitamin D, 4000 IU per day, vitamin C, 500 mg twice a day, cod liver oil 1 tsp twice a day, probiotics powder for kids 3-4 tsp at night.

I also educated the parents about castor oil packs 2-3 times a week and Epsom salt baths to help with the constipation.

Then added Saccharum officinalis 6X, 2 pellets once a day (given for GI issues) and Chelidonium 6X 2 pellets twice a day (liver support.)

Additionally we decided to try a few drops of essential oil of Frankinsense on the back of his neck under the skull once a day as a number of my other clients reported this to help with speech issues.

After one week we added:

DTaP 30CH, 2 pellets twice a week for two weeks, followed by DTaP 200CH, 2 pellets twice a week. This is a homeopathic remedy made from the DTaP vaccine, a likely culprit as he had so many doses of it.

Follow-up two months later

May 10, 2018:

"After the DTaP 30CH he developed a runny nose and a bit of a cough. He also vomited three times at school and had tantrums, which he does have occasionally. We can’t be sure if it was related to the remedy or a viral infection."

Parents were advised to wait for a week to repeat the remedy.

May 15, 2018: Had 4 doses of DTaP 30CH now: “Hugo has definitely had more words coming out, about 15% more. Sometimes he’ll just say things he never said before. He’s also putting more words together. He is holding his poop in more and has needed more laxative than usual. We give it every other day. After the first dose of the DTaP 30CH he pooped a lot, it was like sticky like clay and brownish red. He also had a very long nap after the first dose. More recently his poops have been foamy and a light brown colour a couple of times.

“We noticed that his cheeks are more red and his ears sometimes get red since starting the treatment. He has had more nasal discharge since the remedy. Yesterday, one hour after taking the remedy he had a lot of nasal discharge. His eating has improved, he’s open to more variety now. He’s also sleeping well now, he has not woken in the middle of the night. He is doing better at preschool, listening better.”

Assessment - positive changes

Even though it's been only two week, the DTaP 30CH may be helping and appears to be stimulating some detox reactions with a sticky, clay and brown-red stool as well as foamy, light brown stools, more nasal discharge and red cheeks.

Improvements included more words, better eating with more variety and better sleep. He is also listening better at his preschool. All very interesting changes with just one vaccine detox remedy so far.

We decided to continue for another week with the 30CH and then to switch to the 200CH of DTaP.

Three months into care - a huge difference with his speech

June 6, 2018

Finished with two weeks of DTaP 200CH twice a week.

“Some days after taking the remedy he’s had bad tantrums with rage and screaming. Two days ago he again had sticky, clay-like stools. He has skin eruptions on his face like pimples.

"We see a huge difference in his speech, at least 25% better. He’s had a big gain, everyone has noticed. He is still hard to understand sometimes. His speech therapist is happy, he is meeting all of her goals! She even thinks she can discharge him!

"Now he is stringing 3-4 words together and is listening more, too. He still has trouble with poop-holding and we give chocolate ex-lax every night. He is eating much better, definitely much less picky than before. Still craves sweets.”

Assessment: He is showing good progress, much better speech. He has some possible detox reactions, including more tantrums on days of taking the remedy. The parents are happy about the progress.

Plan: Continue with DTaP 200CH for another two weeks. Increase the Saccharum 6X to 2 pellets twice a day.

Plateau in speech, time to increase potency

June 23, 2018

Second round of DTaP 200CH.

“His speech has kind of plateaued. Still holding poop. No real aggravations the past two weeks. His sleep has been good but he’s wanted to have the door open so he can see the nightlight for the past two weeks. He woke around 4-5 am last night and wanted Dad to play with him. Overall he seems more present and is sharing more with his brother now. Transitions are also easier for him now.”

Assessment: DTaP 200CH is becoming less effective, no more progress with language, also no aggravations.

Plan: DTaP 1M twice a week. I also informed the parents to try Aconite 30CH 2 pellets a day for three days as I thought maybe he had been too traumatized to move his bowels due to the pain experienced in the past.

Four months into care

July 10, 2018

Has had 4 doses of DTaP 1M.

“After the 4th dose he had a fever of 99.7 F and complained that his ear hurt. In fact we forgot to tell you that he got a fever every time after a dose of the remedy. His speech is improving again! His sleep has not been great over the past week, he is waking us up around 4:30 am. Now he wants us to rub his back, this is new. He tells us that his back hurts, this has been since the 1M. We have been able to reduce the ex-lax from 4 to 3 tablets."

Assessment: He is improving on the DTaP 1M again but I think twice a week is too often. He has fevers after a dose and is complaining about back pain, maybe it is related to his kidneys.

Plan: Reduce DTaP 1M to once a week and give Berberis 6X 2 pellets once a day to support his kidneys. Increase vitamin C to 500 mg three times a day.

July 16, email:

Mom had given DTaP 1M at 9 am. At nap time (1:30 pm) he had a very difficult time falling asleep, was sweating and complaining that he was really hot. After dinner and bath he projectile vomited everything he ate at dinner. He has vomited before when he took the remedy.

Plan: Delay next dose of DTaP 1M for a week.

Five months into care

July 27 email:

Hugo is on his second week of DTaP 1M. He was hot and sweaty again at night after the remedy. But his language is improving: "Since we started he has been saying so much more! He's still a bit difficult to understand but he's trying."

He is still constipated and holding his stool.

Assessment: This remedy is aggravating him a bit but he is very much progressing in his speech.

Plan: Wait to repeat DTaP 1M until his speech plateaus again.

Seven months into care

September 5:
"We've noticed that his speech progress has plateaued. There is also good news - we have potty-trained him and he has stopped holding his stool! This is a huge gain for us as he has been holding it for over two years.

Plan: Repeat DTaP 1M.

Two days later Hugo vomited again. This seems to be a pattern of detox with him. I advised to give Epsom salt baths, up to three times a day and to increase his vitamin C to 2000 mg a day.

September 18
Last dose of DTaP 1M given two weeks ago. He had another big tantrum the next day. During the second night he had diarrhea, two huge diapers full of light-brown poop. Came down with hand, foot and mouth disease four days later, so maybe that was related, we can't be sure.

"But we noticed a huge difference with his speech! A lot more words, more sentences and conversations, everyone has commented. Now he is also not holding his stool anymore at all, this has been a problem since he was one.

Plan: Wait to repeat the homeopathic DTaP until his speech plateaus again.

8 months into care

October 29, 2018
"He was doing well, then his speech plateaued again about a week ago. We gave another dose of DTaP 1M but this time there were no noticeable responses. With prior doses there was always an improvement in his speech within 24-48 hours. We also noticed that he is a bit more constipated again and needs some help to poop.

"We are also concerned that he is somehow malnourished or not growing as well as he should. He is shorter than a lot of the others children his age. He was on laxatives for 6-7 months and always had loose bowels then."

Assessment: This potency may have run it's course. No detox responses, no improvement in speech and the stools are not as good. This is all completely expected with this type of homeopathic program. His mother is expressing concerns about his growth and the previous long use of laxatives. I recommended to do a hair and diet analysis to assess his mineral status and in the meantime some tissue salts.

Plan: Homeopathic DTaP 10M one dose, All 12 Tissue Salts, 1 tablet twice a day.

9 months into care

Nov 6, 2018 - update:
Homeopathic DTaP 10M given October 29, no aggravation but a slight improvement in speech.

Plan: Repeat DTaP 10M

"The next day had a couple of big tantrums, woke up in the middle of the night and vomited once, then for the next hour or two dry-heaved every 5-10 minutes.
The following morning he woke up very happy and very verbal."
Assessment: We are clearly seeing a pattern here with tantrums and vomiting followed by nearly immediate and noticable improvement.

Plan: Repeat if he plateaus again.

Nov 14, 2018 update:
"We are not seeing any more gains after the dose last week."
My thoughts are that he may need it more often or perhaps his body is done with this remedy and we can move on to another one. I advised to repeat the remedy again.

Hair analysis report - very low calcium and magnesium

To be continued.

References:

CS Mott Children’s Hospital website, accessed June 8, 2019.

Questions? I offer a free 15-minute meet-and-greet session. Book online or call my office at 778-352-0806

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A Child with Speech Regression and Delay

IN BRIEF

A toddler loses his speech and becomes withdrawn after all required vaccines for his first year are given at once. Homeopathy helps to restore his speech.

More...

A Child with Night Terrors and Hyperactivity Improves with Homeopathy

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 22:45:41 GMT

IN BRIEF

A child with night terrors as well as hyperactivity and excessive reactivity from birth is relieved with two homeopathic remedies, including one made from ultrasound. The night terrors may have been linked to ancestral trauma and prenatal ultrasounds may have caused her hyperactivity.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Night Terrors in a Young Girl

In March of 2014 I saw a 7-year-old girl whom I will call Caitlin, for night-terrors and great general restlessness and hyperactivity from birth.

The night terrors would start within 30 minutes of going to sleep, around 10-10:30 pm.

"It seems that she is awake, she is talking, reaching for things and very emotional, but not responding to us. This goes on for 15-20 minutes. To get her out of it we turn on cartoons on the TV, that helps. Afterwards she does not remember what happened."

The problem started a few months ago and happens about four days a week.

The parents described her as having a big personality, of being very emotional and dramatic. She would get reactions to food dyes, which increased the restlessness and made her so fidgety it was as if she lost control of her body.

Restless and Easily Frustrated from Birth

What causes excessive reactivity in children?

But even without any food dyes she was very squirmy.

"She can't sit still at dinnertime, she can never sit through a meal. She is always moving. She will fall off the chair from moving so much. We get upset because she just can't sit still at all.

"But in school she is doing well and can focus. But last week her teacher mentioned that she seemed loopy and overexcited.

"When she gets fidgety she also can't stop talking. It's non-stop. We can see it coming, it's like a wave of restlessness.

"She is also very determined to do certain things. If she makes up her mind no one can stop her. She wanted to do up her own zipper when she was only three. Dad wanted to help her so she took off her jacket, hung it back up, took it back down, put it back on and did it herself.

"And she is sensitive to everything, from birth. She was always very easily frustrated. The first few years of her life were very challenging."

Caitlin also had perfectionistic tendencies and would get upset if she didn't do certain things just right, such as colouring outside the lines. She was described as outgoing and not afraid to express herself.

Dreams

I asked if she had any dreams:

"Yes, I have a re-occurring dream of a black screen with a green line running through it. It`s like a nightmare."

This was peculiar. I asked her to draw it. A square with a line running about half-way down the page right through it horizontally. I thought about this for a few minutes, then the idea came that this was like a flatline image on a vital signs monitor.

Father's History

Caitlin had problems from the time she was born so I suspected that something might have happened either during the pregnancy or perhaps to the parents before they conceived her to contribute to her state.

The pregnancy was uneventful, but something terrible happened in the father's life when he was a child.

"When I was six my sister died of cancer, she was only three. I have vivid memories of the day she passed."

I felt chills down my spine. Could this be a clue? Could it have been that her father may have passed on an image of a flat-line epigenetically? We now know that traumas ancestors experience can be passed on through epigenetic memory [1], but something so precise? Who knows. I've read that elephants pass on memories of places with certain food sources, almost like maps. Perhaps people have similar abilities?

Her father remembered other details: "I also remember the day we were hiking with our parents and she started limping. That was the first sign of the cancer. I was five years old."

"I had very had hallucinating dreams when I was about 8-10 years old."

Certainly his own hallucinating dreams could have been linked to such emotional trauma.

An Unhappy Baby

"Caitlin was born with a scoul and not a happy baby. It was hard to make her smile. It took 1.5 - 2 years to really make her laugh. She was crying a lot, just not a happy baby. Dad had to sleep on the couch for the first 3-4 months because she was up crying throughout the night."

"The first few years were horrible!"

The parents described her having episodes of freaking out when her mother went out and of having temper tantrums as 8 months old where she would hit her head against the wall in frustration.

Assessment and Plan

This is the case of a young girl with great restlessness and irritability from birth who has more recently developed night terrors. Her father had a history of hallucinating dreams as a child and lost his sister at the age of six. In my opinion something must have impacted this child either during pregnancy and delivery or prior to that through imprints passed on from her parents.

I thought this was a case for the homeopathic remedy Stramonium, which is often used for ailments from fright or being exposed to anything violent. It is a fairly common remedy for night-terrors in children and I have used it often with good results. It can also be indicated if a child has a lot of separation anxiety, fears losing their friends or loved objects and has a fear of the dark and/or of bad things happening to them.

Plan: Stramonium 200CH one dose.

Follow-up June 2015 - No More Night Terrors with Stramonium

After the Stramonium 200CH there were no more night terrors until the last few days. I gave another dose in the office and sent some home with the parents.

In August the parents emailed to let me know that she had done well again until a few days ago and they repeated the remedy.

Follow-up December 2016 - Insomnia and Worries

I didn't see the family again until 1.5years later in December of 2015. Caitlin was complaining that she could not fall asleep and felt as if something bad was going to happen, especially if it is dark.

"I worry a lot. I feel as if I'm missing something. I need to know where everything is. I get up and recheck to make sure my things are in the right place. I don't like losing things. I get upset even if someone else loses something. My brother lost his hat and I felt upset and cried."

"I feel the worst thing will happen, like we'll never find his hat again, it will be gone forever. We did find his hat later though."

"I worried that someone had stolen it. I worry that something I love and might never get again will get lost. Then I feel very sad and I'll be freaking out, looking for it everywhere. I get really anxious and will look for it like crazy. It's a horrible, sad feeling."

She has about a hundred stuffies, which she counts every night. If one is missing the whole family has to look for it.

Still Restless at Dinner

She is still very wiggely and jiggely at dinnertime to the point of being out of control. It is not getting better. She has trouble paying attention to parents sometimes.

"We have to say thing multiple times," her mother stated.

"Sitting still is so hard," Caitlin explained. "I feel like I have to move, I can't stay still. I have to move or I feel very frustrated. Waiting for something is very hard as well, like waiting for an appointment somewhere. I'm always twirling and moving and tripping over things, kicking the table."

"If she comes into our bed at night she will kick us, we'll get a knee in the gut or back, get smacked in the face with an arm," her mother added.

An Unhappy Baby

"She was a very unhappy baby. She used to bang her head against the wall in frustration even before she could walk."

The parents had told this story before. Again I was wondering if something happened during the pregnancy or delivery that had contributed to Caitlin's restlessness. So I asked her mother again about the pregnancy.

"I had several ultrasounds. A couple of standard ones and then a 3D Ultrasound. She was trying to get away so they could not tell the sex, so at seven months we did it again, another 3D Ultrasound at a private clinic. We had two sessions in one day, because again she got away and they could not tell the sex so we went back later in the day.

Ultrasounds and Hyperactivity?

So perhaps here was the culprit for the restlessness and unhappiness from birth. Caitlin had tried to get away from the Ultrasounds but not succeeded. Could this need to escape and/or any frustration around this on some level have imprinted itself? There is research linking prenatal ultrasounds to an increased risk of neurodevelopmental problems, including autism.

I knew there was a homeopathic remedy made from ultrasound. The remedy was made from water treated with ultrasound. Sounds strange of course, but I had used the remedy previously with good results.

Plan

Repeat Stramonium 200CH as she still showed strong indications for the remedy.
In a few days: Ultrasound 200CH, 2 pellets and wait.

Follow-up March 2017 - Restlessness much Improved with Homeopathic Ultrasound Remedy!

Cailtin had a few doses of Stramonium 200CH in the meantime which helped the sleep issues somewhat. She is also worrying less and gets less upset if she can`t find something.

"And the restlessness is much better! She has way more control over herself now. She can now sit at the dinner table! We used to have to remind her to sit still constantly, no we don't need to do that."

Plan

Repeat Stramonium in a 1M potency and also sent the family home with Ultrasound 1M to use as needed.

Follow-up September 2018 - 1.5 years later

Caitlin is not sleeping again. She gets really scared to go to sleep and at night.

"I feel no one is there to protect me. If something was to happen, for example if a bad person was to come in and attack me, my parents would be sleeping."

"She used to overheat at night, that got a lot better but she still likes to have a fan on all night. If she overheats she starts to panic. In general she wants someone close to her all the time. She does better if she can sleep next to our bed."

She is worse at times of changes, for example the beginning of the school year, like now. She worries about her personal possessions again, or things she forgot to do that day. Overall the checking is still less than it was before.

"She worries about adult things, like if we signed certain forms or not, especially before going to bed. She gets very upset if she expected something to happen and then did didn't come through. She also wants to know what's next all the time."

Fidgeting - 80% better with Homeopathic Ultrasound remedy

"She is still fidgety but since the ultrasound remedy she is about 80% better."

Plan: Stramonium 1M in the office and sent and Ultrasound 200CH home to be given in one week. We also discussed a vaccine clearing to be conducted in three months with Pentacel.

I contacted the family in November of 2018 and was told that Caitlin was doing very well and they no concerns at the moment.

Discussion - Ancestral Trauma and Adverse Events from Prenatal Ultrasounds

This was a very interesting case for several reasons:

1) It raised the possibility of actual traumatic memories being passed down to a future generation, perhaps via epigenetics or other yet unknown mechanisms.

2) It raised the possibility that prenatal ultrasounds may contribute to hyperactivity and restlessness in susceptible individuals.

3) It demonstrates that homeopathy may be useful to heal ancestral trauma.

4) It demonstrates that a homeopathic remedy made from ultrasound may be useful to help with adverse effects of prenatal ultrasounds. Given that the diagnosis of hyperactivity has greatly increased in the past 20 years and ultrasounds are a routine procedure it may be possible that they may be a contributing factor in children suffering with ADHD and should be something to consider and explore to help the individual reach their full potential.

I also want to mention that I have seen about three hundred children with autism by now, but only five of them were girls. Four of these had been exposed to more than 8 prenatal ultrasounds. I think it's possible that multiple ultrasounds in girls somehow contribute to an increased risk for autism.

References:
1) Grandma's experiences leave a mark on your genes, Discovery magazine

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, December 2019.

Questions? I offer a free 15-minute discovery session. Book online

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Chronic Insomnia, Restlessness and Excessive Crying in a Baby

A baby who had suffered from chronic insomnia, restlessness and excessive crying from birth is finally relieved with a homeopathic remedy made from the vitamin K shot she received at birth. A dramatic story and an unexpected lesson about the vitamin K shot. More...

A Child with Tics Helped with Homeopathy

A four-year-old boy with tics, pronounced incurable by a neurologist, is helped with a homeopathic remedy for frights. The tics may have been connected to several frights his mother had while pregnant.
More...

A Child with Intense Fears

A four-year-old girl with hyperactivity as well as intense fears of the dark, water and dogs is helped with a special homeopathic remedy. Her grandfather was bitten by a dog and received a rabies vaccine which may have initiated the problem.
More...

Homeopathy for Warts and Developmental Delay

Sat, 30 Nov 2019 21:55:00 GMT

IN BRIEF

Warts can often be successfully addressed with homeopathic remedies. But as always in homeopathy, it's the individual that is being treated, not the condition, as this case so beautifully illustrates.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

A Severe Case of Warts

Some years ago I saw a 13-year-old girl who I will name Maya, present with a severe case of warts around her ankles. I have never seen a case of warts like that before or after in my practice. There were hundreds of warts clustered around her ankles on both sides, from tiny to very large. There were warts on top of warts, it looked really terrible actually and had created much embarrassment for the young girl.

No Results from Liquid Nitrogen

The problem had been present for about a year and the warts had been repeatedly treated with liquid nitrogen to freeze them off. They would subside briefly, only to sprout again with greater intensity! Someone had recommended the family seek out homeopathic care for the warts and so here they were in my office.

I took the girl's case and noticed that she seemed much younger in her demeanor in many ways than 13. She was more like a 10-year-old child. I asked for samples of handwriting and artwork and again, her work looked more like that of a much younger child. She was also shy in answering questions. This girl appeared sweet but just overall delayed in her development.

Developmental Delay

I asked the girl to step out into the waiting room and asked her parents about her development. They confirmed my observation that Maya seemed much younger than her age and reported that she preferred to play with younger children. She had some difficulties keeping up academically as well.

In homeopathy we usually prescribe for the whole person, not the condition. So rather than giving her a remedy for warts such as Thuja, which is often recommended, I gave her a constitutional remedy that also matched her delayed development. I chose Baryta carbonica 200CH, 2 pellets a day for two days.

Baryta Carbonica

Barium carbonate

Baryta carbonica is not infrequently used in cases of developmental delay in children as well as for certain cases of senility or dementia in the elderly. Children needing Baryta-carb are often anxious and prone to swollen glands, especially the tonsils. There may be delays in learning to walk, talk, or read. They may be small for their age, overall appear younger than their age and may have poor development of individual body parts, especially the genitals and reproductive organs.

This young girl's developmental delay and lack of maturity were more striking and important in my assessment of her than the warts.

Follow-up a Month Later - Warts are Gone!

On their follow-up a month later the warts were all gone to everybody's surprise! Apparently after a few days of taking the remedy they just started shrinking until they disappeared. In my office I also noticed that the girl seemed much brighter and more mentally active.

The parents confirmed that there had been a gain in her development and she was not playing as much with younger children anymore.

I asked them to return to the office in case the warts came back or in case her development slowed down again.

Three months later the parents returned to my office on their own. They reported that the warts had not recurred but that Maya seemed to have regressed developmentally again and asked for another dose of the remedy, which I gladly gave them.

After that there were no more problems.

No more warts for this little one!

The Person, not the Condition

This case is a good example of constitutional homeopathic prescribing and homeopathic thinking in general. We always look at the whole person and especially take note of what is unusual in their case history and situation.

The most important signs and symptoms are those that are 'strange, rare and peculiar,' with mental symptoms being more important than general or localized symptoms. In this case, the girl's mental and developmental state was more unusual and important than the local symptom of warts and that is what the remedy was chosen for.

Homeopaths try and understand symptoms as way posts, pointing us to the correct remedy. In this way homeopathy is very different than conventional, allopathic medicine and often of course far more effective as it addresses a deeper, underlying imbalance rather than only suppressing or dealing with local symptoms.

Conventional care in this case had focused only on freezing the warts. Not only was it not effective, it did nothing for the girl's development, which in the long run was more important for her success and happiness in life.

What to Expect from Homeopathic Care

It is also important for parents to know what to expect from their homeopathic practitioner. Coming in with a laundry list of conditions that their child may have such as ADHD, sinus problems, parasites and insomnia does not really help a homeopath to find the best remedies. But knowing what is peculiar about the child will help, such as the fact that he may love to eat lemons, bites his toenails, does not like to wear socks and was born with a lot of hair as an example. One remedy will often cover the whole state of the child and stimulate his or her vital force to heal and rebalance all the apparently unrelated concerns.

Homeopathic Remedies for Layers

I some cases of course more than a constitutional remedy is needed, such as when the onset of the concerns is related to traumatic events or toxic exposures, in which cases remedies for such events or toxins may be very helpful. Either way, there is real magic in homeopathy and all delivered free of side effects and very cost-effectively as well!

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, December 2019

Questions? I offer a free 15-minute meet-and-greet consult, call the office at 778-352-0806 or book online. In person or distance consults via skype and zoom are available.

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A Case of Asthma Helped with Past-Life Regression

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 03:21:55 GMT

IN BRIEF

A woman in her 30s recovers from asthma with the help of a past-life regression session.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Past Life Asthma

Today, while at Home Hardware in Sooke the cashier serving me suffered a bad coughing attack which was very much aggravated by her speaking. Tears were running down her face from coughing so hard.

It reminded me of an extraordinary case of recurring asthma attacks from my practice from many years ago, which was completely healed with one past life regression.

Maureen, age 34, had been suffering from increasingly severe asthma attacks which were set off by colds. She would get a cold about every other month and it would immediately affect her bronchi, leaving her coughing violently. It got so bad she had to take time off work as any talking aggravated her condition.

Regression Therapy

None of my remedies seemed to have much of an effect and Maureen was thinking of going on an inhaler. She also had some relationship problems and due to those I referred her to a psychotherapist in Toronto who also uses hypnosis and regression therapy in his work.

This is the story she told me after seeing Bob, the therapist:

" Bob did an induction and told me to look at my feet. I 'saw' in my minds eye that they were clad in simple leather sandals. Next thing I felt that I was a man in what seemed to be an ancient lifetime in the Middle East. I was very poor and my whole life consisted of carrying heavy loads up a steep hill or mountain. With age, the loads, carried on my back, compressed my body, making it more difficult for me to breathe and I felt myself wheezing as if I had an asthma attack.

"Bob progressed me to the point of death in that lifetime and as soon as I had 'left' that body I could breathe well again. He guided me back in and the asthma was back. He had me leave the body again and then we looked at why I had chosen that lifetime. Apparently it had something to do with learning humility."

After that, Maureen never had another asthma attack! It's been over ten years now.

Healing can come in many Ways

One of the things I've learned in my nearly 30 years of practice is that healing can come in many different ways and that it's never really the condition that heals, but the person.
Never give up on your healing journey, but rather enjoy the process if possible, it will create an opportunity to learn much about life!

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, Classical and Modern Homeopathy

I Want To Disappear - A Case of Depression Helped with Homeopathy

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 17:18:24 GMT

IN BRIEF

A young woman suffering from depression and a history of trauma improves greatly with a homeopathic bird remedy. Depression and emotional trauma can often benefit from homeopathy as long the the remedy is properly individualized.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Depression and Homeopathy

Depression can have many causes, including a history of emotional trauma. Homeopathy has the potential to be very helpful for people with depression as the case taking takes into account their entire life history and their unique responses to it. This case illustrates how homeopathy helped someone with depression linked to excess responsibility, overwhelm and burn-out.

Excess Responsibility

37-year-old woman, first seen August 25, 2017. Her chief complaint is a feeling of excess responsibility, helplessness and hopelessness.

“I want to disappear. With all the responsibility, kids, work, home, I feel helpless and hopeless. If I was invisible no one could want anything from me."

Tell more about disappearing?

“Take off all this responsibility and weight you have to do this. If I’m invisible then no one can see me, I can’t do anything, no one can judge me or demand something from me. But I have responsibility, kids, family.”

Tell more?

“It would be feeling free – I can do what I want and what I feel like doing. Doing something without acknowledgement or judgement."

“I can achieve a sense of acceptance and true happyiness, just want to sustain it. I want to feel unconditional love for myself and others, I have only glimpses of it."

Flying

“I have these dreams of flying – sometimes I see a man in the fog and he is clinging to me or I’m carrying him or I’m carrying other people. I try to show them – you can fly!

“Flying is freedom to me, to fly! Look, you can fly!

“Sometimes when I miss people I can fly and see them there and it fulfills my need to see them. I had a first love, a boy I really liked, he was really smart and I admired him. Sometimes I wondered how he was doing. I’d go and see him do what he is doing, in the flying dreams.

“It is usually dusk or night in the dreams.

“My cousin was trying to get pregnant, she came to see me at night. I flew to her and saw her at her window. She had dark spots in her stomach. I told her, it can be better and tried to explain to her how to fly. Then she got pregnant six months later.

“Or I dream I have a friend and pick her up and carry her home in the dream.

“When there is a person I’m picking up they are very heavy, I can almost not fly.

“Sometimes I’m up somewhere and hold onto something and pull myself down so I can put my legs on the ground so I can talk to a person. But as soon as I let go I float up again. Sometimes I can’t get back to the ground, actually, it happens often.

“But I’ve never had a person I could fly with, I would like that! Finally I would be able to share what I see!

How do you fly?

“You just go, there is no magic to it.

“I’ve had flying dreams for many years, even as a child. But then it was brighter, the sky was blue. Now it is much darker and I’m not enjoying it as much, really.

Relationship with Husband

“I have another repetitive dream of trying to talk and I can’t. I can relate to that in my life. I couldn’t say what I wanted to to my husband. At work it’s okay, I have a great manager, he encourages me, but I was not able in my relationship to my husband.

“In the dream I would start to say something and my teeth are falling out. They are all rotten and falling out.

“After meeting my husband I’ve had so many issues with my teeth, fillings not done well, then tooth pain, then root canals, three or four crowns, my teeth were never happy after that.

“I separated from my husband in March, since then I am more forgetful and have lost motivation at work. Helping others has lost its satisfaction shot I used to get. I love my job but don’t have the drive anymore.”

“I also have upper back pain and chest pain. Better with osteopath and acupuncturist."

Bird Remedies

By now I’m thinking about bird remedies due to her flying dreams, dreams of teeth falling out and her great sense of responsibility.

How do you feel about birds?

“As a young teenager, 12-13 I wanted a cockatiel so badly. One day my sister found one sitting on a fence. She called me, I held my hand out and it came!

“I also had at least one bird that was injured. Someone brought it to me. It was a hunting bird (bird of prey). He would scream and I had to feed him meat, he lived with me for three months, then someone let him out.”

She showed me a picture of a bird of prey on her phone, it looks like a falcon or small hawk.

Mother's Sudden Death

“My mom died suddenly and tragically when I was 17. I felt no one will take care of me. I felt no one will love me or take care of me. I wanted to die and disappear, but had a ten-year-old sister. I felt that I could not leave her.

“I felt I’m not needed anymore. Who needs me, who would want me or nee me to love them?

“I always wanted to help foster kids. After separating from my husband I want to be a foster mom and give kids a home where they are safe. I divorced my husband because he didn’t really want the kids. I felt that my dream would not be realized with him.

“A few days ago I realized: You have to be a mother to yourself. I realized I have to take care of my inner child.

Helpful and Responsible

“I had a weird relationship with my mother. I always wanted to be helpful. We had a farm, grew vegetables and had animals. There was a lot of responsibility on me. I was making dinner and cleaning at 12-13, I did it all.

“My mother taught me but was not demanding. The way we grew up I had to help, but I liked it, I wanted to help. At age six or seven, when I first wanted to milk a cow, I felt so proud of what the cow gave. I wanted to please.

“When mom came home from work I’d show her: ‘Mom, I did this and that’, and she was very grateful. I was not asking anything from here. Once we went shopping, right before her death. I wanted a special dress and she said no, but I said ‘But I really want it!’ and was very upset.

“She did get it, she got me what I really wanted and I cherished that dress forever.

“The night before her funeral I had this huge pain in my chest, like a knife. Like someone stabbed me. I was paralyzed, could hardly take a breath. Then it dissolved. Since then this pain has come back here and there, lately it is always here. I had all kinds of tests, all came back negative.

No Help All Those Years

“I have done everything in my marriage as well, no help from him all those years. Two kids, soccer three times a week dance three times a week, working downtown.

“After the separation it was much easier, now he takes our son to soccer. The kids are with him two nights a week, now I have time for myself and now I don’t have to cook as much. He lied on the couch and did nothing. I just shut up and did it all myself.

“I also have back pain, mostly on the left side, parallel to the chest pain. I feel like I’ve always had it, at least from the time I went to university at 18-19. It got worse when I started working.

“Before I had a lot of shoulder pain. It is better with massage and chiropractic. I had lumps like fists, knots.

“I also have pain in my lower right abdomen sometimes.

Panic Attacks and Depression

“I went to see Anthony Robbins about ten years ago. It was good and bad. They play with your mind, walking on coals and fire, it blows your mind, you can do anything. But on the second day, a lot of emotional stuff came up, scary! In a meditative state I felt emotions five times, more, ten times more, 200 times more!

“I felt they took all the bad stuff out, good stuff in. Okay, my God I can do anything in this world! Lots of energy, balls of energy. I could understand the entire connectedness of everything. Plus I changed my diet, three weeks of blooming, I felt huge, connected, free!

“But then I got panic attacks and depression and could not stop crying. My mom’s death was in a box, I could never cry with my husband. They opened that box and I relived my mother’s death, then got bad panic attacks.

“My husband called an ambulance. I just disappeared. I have to do everything for others and my need is the last. I thought: ‘I need to be free, let me out!’

“This feeling I’m free opened my eyes.

“I was overnight in the hospital. After that a depression kicked in. Then I started doing yoga and stopped the antidepressants, had them take out my IUD, that helped tremendously.

“I could not sleep for six months. Got a new job, slowly came back to life. Almost divorced my husband then. But I was afraid to be alone.

The Dragon is out and I'm not Putting him back in

“In November-December of last year I felt super drained and empty. Stopped meditating. My husband’s father died and he became more critical with me and the kids. Then I decided to stop pleasing him and took care of myself again, went back to yoga again and to meditation. Then the idea came ‘I am not alone!’ This had been my biggest fear.

“I made it easy for him to leave. As soon as I felt better and filled myself up my energy went crazy, big and huge like a dragon! It had just been stuck in a thought pattern. The night I kicked him out I was so happy! I was singing!

“The dragon is out and I’m not putting it back in!

“But since then it’s been a roller coaster of guilt, fear, grief about losing the idea of the ideal family. One moment I’m falling apart, the next I’m happy and joyful. It’s like sailing, navigating. I’m building boundaries.

“There are two aspects – one, the dragon, you deserve more, the other no, you can’t do that, how am I going to survive.

Generals

She likes chocolate, black or green tea with one sugar, yoghurt (3), sour cream (2) even straight from the tub, butter (2) also on its own, buckwheat, rice, walnuts (2), other nuts, bananas, berries, eggs, borscht, fish, chicken, beef, marinated tomatoes, pickles.

Duck is favorite meat (3), likes the firmer texture and the darker colour.

Raw milk, “a sense of freedom with raw milk, not restricted.”

Averse mustard (3), horseradish (2), too spicy. Relish (2).

Digestion is good, sometimes aggr from ice cream, with pain and nausea.

Sleep is pretty good, bed at 10:30, up at 5 am. Wakes on back with arms up sometimes and feels so open.

Can get a burning feeling in her head from being hear high power voltage lines. Always had this.

Assessment:

The client is a recently separated woman who wants to disappear from all the responsibility in her life. She has a history of taking on a lot of responsibility willingly even as a young child. Did all the housework in her marriage on top of working full time as a professional. Long history of being dominated by her husband for 17 years.

She lost her mother at 17 under sudden and tragic circumstances. She has a long history of flying dreams in which she carries people, often in the dark. Dreams of teeth falling out. Chest, shoulder and back pain. Loves to eat duck. Loves birds and healed a small bird of prey as a teenager, possibly a falcon.

I did not repertorize the case as I recognized the remedy fairly quickly as Falco peregrino, the peregrine falcon, from reading Jonathan Shore’s book on the Bird remedies.

Prominent rubrics from the Falco proving:

Ailments from domination
Ailments from domination, others by, long history of
Anxiety, children about his
Children, desire to be with
Confident, alternating with timidity
Confusion, identity, as to his own, as if it were not his
Delusions, duty, he has neglected his
Delusions, horse, horses, reigned in stallion she is, desires to be free
Delusion, paralyzed he is
Duty, aversion to domestic duty
Escape, attempts to, from her family and children
Longing for good opinion of others
Pleasing, desire to please others
Will, strong will power
The patient expresses aspects of the above rubrics.

Falcon and hawk both feel conflicted between the need to take care of the family and freedom

The client repeatedly expressed a strong desire for freedom, alternating with the need for security which her marriage provided, but in the end she broke free.

From the proving: “I hunt with them, but I remain a free hunter. Speed. Sailing above the desolate land. I wear the crown of freedom.”

Comment from Shore: “Although the urge for freedom is characteristic of birds in general, it finds its most intense expression in the Falcon in the form of resistance to subjugation or domination by another.”

A key aspect according to Shore is the need to protect children

From the proving: “I take a child that is in danger to calmer waters and protect him. I was as if I had spread my protecting wings so that the waves couldn’t harm the child.”

After the client’s mother died she wanted to leave, to disappear, but she stayed to take care of her younger sister.

The client wants to offer a safe home to foster children. She got divorced to a large extent because she felt that her husband did not want to share that dream and also because he was too critical of their children.

Of interest is that Horus, the Egyptian falcon god protects children.

Another key feature of the remedy is the desire for the good opinion of others

From the proving: “I think about giving up my freedom, giving up freedom in exchange for admiration, acceptance, and love.”

“Am I a bird or am I a soul? Feelings of infinite freedom. I allow people to capture me because I want to feel as they do.”

The client was very much looking for love and acceptance. She felt that nobody would want her, love her or take care of her after her mother died. She stayed with her dominating husband because she was afraid to be alone and described herself as a people pleaser.

The client also complained about long-standing back, chest and shoulder pain, all of which are common for bird remedies.

Birds don’t have teeth and the sensation of the teeth falling out has been recorded in a number of bird remedy provings.

Obviously she had flying dream and more importantly, she dreamt that she was carrying someone in her dreams. Falcons and hawks have to work very hard to feed their young by hunting and then carrying the prey to the nest.

Prey may be heavy; her dreams seem to correspond with that sensation. It is of note that she used to dream of flying in the light when she was younger, but now she is flying in the dark in her dreams.

Also of note is that her favorite meat is duck. Falcons usually hunt other birds for prey, while in free fall flying as well as from water. Water fowl are part of their diet.

Interestingly, she also took care of an injured bird of prey as a teenager. This might actuallay have even been a Peregrine falcon.

Plan: Falco peregrino 200CH.

Follow-up September 26, 2017

“I’m feeling more balanced. More in my territory. I understand more what’s acceptable and what isn’t. I’m more assertive, I stand for it, “this is what I believe in.”

“I don’t like the anger that arises. I’m trying to understand why.

“I feel more assertive with the kids. My son wanted to have a friend sleep over on a weeknight and I was able to say no. Before I was more submissive.

“About one week after taking the remedy I had a flying dream again. I was carrying a child, he was heavy. I was trying to get away from someone who wanted to get me and the kid. I was jumping from building to building. I felt my wings were not strong enough. I carried the kid to an apartment. I felt I had to take care of them and monitor who is trying to get into the apartment.

“I felt anger and felt stronger. I came and I wanted to protect them and attacked the one who was chasing us. I wanted to throw them from the building. Before no one ever chased me in the dreams. Also, this time I carried someone to a destination, I never before had a destination. I carried him to safety and fought.

“I’ve been working on the separation agreement. Before I would have felt resentment to what my husband proposed. This time I handled the emotions better. I was forceful and pushing!In ten minutes I was clear about what would have taken one or two days to mull over before."

Feeling more assertive and more flexible and accepting

“I feel more assertive and at the same time more flexible and accepting. My daughter asked to paint her room and I said, okay, let’s get paint! I just did it. I feel whatever comes, I can handle it

“I had another dream. There was a building, like a castle. It felt like a castle on top of a mountain. I was enjoying the scene but there was a drop. A very beautiful and colourful view but suddenly I was on the edge and staggering off the edge, clinging to the edge to get back and climbing back up. Then I was fine.

“At work I used to be more controlling, I wanted to do it. Now I can ask the staff what they want her to do. Before I felt I needed to go Kundalini yoga to make me feel better, now I feel I don’t have to go, I can enjoy myself here, now. I can sit in a chair and get the same benefit as going to a Kundalini yoga class.

"I feel more centered. Before I feel like I can almost touch this good feeling but can’t hold it. Now it’s right here!

"Before I always felt I have to eat better, have smoothies etc. Now I’m not pushing myself. Okay, I make a smoothie, it just happens. Now it’s a pleasure, not a chore. I want to do it instead of I should do it, it comes lighter, easier.

"I used to have constipation, it was getting better before the remedy, but now it is all okay. Also my period was strange before, two days were very heavy. Now it is normal and only four days in total.

"Also, last year I had conflicts with my son’s soccer coach. This year, I was with him and I wanted to get a kid from his team to mine and he yelled at me. He screamed at me, but it had no effect! It didn’t touch me anywhere! I could not care less! I just smiled at him and nodded, okay. Before I would have cried and felt bad."

Assessment:

Great result from Falco 200CH! The patient is feeling much more assertive and at the same time more relaxed. Her digestion and menstrual period are better as well.

She had a couple of interesting flying dreams, one of carrying a child to safety to an apartment with other children while being chased. Then she attacked the aggressor and wanted to throw him off the building. This is interesting as the Peregrine lives on apartment buildings in cities, the only bird of prey that does this.

The other dream of the castle high on a mountain with a steep ledge is also interesting. The Peregrine prefers to hunt from a ledge and also nests on ledges. At some point the young have to take their first flight right off the ledge.

Plan: Wait. Client was sent home with additional Falco 200 CH in case of a relapse and instructions to only use it if the feeling of wanting to disappear returns.

Follow-up June 8, 2018, 10 months later

“After the last visit I felt super-balanced, really good. I’ve been meditating daily for 30 minutes. I ask for unconditional love, I feel it and experience it.

“I had a dream where I was flying around the home, connected with a string. I felt I don’t need it and broke free. I flew into space and someone was flying with me! But it was not a person. It is so wonderful, to fly with someone and to be able to express myself. I woke up feeling so happy! At the end of December I met this person, he walked into my life. I had my eyes closed and someone walked in.

“A relationship developed quickly, a relationship on a different level. I could not sleep at night for two weeks, my whole body was pulsating. I felt my heart beating all night long. After three weeks I said ‘I can’t handle this!’ He decided to pull away and then I started sleeping again. Our chakras were connecting. It felt like non-stop energy healing. That connection, support, protection.”

Obstacles now?

“Fears of losing, not being needed. That I have to do something in order to get love.

“Other dream recently: As a child I took care of animals, cows etc. I had a dream that I had forgotten to feed or milk the cow. In my dream I would try to go and do it but would never make it. Then I dreams that I finally made it but the cow was dying on the floor, barely breathing, poop everywhere. I felt, oh my god, I never fed you! I bring food and water. Then I see a little calf. Oh my god, you had a baby! Not only was I not feeding you but I also was not feeding your baby! Then I woke up.

“Physically I only still have a little pain between my shoulder blades and a bit of lower back pain. I did a 21 day meditation to clear past lives.

“My digestion is really good, no more constipation. My appetite is good, I gained 10 pounds which I wanted to.

“My teeth are getting better, too.”

Assessment:

Relapse. She has fears of losing, not being needed, that she has to do something in order to get love. She dreamt that she neglected her duty of taking care of a cow and her calf, another indication of Falco.
Plan: Falco 10M, one dose.

Follow-up March 9, 2019 (Nine months later)

“I’m feeling more confident. I usually avoid conflict but have had incidents in which I’ve been very capable of dealing with it. The husband of a relative was aggressive towards her and I was on him, grabbed him and threw him out on the porch! I wanted to tear him apart! I was wearing a long dress and a scarf and my relative said I looked like this huge bird fighting!

“I dated someone for a while. I had always felt as if I needed to please men for them to love me, but with him I felt like I could be myself and still be loved. No need to do anything.

“I dreamt that I went into a cottage, it was very bright with white curtains, near the ocean. There were huge shells on the beach, I could walk inside of them. Then a storm comes with huge waves, the cottage is very close to the water, it is splashing onto it. But I’m just standing there, I am not afraid, I feel safe. Suddenly the water parts and this child is running from the other side towards me. I’m wondering if he or she will make it, but I’m just wondering, without any fear. Then I can see the water closing again behind the child and wonder if he or she made it.

“Another dream, I’m trying to get off the road, I’m crawling on it. Why am I crawling, I can fly! I can see a huge wave coming towards town, a Tsunami. I come down and yell at people to get to higher ground, the kids, puppies etc. I’m trying to help them. I have to get the babies there first!

“Them I’m up there at the gates, receiving people, directing first aid, I can see the kids and puppies came in. I feel a lot of care, but yet calm. I am calm and it’s okay. It’s supposed to be happening like this.

“I’ve been doing holotropic breath work and had insights into past lives. I’m a captain, taking people to the war. I didn’t make it, some people didn’t make it.

“There is a scene on top of a mountain, a white, bright home, a lot of people, I lead them. I’m asking ‘what am I supposed to do? Nothing, just be strong.’ I can see the valley and a mountain. I could fly into it, almost as if it was my place.

“I ask myself ‘how can I help people to release or ease the trauma they’ve been through? Childhood and past life trauma? I’m thinking of retraining as a counsellor to work with children, abuse, childhood trauma. My heart calls me there!

Her ideal home?

“A home where kids can have a garden, animals, yoga, a dance studio, counsellors. I work with kids, helping them to find themselves, making them stronger. I’ve had this dream for years but before I was afraid to put it out there, if felt too overwhelming.

“I want freedom for people. It’s great to work with kids, the trajectory of their lives can be more easily adjusted. It’s like playing golf, a small adjustment at the beginning can result in major changes down the line.

“I would like more energy to go after my dreams.”

Assessment: The patient is doing much better overall. She is feeling more confident and assertive and even had a relationship in which she did not feel as if she had to work hard to be loved, she could just be herself. She is more seriously thinking about a career change now as a children’s counsellor. Her dreams are still clearly falcon dreams of tops of mountains, valleys, water and helping others.

This has been a remarkable falcon peregrine case so far with a deep transformation with the remedy. It will be interesting to follow this remarkable woman on her journey for the next few years, to witness her soar more and more in freedom and joy.

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH is a homeopathic practitioner in Sooke, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. She has special interests in children with developmental and behavioural challenges. She is also very interested in bird remedies.

The Case of the Caged Heart - A Case of Vasospastic Angina Relieved with a Homeopathic Bird Remedy

Mon, 21 Jan 2019 20:34:22 GMT

IN BRIEF

A woman with vasospastic angina, possibly related to a high-conflict childhood, finds relief with a homeopathic remedy made from an eagle feather.

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

A Woman with Vasospastic Angina

I first saw Michelle, a 48-year old female, on November 14, 2008. Her chief complaint was angina due to vasospasms for the past two years. The symptom picture was one of classic angina, but there was no blockage of the arteries. The patient was rather annoyed by the angina.

“I have no time for this. I resent having to pay attention to my body. I’ve got things to do. I’m still mad at the doctors who diagnosed it.”

How did her heart feel about this?

“I think my heart wants a break. It wants a rest between beats. I was taking on all the responsibility of the world, doing far too much.” She was feeling out of breath telling her story. “But I feel I’m not big enough for the job. I feel I don’t have the skills. What I really want to do is to be silly and play!”

“The amazing thing is that I do so much. I do the teaching, bookkeeping, bodywork, I push myself to do more and more. I feel I have to earn my keep to feel secure.”

Secure?

“I’ve never felt secure. I’m always looking at the conflict around me. I grew up with four older sisters. All five of us girls were born in five years. My earliest memories are of all the arguing between themselves. I felt responsible for it. There was conflict and it was my job to fix it.”

And if she did not do that?

“They’d tear each other apart!”

A High-Conflict Childhood

She would hide a lot as a child to get away from the conflict. She has had concerns about security and money for most of her life.

At the same time she has always had a strong desire for escape and freedom.

“I had horses all of my life, since age 4. It was the whole freedom thing, galloping off with a horse. It was my escape and my expression.”

I selected a homeopathic remedy called stramonium, often used in cases of illness after experiencing much fright and conflict, which improved her condition by about 50%. Then it stalled. After that we tried natrum-mur, which did nothing at all.

Finally on June 3, 09 she gave me the real keys to her case.

“The feeling of the heart being squeezed is very much like a block, a barrier. I’m always pushing it. It feels like a cage. Right when I want to expand, take a deep breath – it fastens around me. It says “No getting big for you! Don’t get too big for your boots and no, you can’t go and have fun.”

Restriction

What is it like to be big?

“To be free-flowing, easier. Lifting more with the same effort. Breathing is easy. I’m happy and cheerful and content. I’m worry-free and things smell good.”

“I grew up on a farm but had allergies, so I would not dare to take a deep breath. It would compress me and make me feel smaller. I like to breathe big, rich, feel fulfilled, happy. The restriction comes from outside, making me smaller, keeping me where I’m supposed to be.”

Tell me more about restriction?

“I have a picture of a cage around the ribs in my mind. There is a big cage around my chest and a smaller one around my heart. It is like expanded metal, dull grey in colour.”

“It seems pretty rigid and solid and permanent. It is cold. It does not care. It is there to keep the body safe and me in line.”

What would happen if it did not do that?

“I’d be unrestrained. I would be ridiculous, silly, extravagant and irresponsible. Everything would fall apart, all order would cease, I’d be late for school and the clothes would not be washed.”

Birds?

By now I was thinking that she might require a remedy made from a bird. So I asked her how she felt about birds.

“I would never own one. The idea of the cage is horrible. I love watching and feeding them. They have a really neat perspective on things, quite elevated and special. Birds can see things from all angles, on the ground, from the air, from trees, close up and far away. They are flexible and motile.

“They have a very simple existence, very life and death, but very straightforward.”

“And virtually no responsibility.”

“They build their wing and heart muscles as a side effect of having a great time!” (Emphasis mine)

Haliaetus leucocephalus, the bald eagle. This amazing bird can convey great healing power as a homeopathic remedy and only a feather is needed.

Assessment and Plan

It was amazing. Those were her exact words, “building their wing and heart muscles as a side effect of having a great time”, exactly what she would love to do, but could not as a result of feeling the excessive and impossible responsibility of resolving all conflict.

She described her heart as being in a cage and was longing for freedom. In birds she could see the ability to see from all angles, which, interestingly, is important in conflict resolution, for being free and for having fun, which is how she wanted to feel herself. She experienced her whole being as small and confined when she wanted to be big and play.

I selected a homeopathic remedy made from a feather of a bald eagle, Haliaetus leukocephalus, 200 CH.

Bird remedies have certain themes and one of them is an inner conflict between responsibility, especially for the family, and the desire for freedom. There is more to this case analysis but this has to suffice for now. I refer the reader to Jonathan Shore's book on the bird remedies.

Flying Dreams and Improved Angina Symptoms

Email feedback June 14, 09:

“After I saw you I had the most incredible flying dream. I was with someone and we were very high in the sky. He was showing me around and I was really surprised at how smooth and beautiful and frictionless everything was at this height. The patterns of the fields and rivers and forests were breathtakingly perfect. I also commented on there being no wind while we were flying, it was so easy and comfortable and effo rtless… He said “that’s the way it always is – it’s set up that way.”

“On Saturday we went for a hike up that hill we often climb and we know exactly where we have to rest on the steep parts for my angina. I did not have to stop. I had a small amount of tightness, but not enough to make me stop. Last time we went I had to stop for ten minutes half way up!”

“We’ve been for a couple of walks since and I’d say there is a definite improvement. So the eagle remedy is clearly a winner.”

This client did very well on the homeopathic prescription of bald eagle over the next year. The angina improved by 90% and her whole outlook has changed. She no longer feels as if she is responsible for everything and has a lot more fun and freedom in her life.

She even decided to go back to school and get another degree, which provided a great deal of financial security for her.

Bird Remedies in Homeopathy

Homeopathy as a science stands as a bridge between the visible and the invisible; between the laws governing the matter of this world and those that rule a world we can only guess at. One doorway into this other world is the proving experience, which provides a framework through which that other world may be penetrated. In a proving, the energies of a substance can be felt and experienced directly by the participants. We offer the following provings in the hope that they will invite you into the spirits of the birds themselves.
--Jonathan Shore - Introduction from 'Birds - Homeopathic Remedies from the Avian Realm'.

Excerpts from Roger Morrison's Foreword of the book:

In Clarke’s Dictionary we find 997 remedies listed. Of these, 589 are from plants, 300 are from minerals and 82 are from animals. In the 1990’s, this disproportionate distribution of remedies was noticed as a potential problem by Sankaran, Herrick, Sherr and many others.

Great credit belongs to Jonathan Shore and his colleagues for recognizing that of all the neglected animal groups, the birds had been the most completely ignored. In the present work, 16 bird remedies are discussed, correcting the absence of avian species from our Materia Medica.

Jonathan, together with Anneke Hogeland and Judy Schriebman, has brought into being a new class of remedies, first through a series of preliminary provings, then later through the study of natural history and, most importantly, through carefully documented cured cases... Every homeopath who tests without prejudice the information and guidelines given here will be satisfied with the results. Clinical results speak more eloquently than words.

In addition to bringing invaluable knowledge to the homeopathic community, the authors have created a template for future homeopathic texts. Homeopathic books should pass one simple test before being written. The prospective author should ask, “Is this a book which I would find an indispensable addition to my practice?” BIRDS: Homeopathic Remedies from the Avian Realm meets and surpasses this test. What makes this book even more admirable is that the authors have aimed it directly at the needs of the practitioner. It is practical and to the point, filled with pearls based upon clinical experience.

BIRDS: Homeopathic Remedies from the Avian Realm takes a giant step toward elucidating the nature of this family of remedies, complete with detailed prescribing tips. The homeopathic profession will long remember this contribution, and the homeopathic community will reward the authors with the highest form of praise: cures of patients who, without this book, would have continued to suffer.

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

Homeopathy for Diabetic Foot Ulcers and Gangrene

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 20:04:21 GMT

IN BRIEF

Homeopathy has potential to be helpful for diabetic foot ulcers and gangrene, potentially helping to prevent limb amputations.

This article describes a case of an older lady scheduled for a leg amputation who recovered with the homeopathic remedy Secale cornutum

By Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH

A Close Call

(Names have been changed to protect individual's privacy.)

“Hi Anke, it’s about my mother,” Will Hampton was on the phone, sounding distressed.

“The doctors want to amputate her leg within in a week. I don’t think she would survive it. She is 84 years old and so weak.” He was almost crying.

“I don’t want her to die on the operating table. Is there anything you can do? Can you see her tomorrow?”

Will was an old friend of mine. Of course I would see his mother tomorrow.

The next day, Will arrived at my office with his mother in a wheelchair. My office at the time was not easily wheelchair accessible, in fact, patients had to negotiate several steps to enter the building, but before I knew it a resolute and burly Will Hampton had scooped his tiny, fragile-looking mother up in his arms and carried her right into my consultation room.

He deposited her tenderly into one of my large, comfortably upholstered office chairs, which seemed to swallow up the small figure.

Diabetic Foot Ulcer

Marie Hampton was 84 years old and looked as if she did not weigh a pound more than her age. Her entire body was severely crippled with arthritis, especially her hands, which looked gnarled and painfully twisted. Her sea-blue eyes matched those of her son’s and were still bright and lively, as was her mind.

“Look Anke,” she said, tugging at her beige trouser legs to reveal a large bandaged area around her left foot. Her entire foot and lower leg were visibly swollen. “It’s a fine mess. Be careful taking off the bandage.”

“How long has it been like that?” I asked, starting to unwrap her foot.

“Five days now. First my foot and toe suddenly turned red and swelled up like a balloon. Two days ago my big toe started turning black. It’s getting worse every day.”

By now I had removed the entire dressing. Her foot was a deep purple colour and her big toe was a shocking charcoal black.

Peripheral Vascular Disease

“The doctors say that they need to amputate the leg just below the knee as soon as possible, because the toe is becoming gangrenous, “explained Will. “Mom has peripheral vascular disease caused by her diabetes and arthritis.”

Will knew his medical terminology. Peripheral vascular disease refers to a disease process of the small blood vessels supplying blood to the extremities, a common complication of diabetes. The blood vessels become narrowed and clogged up until there is no circulation left and the tissues are starved of oxygen and nutrition.

“The doctors say that the toe is also infected and if the leg does not come off the infection will spread quickly, possibly killing Mom,” said Will. “Mom is on antibiotics, but they’re not working.”

Gangrene

Gangrene is a serious complication of diabetes caused by the decaying and dying off of body tissue as a result of lack of blood flow or circulation.

Approximately 85% of all amputations in patients with diabetes are caused by gangrene. In fact, this condition is the most common cause of non-trauma induced amputation in North America, and on the rise.

As mentioned, Will had already confessed his fears that his mother would not survive such a serious operation.

“Besides, Mom told me that she would never agree to an amputation,” he had said. “Mom swears she would rather die than go through with it. I told doctor F about this and she said that was a normal reaction, but that the amputation would improve my mother’s quality of life. What do you think?”

“I don’t know, Will, let me take a look first.”

“Dr. F then told me that in any case, Mom was old and it would be a good thing if she died on the operating table if she wanted to go anyway! Needless to say, I was very upset. That’s when I called you.”

“I can’t promise you anything, but I’m glad you called.”

“I felt there was nothing to lose by seeing you,” he said.

I heard that remark hundreds of times.

Impending Amputation

So here we were, one week away from a leg amputation. The only thing that worried me was that I had never actually seen a case of gangrene before. At least not in a human anyway.

I had, however, seen a squirrel with impending gangrene only about a month before. Yes, a squirrel. I had a friend in the neighbourhood who volunteered for a wildlife rehabilitation service and who regularly took care of injured or abandoned wild animals in her home. I would often see Valerie on doggie walks in the neighbourhood and naturally asked her what kinds of critters she was looking after at the moment.

She took care of raccoons, birds, sometimes a fawn, but most often she looked after squirrels, sometimes as many as six or seven of them at the same time. Valerie was a squirrel rehab expert. She was also very interested in natural methods of healing, especially homeopathy, which she often successfully used for her little charges.

She knew that I was also very interested in animals and therefore occasionally shared stories about her four-legged patients with me. A couple of months ago, she had told me about three baby squirrels with diarrhea, that had lost their mother and were not doing well. I told her about a little homeopathic diarrhea complex, which cleared them up in no time. As a friend, not as a vet.

Jack the Squirrel

Her most recent little charge was a full-grown grey squirrel, named Jack by Valerie, which had suffered an unfortunate encounter with a piece of string. The string had wrapped itself tightly around one of its hind legs just above the foot, cutting off the circulation and leaving him unable to walk.

The offending string had been removed as soon as Jack had been found, but the circulation was not returning to the foot and gangrene seemed imminent. Valerie’s vet had suggested to wait one more day before putting the little fellow to sleep as gangrene would mean a slow, cruel death.

So here I was, never having seen a case of impending gangrene, not to mention a case of impending gangrene in a squirrel. (Please note, I again advised her as a friend, not as a practitioner, I am not a vet.)

Arsenicum and Secale cornutum

We didn’t have any time to lose. A quick computer search of the homeopathic remedies commonly used in cases of gangrene brought up a couple of likely choices, the two most promising being Secale cornutum, a remedy prepared from rye smut (a black mold that grows on rye kernels) and Arsenicum album, a remedy made from, yes, Arsenic.

These choices may not seem particularly appetizing to a lay person, but every homeopath is quite fond of them, especially of Arsenicum album. What would we do without it in cases of food poisoning and Montezuma’s revenge? No trip to Mexico is complete without a little Arsenicum album!

The Search for the Remedy

Then I discovered that we did not carry any Secale cornutum in our otherwise quite well-stocked dispensary.

“Who else might have some?” asked Valerie, undeterred. “I’ll go and pick it up.” A few phone calls later we had found a compounding pharmacy in Toronto which carried the remedy. Valerie took her little charge, jumped into her automobile and sped off for the one-hour drive from Newmarket to Toronto to collect the remedy and give it to Jack right there and then.

I anxiously waited to hear from her the next day. My experience with homeopathic remedies when given in acute conditions has always been that a change could often be expected within minutes and at most within a day. Valerie called me around 11 am the next morning.

“Anke, I think it may be working. I gave the remedy every hour as you said and today Jack’s foot looks a little more pink.”

“Great news, Val, give the remedy a little less often, around every three to four hours, and call me again tomorrow,” I said.

Recovery!

Jack the squirrel recovered completely within a few days and was released back into the wild. I was happy that he had done so well, but frankly, I was not entirely sure if the remedy had in fact helped at all or if our little friend would not have regained his health on his own anyway.

I next saw Valerie a couple of weeks later on one of my usual doggie-walks with my little dog, Kylie.

“Hey, Anke, guess what?” she began. “Right after we treated little Jack, one of my co-workers told me she was scheduled to have a toe amputated. Gangrene again, caused by diabetes. I told her about Jack and she asked if she could take the same thing. We figured it wouldn’t hurt, so I gave her Jack’s leftovers and within two days her toe felt better. Her doctor said she doesn’t need the amputation any more!”

Nothing quite like playing doctor, or vet for that matter, is there?

Third Time Lucky?

So I decided to take a chance and give Mrs. Hampton a dose of Secale cornutum, 200 CH right in my office. Luckily I had ordered some for the clinic soon after the encounter with Jack. I also recommended some Vitamin E as well as Ginkgo biloba extract to further support the circulation to her foot.

I told Will to keep a close eye on his mother’s condition and call me the next day to report on any changes.

I did not have long to wait: “The blue colour on Mom’s foot is better; it looks more like a dark pink now,” reported Will around 10 am the next day. “The black on the toe is waning, too, it now looks more brown. Could it be working that fast?”

“Maybe, Will, I hope so anyway,” I said.

“The swelling is better, too!” He was thrilled.

He called me again closer to 5 pm, this time sounding a little less happy. “Anke, Dr. F. won’t give my mother the supplements you prescribed.”

“Oh, how come, Will?”

“I don’t know. I just went to see Mom again to check on her foot and got so upset!”

“What, is her foot worse?”

“No, it is even better than this morning, the nurse said so, too. I was so upset about the vitamins that Nancy the charge nurse told me to calm down or I’d have a stroke!”

I had to suppress my laughter. I could just see him there, throwing a tantrum. Will was an expressive man, to say the least.

Ergot was also the source for the development of LSD

Complications

“Did Dr. F call you yet?”

“No, she hasn’t, did she want to speak to me?”

“Well, she said she would call you about the vitamins.”

“That would be good. But don’t worry, your Mom is getting better even without them. The homeopathic remedy is already doing the job.”

“Yeah, I guess. But I want to do everything we can. Mom and I are going to see Dr. B tomorrow morning, he is the specialist who wants to do the amputation.”

“Good luck, call me right after you see him please, let me know what he thinks.” I was hopeful.

Will called me around 1 pm the next day.

Amputation Cancelled

“Mom just ate a huge lunch,” he said excitedly. “I haven’t seen her eat this much in ages. And Dr. gave us fantastic news: Mom does not need the amputation any more!”

He told me that the black colour of her big toe had entirely disappeared. But Dr. F had still not given the green light for the administration of the supplements I had recommended, nor had she called me to discuss the patient with me.

“Dr. F told me two days ago that she could get sued if something happened to Mom from taking the vitamins. She told me she needed to do some research, but she still hasn’t spoken to you as she said she would.”

I could almost feel his blood pressure rising.

“I told the charge nurse at Mom’s nursing home that Dr. F should be afraid of being sued for not giving the vitamins, as she is denying my mother the opportunity for further healing. Can you believe that?”

Hokus Pokus Medicine

The next day, Friday, Will received a call from Dr. F asking to meet with her and nursing home staff the following Monday to discuss his mother’s care. Dr. F then told Will that she did not want to be involved with "Hokus-Pokus medicine" and that he should look for another nursing home for his mother.

According to Will neither the doctor nor the staff ever showed any interest at all in the cause of Mrs. Hampton’s unexpected recovery.

Mrs. Hampton passed away from pneumonia about eight months later. Her foot healed completely. She never needed the amputation.

Will thought about going public with the case, but was too grief-stricken by his mother’s death to pursue the matter.

Success with Homeopathy

This woman greatly improved with homeopathy. Homeopathy stimulates the body's inherent healing mechanisms. The case dates back to 1996, now 24 years ago. Unfortunately the predominant attitude of the media and main stream medicine has not changed much for the better in the last two decades years here in Canada, as my recent experiences this year with both only too clearly document.

Worldwide, there has been increasing hostility towards homeopathy over the past ten years, likely due to the influence of Big Pharma. India is a noteworthy exception, as the government has embraced homeopathy and other natural health care modalities for the betterment of it's population.

Case reports from India

Please also see this series of five cases with gangrene from India, published in 2015:
CASE REPORT
Year : 2015 | Volume : 9 | Issue : 2 | Page : 114-122
Gangrene: Five case studies of gangrene, preventing amputation through Homoeopathic therapy
Seema Mahesh1, Mahesh Mallappa1, George Vithoulkas2
1 Homoeopathic Physician, Centre for Classical Homoeopathy, Vijaynagar, Bangalore, India
2 Department of Surgery, International Academy of Classical Homoeopathy, Greece

Abstract: Gangrene and its associated amputations are clinically challenging, but Homeopathy offers therapy options. In this case series, 5 cases are presented, in which the homeopathic treatment prevented amputation of a body part. Homeopathy stimulates the body's ability to heal through its immune mechanisms; consequently, it achieves wound healing and establishes circulation to the gangrenous part.

Instead of focusing on the local phenomena of gangrene pathology, treatment focuses on the general indications of the immune system, stressing the important role of the immune system as a whole. The aim was to show, through case reports, that homeopathic therapy can treat gangrene without amputating the gangrenous part, and hence has a strong substitution for consideration in treating gangrene. You can read the paper here.

Video of Successful Treatment of Diabetic Gangrene with Homeopathy

Centre for Classical Homeopathy, India, Dr. Manesh, one of the co-authors of the above paper. Graphic content, you may not want to let children watch.

Cost of Lower Limb Amputations

According to the Canadian Diabetes Association the cost of a lower limb amputation in Canada amounts to at least $74,000 per case for hospitalization alone, not including additional costs for rehabilitation, medication, physiotherapy etc.

In 1996, the year I saw Mrs. Hampton, over 6,600 Canadians with diabetes were hospitalized for lower limb amputations. In 2011 it was 7708.

Diabetic foot ulcers, leading to gangrene, precede approximately 85 percent of all amputations in patients with diabetes and account for more hospital days than all other diabetic complications combined.

Globally, one million amputations occur every year; approximately one amputation every 30 seconds. It is estimated that the toll of amputees will reach 435 million by 2030; of these, over 54% will be affected only by peripheral vascular diseases, especially diabetes mellitus.

Homeopathy could be a great option for those affected by diabetic gangrene and ulcers, preventing possibly hundreds of thousands of amputations and at a minimal cost.

Cost of Homeopathy

The total cost of the homeopathic remedy, of which Mrs. Hampton needed only one single dose and which was the main factor in her recovery was exactly $3.00. My consulting fees were around $300.

Note to Reader

Even though all the cases described in this chapter improved with the homeopathic remedy Secale cornutum, it does not mean that Secale is a remedy for gangrene in general. In homeopathy the remedy has to match the entirety of the case, it is not for a condition per se. There are many other homeopathic remedies as well as other natural therapies which could be helpful and it is very important that the best treatment for each individual is determined by a qualified practitioner of naturopathic or homeopathic medicine.

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, Classical and Modern Homeopathy, Sooke, BC.

Questions? Want to learn more about homeopathy? I offer a free 15-20 minute meet and greet consultation.

Book online

Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, Modern and Classical Homeopathy - Successful Cases

Internal Conflict - A Boy with Bouts of Rage is helped with Homeopathy

IN BRIEF

An eight-year-old boy with intense bouts of rage

Ignatia amara

References

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Discussion of Arsenicum album

Homeopathy and Constipation in Babies

IN BRIEF

Constipation, Colic and Irregular Bowel Movements in Infants

Constipation after Vaccines

Carmen, 9 months old

Medical History

Abnormal Stool Odour

Assessment and Plan

Dramatic Improvements from Hep B vaccine Remedy

Discussion

Arching the Back, Tics, Shaking Fits, Eye Blinking and a Crooked Smile after Vaccination Improve with Homeopathy

IN BRIEF

Shaking fits, becoming stiff and arching her back

Pregnancy and delivery

Infancy

Assessment

Improvements of tics and movements with Pediarix 30C

Symptoms are almost all resolved with Pediarix 200C and 1M

Another round of vaccines given

Crooked smile after yet another round of vaccines!

Symptoms of vaccine injury or vaccine damage

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IN BRIEF

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