Family Diarrhea Cases

These cases of diarrhea in one family took more than a week to resolve.  All four children needed different remedies, but probably the same pathogen caused the diarrhea. The cause was unclear because the family had been exposed to unfamiliar pathogens and lacked the immune system to overcome them. They were not suffering from a common epidemic disease such as cholera. In the future, because they used homeopathy instead of medicines, they will have a stronger immune system and will probably not suffer from the same pathogens. The mother was educated in homeopathic first aid, so she was able to describe symptoms over the telephone. Had she been a more typical mom, I would have needed to see the children to prescribe for them.

The mother called me in Tokyo after returning from a trip to South East Asia, because 3 out of 4 children were stricken by diarrhea with vomiting.  These symptoms occurred during the night so the parents could not sleep and laundry is piling up. The house reeked of vomit.  First, the mother took all four children to the hospital to have their stool examined for vermin.  Nothing was found, so the mom had no choice but to drag out her homeopathy books and look for a remedy.  (She could have also called me, but I was out then.)

In the past, this mother had studies with me: a 6-hour emergency medicine class and about 4 hours of private tutoring.  With so little training, numerous times she found the correct remedy for her children.

On the third day, she found a remedy that decreased the frequency of diarrhea.  Excellent work for a beginning student, but if she had looked for the remedy in the beginning, from the first day her life would have been much better. I made the same mistake when I began.

I asked her why she was not giving the remedy that she had found during the day.  It turned out that she wanted to stop the diarrhea, so she gave the remedy when only at night when the children had diarrhea.  But they were pale during the day and not able to play.  So they actually they were sick day and night.  The remedy was not for only the diarrhea.  Diarrhea was only the worst symptom of the illness.  During the day, the children want to defecate and vomit, but they could not.  That peculiar symptom was key to finding their curative remedy.  From the mother’s point of view, the diarrhea was the most troublesome symptom.  Other symptoms were similar to the symptoms of an ordinary cold or flu. Actually, these other symptoms were important.

I also have some regrets.  In my acute care class, I told her that for a mild cold, don’t use remedies.  Obviously, continuous diarrhea and vomiting is much worse than a mild cold.  I should have predicted the mother’s misunderstanding.  I have to admit that this is the way that both mothers and homeopaths learn to manage cases,

After the children were better and we could talk more calmly, I began to understand the mother’s misunderstandings.  Let me cover the way that we think about these problems below. 

If the remedy causes a severe aggravation (which is very uncommon), then the remedy should not be repeated.  This is common sense in both acute and chronic treatment.  However, in everyday practice the decision to repeat a remedy that causes a slight aggravation is common.  In chronic treatment, if the aggravation is mild and other improvements are being made by the remedy, then we usually repeat the remedy despite the aggravations.  Actually, there are many other considerations that can’t be covered here.

However, in an acute case of diarrhea, there is no problem in repeating the remedy. If the remedy does not bring the expected results, we change the remedy.  If the symptoms change or get worse, then we change the remedy to match the new symptoms. If the condition improves, we continue the remedy. The logic is straightforward.

In the end, this mother worked with me and she was able to cure 2 of her children only with homeopathy.  The remedy that worked for the other children did not work for her daughter.  Talking on the phone, she gave me a detailed report of her daughter’s symptoms. They were different from her sons' symptoms. The daughter improved and then her symptoms changed.  So she called again and I suggested another remedy.  For the boys who were still suffering from one bout of diarrhea in the evening, she repeated the remedy that she had chosen herself.  She did this during the day when the children were not suffering from diarrhea yet.

The two older boys did not get well with the remedies chosen by the mother.  I later learned that 2-year-old was asking to eat again right after a meal.  His symptoms got worse. 

Thinking the mother had access to only her 50 remedy box, I suggested a remedy from that box.  It did not work.  Then I found out that she had access to more remedies at a neighborhood pharmacy.  So, I told her the remedy that she really needed (I was away from home so I could not send her a remedy).  He began recovering the next night.

The older boy was still having loose stools.  I used the complement of his constitutional remedy. That is, the similar remedy.  The constitutional remedy did not have diarrhea as its main component.  I looked up “follows well after” in The Complete Repertory.  One of those remedies was very close to the boy’s personality, it had his main symptoms from past problems and diarrhea was a keynote.  It worked immediately.

This mother is also my student.  She has bought the necessary reference books and knows how to use them.  However, if you are not yet so comfortable with homeopathy, it is essential to own a box of 35-50 remedies.  With this box, you can easily call me and I will help you to find the right remedy.

I was very grateful that she had this basic training.  That is, both her ability to report symptoms and her observations were highly skilled.  Nevertheless, during this long healing ordeal, we both had a lot to learn.