Tame Your Child’s Fever

By Dana Ullman, MPH

Fevers can be scary, particularly for parents with a sick child. If your daughter is running a fever, your likely first reaction is to reach for an over-the-counter pain reliever to lower her temperature to make her more comfortable. However, in most cases, fever is simply one symptom of an illness—a signal that your body is fighting off an infection. During an infection, the body responds by heating up. This helps to increase production of white blood cells and signal the release of additional interferons to help boost your ability to ward off invaders and accelerate the healing process. If you immediately give your daughter an over-the-counter pain reliever, she may feel more comfortable (less warm) but you are also suppressing the action of the fever—it can no longer accelerate the healing process.

Adults can tolerate higher temperatures than children can without lasting consequences, but if an infant has any fever, or if your child‘‘s temperature rises above 102 degrees for longer than six hours, contact your physician for instructions. The same holds true for any fever that lasts longer than three days.

When a fever strikes older children and adults, however, homeopathy can provide a gentle way to stimulate their inner healing resources while supporting the body through the fever and encouraging the body‘‘s natural defenses to resolve the root cause of the illness.

When using homeopathy, it is important to remember that homeopaths look at all diseases as syndromes, which express themselves as a number of common patterns of symptoms that vary with each person and each illness. Homeopathy doesn‘‘t treat the fever, per se; instead it focuses on the cluster of symptoms a person is experiencing as a result of his illness or condition, called the "syndrome of symptoms."

To use homeopathy effectively, you first need to define your specific symptoms. Below are four of the most common remedies that include fever in the syndrome of symptoms. To choose the best remedy, match the symptoms as closely as possible.

•• Aconitum (monkshood)
This remedy works best during the first 24 hours of a fever. When your fever begins rapidly, usually starting at night or sometimes after exposure to the cold or cold, dry winds, reach for Aconitum. You may also feel chilled or experience cold sweats. Other possible symptoms include a sore throat with burning pain that worsens when swallowing and/or a short dry cough.

•• Belladonna (deadly nightshade)
When you have a similarly rapid onset of a high fever but also experience a flushed face, reddened mucous membranes, glassy eyes, and cold limbs, consider Belladonna. Additional symptoms may include a throbbing headache and dilated pupils.

•• Ferrum phos (iron phosphate)
A fever that begins gradually without any significant intense symptoms calls for Ferrum phos as the appropriate remedy. Often your skin color may alternate between paleness and redness. You may also experience a mild headache, cough, or sore throat.

•• Pulsatilla (windflower)
If you need Pulsatilla, your illness will tend to start with a head cold that produces thick yellow or even greenish mucus. You will usually feel a need for fresh air and may tend to be weepy and crave attention and sympathy.I get frequent headaches. The medication I take dulls them but leaves me lethargic and spacey. Any suggestions?

In treating a headache, as with fevers, homeopathy looks to stimulate the body‘‘s innate ability to heal itself. Instead of defining headaches by "type" such as migraine, tension, or sinus, homeopathy looks at the whole person to match all of your current symptoms as closely as possible with the corresponding remedy. Since homeopathy addresses your particular syndrome of symptoms (often including your current emotional state) remedies for different conditions frequently overlap. For example, Belladonna is a leading remedy for fever as well as headaches.

Although self-prescribing with homeopathy can work well for acute, self-limiting conditions, anyone with consistent, painful headaches should consult a professional homeopath.

•• Belladonna (deadly nightshade)
This is the leading remedy for intense, throbbing headaches—those that usually feel worse on the right side and are aggravated by light, noise, touch, motion, simple jarring, or lying down. It also works on headaches triggered by hormonal fluctuations during menstruation or menopause. The head pains tend to diminish when sitting in a semi-erect position, lying in a dark, quiet room, and applying cold compresses or firm pressure. Common symptoms include a flushed or hot face, glassy eyes with dilated pupils, or icy cold hands and feet. The pain is usually worst in the afternoon.

•• Bryonia (wild bryony)
Bryonia also relieves intense headache pain aggravated by any type of jarring or coughing. Choose Bryonia, however, if the headache is worse in the morning until midday and indigestion or constipation accompany the pain. If you need this remedy, you will likely get easily irritated and insist upon being alone. You may also have a dry mouth and lips and a great thirst for cold liquids.

•• Nux vomica (poison nut)
Often called the "hangover headache" remedy, Nux vomica will relieve a headache associated with overeating, caffeine withdrawal, drug use, or stress. If you describe your headache as "splitting," with possible nausea, and feel worse with any type of noise or light, this is your remedy.

•• Gelsemium (yellow jasmine)
When your headache pain occurs primarily in the back of your head, your vision is dim, or you have other types of visual disturbances, reach for Gelsemium. With this type of headache, you may feel worse when exposed to heat and sun and feel better after profuse urination or while lying in a reclined position. You may also experience extreme fatigue (for example, your head feels too heavy to hold up and you can barely keep your eyes open). Use Gelsemium if your headache comes on prior to, or after, a stressful event.

•• What dosage?
Although trained homeopaths may use much higher potencies, self-prescribers should opt for remedies in the 6C or 30C range, unless they feel more confident with the remedy they‘‘ve selected—that is, if their symptoms closely match the ones described here. In homeopathy, the number of tablets you take is less important than how often you take them. The more severe the symptoms, the more often you should repeat the remedy. Homeopaths generally recommend every four to six hours in mild cases and every two to four hours for more severe symptoms, for a maximum of three days. As the symptoms improve (which may sometimes happen after the first dose) and you begin to feel better, stop taking the remedy—you are on your way to recovery. Sometimes the remedy works through "aggravation," which means your symptoms may actually worsen before they get better (usually during the first 24 hours). If you experience no change in the first 24 hours, you have likely chosen the wrong remedy, and you‘‘ll want to reassess.