Imagine if you will that at any given moment you can take a snapshot of your general health state. We all have certain tendencies (generally cold versus hot), likes (love thunderstorms and dancing, sweets), dislikes (hate cold weather, sour foods), physical ailments (tend to get rashes, bad periods, achy joints), emotional tendencies (cry easily, need/like hugs), ect. What traditional Hahnemann homeopathy does is find THE REMEDY that best matches your current health picture. Each remedy has its own "picture" as well. What this means is if a perfectly healthy individual took this remedy he/she would eventually exhibit symptoms related to this remedy. Using the Law of Similars, Hahnemann found that introducing a substance in incredibly (almost untraceable) small amounts into a person exhibiting symptoms similar to the remedy, the remedy would CURE the individual. So if my remedy picture fits Pulsatilla, I am strengthened by it and begin to see certain problems fall away. As I continue going up in potency (term referring to strength of remedy - 12C is less potent then 30C), the remedy works on the underlying imbalances that led to the physical problems. Also as you continue with a remedy, your remedy picture can change. It is kind of like peeling back the layers of an onion. This is constitutiional homeopathy and it is used for chronic conditions, basically long-standing patterns/problems for the individual. In my experience this is the best and truest form of homeopathy and it requires a professional.
Many people use homeopathy for simple acute problems like colds, flus and even broken bones and that is it. You can get a kit that contains the most frequently prescribed remedies for common family ailments. Learning to use them requires a bit of study and a good book to keep on hand. However, if you have a more complex issue (chronic fatigue, infertility, chronic illness) you can really only get results working with a homeopath as described above. I don't know about other homeopaths, but ours always helps us determine if a remedy would help in an acute situation if we are under his care for a chronic problem.
Sometimes, if you are on a constitutional remedy, just increasing your remedy frequency (1 time a day to 2) will help you through a cold or flu. I have witnessed this with our son this year, especially when he had RSV. His remedy helped him expel the mucus and kept his lungs clear. He never developed the typical RSV wheezing and didn't require any breathing treatments. His cough stopped at the 3 week mark and didn't linger on in any form. He did require an acute remedy to help with his vomiting during this time (Ipecak 30C) which helped him stop vomiting, in about 2 days, and begin to eat again. This remedy was only used for a short time and we continued his daily remedy all throughout. Now other colds he went through very easily and required no change in his daily dose.
Typical homeopathic care requires an initial in-depth (usually 2 hours) appointment, what is referred to as "take the case". A remedy will be recommended and a follow-up appointment scheduled. These follow-ups are usually every 6 weeks, but may be sooner if you or your child are chronically ill or the picture isn't completely clear at first. Ben was very difficult at first because as a baby he couldn tell us little and his physical symptoms kept changing as he worsened prior to diagnosis. Now I feel I am able to observe more and understand more about my son's overall personality and state of health. Plus the diagnosis helped us understand more about his unique physical challenges. More than likely this remedy will continue to strengthen him and will point us to the next one as he gets older. It is like fine tuning a piano.
Working with a homeopath on behalf of your children simply requires good observation skills and writing things you notice down on the calendar so you can review them during follow-up appointments. Best of all if a remedy isn't quite right their are no adverse side effects, it simply doesn't work. As with anything, research and read as much as you can so you can have realistic expectations. This form of medicine has incredible potential but requires patience and perserveance at times. Developing a good working relationship with your homeopath is critical. Ours is patient and always available. He is also a trained emergency MD and understands how to work with people on allopathic medicine (prescription meds). I have always felt secure knowing he started as a traditional doctor before training as a homeopath, but that's me and it doesn't necessarily speak to capability. A non-MD homeopath can be just as wonderful and qualified. Certification, however, is a must.
I hope this helped answer your question.
Jody
