Minutus

Dear All,

I alluded to this case a bit ago, and finally saw this baby last Friday. Here is the case:

baby left with friends of the parents for 2 days and exhibited clingy behavior next day.
cough began very lightly
nasal discharge worsened over 2-3 days
nasal discharge clear and a little viscid
discharge amel on open air.
she generally likes open air.
cough worse evening
appetite quite diminished (she is always a picky eater)
thirstless for several days except for breast milk, and that minimally taken
no fever
very active

nat mur 6c 2x daily/2 days

nasal discharge drying up but
cough loosening and coughing in morning now, too
she is putting strange things in her mouth like she did when an infant
she is eating better and drinking more
breakfast is her best meal: fruits and oatmeal
mother thinks she is going after sweets. but she is also wanting starchy foods like oatmeal and toast
altho cough is worse, discharge is improved
still prefers open air
still no fever
still very active.

she is a confident child playing with everything in her site.
she let me (a stranger), put her on my lap and wipe her nose, not smiling or giggly, but not resistent
curious i would say
she did like hugging a teddy bear, but only briefly
i wiped her nose, so she wiped the bear's nose
it seems like she doesnt need to have a lot of cuddling
and that she is a bit self-contained

a re-reporitization of the case comes up with nat m again. but Calc is also strong.
recommended nat-m 30c. thinking that maybe i went in with too low a potency.

my concern is that the condition is taking so long to resolve (it has been about 5-6 day). the parents have been a bit under the weather as well. the mother was sickly about 1.5 weeks ago, but felt better in a couple of days. but now she reports that she was really down for 2 days this week with a recurrent cold. I am concerned that this may be the current flu going around and thought i could use some feedback from this list.

tanya
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Tanya,

Based on the initial history you reported, I probably would have given
Pulsatilla. It sounds like some features, like the clinginess, have
shifted, but if the overall symptom picture is the same, Pulsatilla may
help.

Best regards,
Arlene

Dear Arlene,

Thanks for your thoughts. I had thought of Puls, too. But the clinginess lasted only one day. I had also factored in 'forsaken.' I interpreted the clinginess as coming from being left for 2 days for the first time. Do you have any inkling of Puls having putting indigestibles in the mouth? This seemed to me to be an important factor. I felt it represented a regression in behavior. Would you see it that way?

tanya

Tanya,

I don't like when the nasal discharge clears up but the cough aggravates.
Sounds like the wrong direction after the nat-m. I would like to know how
the baby reacted to being with the friends, indignant, frightened, sad, etc.
for a causation. I kinda liked puls. in the beginning, too - thirstless,
open air des/amel, bland discharge.

be well

russell swift, dvm

A/F indignation (that is just an assumption)
open air, desire
open air, amel
des. indigestibles
confident/bold

Dear Tanya, when you first posted about the loose cough and a clingy child
many would automatically think Pulsatilla. But this can be very misleading
if it isn't the whole case. Personally I would have given a 30c of the
chosen rx as there are sx on the emotional level (although 6 can be profound
if the simillimum).

Look at the case carefully and decided first if this is a 'watch and wait'
situation - there are many positive aspects to this case which suggest some
changes have taken place and she does seem quite healthy. Decide if it is an
acute situation or chronic developing - and try and get to treat the
others around the child as there might be some common symptoms involved.

Don't forget that acutes such as chicken pox, measles etc can take 2 or 3
weeks to develop during incubation. I have just had a batch of chicken pox
which took this length of time, all of them beginning with mild 'cold' like
sx. Has the child been in contact with anyone with these ailments?

Best wishes, Joy
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russell

the baby reportedly was ok. she didnt cry when left and seemed okay. however, she was a bit clingy the next day. i thought the baby might have felt a bit abandonned and became clingy. but she was also beginning to be sick. the people she was with were going thru some kind of cold/flu/vaccine reactions. so there may have been some stress in that house. i agree with you about the direction of cure. i am not happy either.

now we have the regressive behavior of putting things in her mouth.

tanya

Requisite clinical symtoms for an exogenous invasion are simultaneous chills and fever with one being more predominent, either a sore or tickling throat, either clear or purulent discharges, body aches, headaches, etc.

In TCM the pathological emotion of the Lung is sadness or grief, and its clinical reflection may be a cough and/or respiratory difficulty. A cough is Lung energy (chi) moving in the wrong direction. As the child was separated from the parents, the emotional component may be present and the driving force to the clinical picture. Clearing of the nasal discharges while the cough remains is suggestive that the energetic cause remains active or that it has damaged the energetic nature of the Lung system, which along with homeopathics may be bolstered more quickly with an
simultaneous herbal formula Bu Fei Tang.

Joy Lucas wrote:

Joy,

the baby was in contact with a family that was 'coming down' with something and their child was having a reaction to vaccines just given. as i noted in my response to russell swift, there must have also been stress in that household because of this.

the baby's mother/father had a small case of something about 3 weeks ago and the mother was down for 2 days this week with a bad cold.

so the child has been exposed. in going over some posts from the mother, she actually began to complain about a slight cough in the baby as far back as January this year. little coughs for a day or 2 and then she would be okay.

the baby appears very healthy. has had no vaccines. at 10 mos of age the mother reported a chronic sluggish bowel--no pain as i recall, just slow. i did not prescribe then since it didnt seem to be a problem and i decided to watch and wait. mother was nursing and child was eating solids, but minimally. child has always been a 'picky' eater which i think means eating very small amounts. parents are vegetarians, so child may have been processing almost all the food taken in.

tanya

Tanya,

The abandonment idea is an assumption/projection that may not be accurate.
Best, I think, to look at the baby's reaction rather than presuming. I know
it is not easy because this is the type of problem I have with animals
getting sick after being left in a kennel, etc. I think it is odd that an 18
month old doesn't react more to being without his/her parents. I have a hard
time keeping my two year old for more than a few hours without her wanting
mommy and letting the whole neighborhood know about it and I spend much more
time with my kids than the average father. I think there is an important
clue in there somewhere.

be well

russell swift, dvm

Dear Tanya, I would still be tempted to watch and wait to see what happens.
If the child is 'coping' then I think that is a reasonable thing to do. When
and if the sx become inappropriate to her well being you will have a much
clearer picture.

Best wishes, Joy
From: "tanya marquette"
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