REMEDIES LISTED IN CAPITOL LETTERS REPRESENT MORE FREQUENTLY INDICATED REMEDIES

• Asthma is a potentially serious and even life-threatening condition. Infants and children with asthma should receive medical attention. Conventional drugs used for treating asthma, particularly steroids, can impair immune function and lead to more serious health problems. Homeopathic constitutional care is necessary to achieve a lasting cure of asthma, while the following remedies can often be helpful in reducing the distress that an acute attack can create.

Antimonium tart: The characteristic symptom of children who need this remedy is a rattling cough with an inability to expectorate mucus. Their condition is sometimes precipitated after being angered or annoyed. They feel drowsy, weak, and feeble, and their symptoms are usually worse at 4 a.m. Their difficulty in breathing may cause them to sit up rather than lie down. Concurrent with these breathing difficulties is anxiousness, restless, and irritability. They feel chilly but are averse to stuffy warm rooms and desire cool rooms and open windows. This remedy is rarely given at the beginning of an illness.

ARSENICUM: Restlessness and anxiety are prominent with asthmatic children who need this remedy. As the asthma continues, they get more and more frightened and agitated. Their symptoms are worse from midnight to 2 a.m., and they will toss and turn in bed, unable to find a comfortablable position. Their breathing is best when sitting erect. Despite their restlessness, they are tired and weak. They are very chilly and better by warmth. They are noticeably thirsty but for only sips of water at a time.

Chamomilla: This remedy should be considered for asthma brought on after a tantrum. Chamomilla children are very impatient during their suffering. They have a hard, dry cough during sleep, and their difficult breathing is relieved from bending their head backwards, being in cold air, or drinking cold water.

IPECAC: Persistent nausea with a loose cough and a rattling in the chest but an inability to expectorate are characteristic of children who need this remedy. They have wheezing and tenacious mucus that is blood-streaked. Vomiting provides some relief of their symptoms because it helps to eliminate some mucus. Their symptoms are worse in hot, humid weather and are aggravated by the least motion. They experience cold perspiration of the extremities. They may also have difficulty sleeping and excessive salivation.

Lobelia: This remedy is known for curing asthmatic breathing concurrent with nausea and vomiting. These children usually have prickling sensations all over, even on the fingers and toes, that precedes the asthma. The asthma is aggravated by exposure to cold. The child may feel weakness in the pit of the stomach and a sensation of a lump above the sternum (the chest bone).

Nux vomica: This remedy is good for treating asthma when children have fullness in the stomach, especially in the morning or after eating. They have asthma with choking, anxiety, pressure in the pit of the belly, humming in the ears, quick pulse, and sweating. Their attack is sometimes incited by hay fever. They feel they must loosen clothing around their waist. Emotionally, they are more irritable than fearful.

PULSATILLA: These children have asthmatic breathing in warm or stuffy rooms, in warm weather, or after eating fatty or rich foods. They want windows opened and cool air. They are more apt to have breathing difficulties in the evening, especially after a meal. They crave sympathy and the company of others. They are very clingy and needy. They are highly impressionable: if parents are anxious about the child, the child becomes more anxious, but if parents are confident in the child's ability to get healthy soon, the child will be soothed.

Sambucus: These children get their asthma attack during sleep, commonly awakening them at 3 a.m. Their breathing is obstructed when they lie down and partially relieved when they sit up as they gasp for air. Their breathing improves while they sit up, but then is aggravated when they lie back down to sleep, only to rise again gasping for air. They sweat profusely during their waking hours but tend not to perspire during sleep.

Spongia: This remedy is known to be helpful for children with asthma who have a dry, barking, croupy cough. Their air passages are dry, the sputum is absent, and the voice is hoarse. The asthma and coughing can be exacerbated by cold air, warm rooms, tobacco smoke, talking, lying with the head low, drinking cold fluids, or eating sweets. The symptoms also tend to be worse in the early part of the night. Warm food or drinks, even in small doses, provide some relief, as does sitting up and leaning forward.

Copyright 1992 by Dana Ullman, M.P.H. used by permission of the author from the book Homeopathic Medicine for Children and Infants published by Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam.

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