First consultation: 16 June 2009. The patient is a seven-and-a-half-year-old little girl, dark-haired with olive-coloured skin and dark almond-shaped eyes. For her age she speaks very well and articulately. She is charming, behaves like a young lady and looks the part.
Her symptoms are exaggerated fears, ADD, OCD and separation anxiety from her parents – she panics if her parents are merely outside in the yard working. She cannot be left with a babysitter or with relatives.
She is the firstborn; her mother had two miscarriages before her; the mother underwent hormone treatment at age 34 which led to the pregnancy.
Mother: “I had to spend a large part of the pregnancy lying down because I was considered a high-risk pregnancy. The baby consumed me; she sucked the life out of me.
She was born six weeks early, that was the only trauma. I had a natural birth. They kept her in hospital for three weeks to monitor and stabilise her – she was fine, she could breathe on her own. I breastfed her for six months – a happy baby.” |
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At 14 months she had RSV and pneumonia and needed an asthma inhaler. She is allergic to dogs — she then wheezes, gets a blocked nose, her eyes itch and she develops itchy eczema on her arms and elbows. Milk causes constipation; she tolerates lactose-free milk better.
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Patient: “I am bad, one of my classmates thinks I am bad. I was probably mean to him, but I didn't mean to be.”
Homeopath: What is being bad?
P: “I think being bad means behaving strangely, being mean, rude and cheeky and treating others badly.”
H: And – did you do that?
P: “Yes, he thinks he's the boss of everyone and I didn't want to accept that, and I told him so. I think I'm very funny and silly; whenever I tell jokes to my friends they laugh out loud; I also like making funny faces. My friends say I talk too much. But I like talking a lot and being silly. I get up to a lot of mischief.”
She gives me a flirtatious look over her right shoulder. (The mother later sent me photos: in every picture she is posing flirtatiously; she looks like an adult woman trying to seduce a man.)
P: “I want to be a fashion designer for pet clothing. I like playing with babies – mostly I play 'dress up' with my friends. I used to be often mean. I think I said a lot of nasty things to my friends; the problem happens every time I see people arguing with each other. But now I'm trying to change that. I watch when my girlfriends argue, but I don't want to be mean to them anymore. I'm afraid I might have to stay with strangers if my parents are shot. Sometimes I'm afraid of the dark, or when camping, when my door was locked. That also happened to me once in a toilet; I panic easily when I feel trapped. I'm afraid my parents will leave me and not come back; then I start to tremble and my teeth chatter. When I'm scared I get tummy ache; then my fear grows and I fear I will vomit; my fingers also become very sweaty. It bothers me that I'm constantly thinking about whether I might be sick...”
Mother: “She is crazy about clothes: she has a wardrobe full of dresses, and she takes a coloured felt-tip and 'decorates' the items. If she doesn't like something about a garment she paints over it. She is obsessed with beautiful clothes. That went on for about a year. I sent her to her room and told her to think about why she was doing it, but she always said: ‘I don't know!’ I took all the clothes out of her room; then she went into her sister's room and did it again.”
P: “I've forgotten what was wrong with that piece of clothing; it had a stain and then I painted on it. I like sucking things – sometimes my hair and my clothes. My T-shirts are not as important to me as my dresses; I like my shirts as they are.”
M: “When she has a cold she washes her hands excessively until they become very rough; this started before she was at nursery. I'm convinced she has ADD; I can't give her several things at once – it always has to be broken down.”
Analysis
Lanthanides:
- Precocious child, behaviour and appearance like an adult
- Self-analysis
- Aversion to people who try to control her
- Allergies
- Premature birth
Praseodymium (Stage 5):
- OCD
- Fear that her parents will abandon her
- Insecure inside, but shows the opposite outwardly (making jokes, etc.)
- Despite precocity, extreme separation anxiety; torn between wanting to be an adult and being a child.
Fluoratum:
- Behaves flirtatiously
- Feels that she is bad
- Feels dirty
- Obsessed with clothing
- Fertility-enhancing treatment of the mother
- Premature birth and hospital stay (separation, rejection)
- Caught between good and evil
Prescription: Praseodymium fluoratum 1M
Follow-Ups
24 July 2009
For a few days she woke each night and wanted to be in her parents' bed; the first few days she was very anxious. Then the anxieties eased, and she now no longer has panic attacks when she feels fear. The mother says: “After the second dose (three weeks after the first) she stayed with the babysitter every day and didn't ask for me once all day.” No allergic reactions and no cough anymore. She had stomach aches a few times, but no vomiting and no more sweaty fingers.
29 August 2009
Patient: “There have been no difficulties. I have no more anxieties. I now go to childcare every day, and I play so nicely that I forget all my problems.” She sleeps well, no longer sucks her hair and no longer paints her clothing.
16 September 2009
She started school, everything is going wonderfully. The mother was away for two weeks, which was not a problem.
1 December 2009
Everything is going great, she now sometimes sleeps over at friends' houses, no more problems.
30 August 2011
Until recently she was doing very well. In the last few weeks she has been a little anxious, mainly because she will be changing to a new school.
Prescription: I gave her a third dose of Praseodymium fluoratum 1M. |
