She likes to play at being an animal:

A case of Chocolate

The patient is a 9-year-old girl who had previously suffered from atopic dermatitis; it began in the right knee fold, then moved to the left knee and finally to the elbow creases. The condition flared up again after a major argument between her parents - and then subsided. She currently has an eye infection.

"Her eyes itch terribly - everything is red and itchy, with burning tears that cause irritation - so she constantly rubs her eyes and keeps them shut."

The mother says: "She is a wonderful child, she is loved at home."

Observation: She looks childlike and seems spoiled. She comes to the consultation with a large teddy bear.

The mother complains: "She is so clingy; she wants me to help her bathe. If I don't, she screams. She would never dry herself. However, she never comes to cuddle..."

She loves to eat ice. She eats ice from the refrigerator and goes barefoot all year round.

What is special about her? "She likes to play that she is an animal; she plays a dog or a cat or a tiger. She makes noises like the animals. She would like to be a horse."

Observation: Restless Legs, her lips are peeling, and she bites off the cuticles on her fingers. She chews her nails.

Fears? "Of cobwebs. They are sticky and disgusting!"

Her parents are divorced, and she lives at home with her mother and her mother's new husband.

Observation: The mother appears to be quite egocentric; every second sentence is about her and not about her daughter. She says: "I have no time for the child." There is a problem in the mother-daughter relationship here – the missing maternal bond.

He further observed that the Malavales go into the spiders' webs; perhaps someone in the family is "a spider" who catches them in their web. She finds cobwebs repulsive. Furthermore, in this case we have the element of alienation from the mother, which belongs to the 4th stage of nurturing.

Prescription: Chocolate C6 daily

Follow-up:
About four months later: on the first night after taking the remedy she slept until 11 am the next morning, which is very unusual for her. Then she coughed for a while and it passed. Since then she has been in good condition, cheerful and happy. She has no skin problems and no more eye infections.

The mother says: "I am very busy with my life and hardly see her, but I am glad that she is so happy; mostly she is with her father. There is, however, a change: she now comes more often and hugs me and says, 'Mum, I love you.' She never used to show that. She is a darling ..."

She still loves ice.

There has been a change in the girl's behaviour. The relationship between mother and daughter has become closer. There is no reason to change the remedy, only the potency will be increased.

Prescription: Chocolate C9

Eight months later: She now takes Chocolate C30 daily (the potency was slowly increased).

The mother says: "I can see that she is doing well; she has more friends at school, she is less anxious, she can be on her own sometimes, and she showers by herself. She sleeps on a top bunk without being afraid."

Skin problems? Recently she had a rash (which may have been suppressed in the past).

Eye infections? Gone. The eyes are clear, the fungus has also gone, and she has stopped biting her nails.

There is no reason to change anything.

Photos:
Sunrise on a dew-covered cobweb; Rich Murphy
Thorntonscat; Stratford490

Category: Cases
Keywords: atopic dermatitis/neurodermatitis, clingy child, delusion of being an animal, lack of maternal bond
Remedy: Chocolate