A 15-month-old girl is brought to my practice by her mother with an upper respiratory tract infection. She has been under my care since birth for multiple food intolerances and a presumed fructose intolerance. Her constitutional remedy is Natrium carbonicum; the mother and the girl follow a strict elimination diet.
The previous afternoon the little one had fallen ill with fever and a bright red face and had already been given Belladonna by the mother and then Pulsatilla. Pulsatilla was given because the girl became very clingy in the evening and had, shortly before, eaten butter for the first time.
The following morning the girl develops breathing difficulties; she can hardly draw breath and breathes shallowly and rapidly. She refuses solid food but drinks a lot and takes soup. Indeed she is very thirsty. Her mother reports that she sounds "hoarse" and that the stool is dark and slimy. She suggests that her daughter's loss of appetite might be due to nausea because the dietary lapse is producing too much mucus in the stomach.
The girl is rather shy and even today turns her head to one side when I speak to her. Her constitutional remedy Nat-c. appears in all the major rubrics, albeit not in the higher weightings, and the cause of the acute infection may be due to a dietary lapse. I decide to give her Nat-c. in the LM2 potency; she usually receives a C30.
The little patient's reaction to the administration of the remedy is a major challenge for everyone involved and brings us unexpectedly close to the rubric 'aversion to certain people': from then on the girl refuses the breast! At first she still takes the nipple into her mouth, but then refuses to drink, lets go of the nipple only to turn her head away and cry. The mother really tries everything to get her daughter back to the breast: she sings to her, takes a warm bath with her to try playfully to get her to drink again, lies down beside the sleeping child to be able to breastfeed her while she sleeps, but nothing helps. Even when the mother gently strokes her lips with her fingertips while she sleeps to encourage sucking, the girl immediately turns away. Within 24 hours the little patient turns her head as soon as she sees her mother's breast. The mother decides to express her milk, which the child gladly accepts. She also drinks water and soup without problems; she continues to refuse solid food. Together with the mother I decide that a few days without 'proper' food will not harm her — after all she is quite a plump girl. For the mother, however, this means more stress because she must constantly pump milk and also care for older siblings who are still being taught at home.
While the girl refuses the breast, the fever subsides, but now both tympanic membranes make themselves felt; they are reddened and clearly cause the patient discomfort — she often rubs at her ears. She is no longer so hoarse, but still pants heavily when breathing. Overall she looks very "floppy", yet she sleeps poorly and whinges a lot. At the same time no real "routine" is established. Her stool has now become frothy.
Nat-c. is discontinued. I revise the case and study again the remedies that ranked highly in my repertorisation. I decide to give the little patient Cham. C30 to relieve the earache — the moody behaviour, the shallow breathing and the general weakness give me important clues.
The pronounced oversensitivity and increased reactivity to external influences and certain foods seen in this case is a major issue in the family that goes back several generations. Here we are dealing with an active sycosis. However, the general weakness, the lack of functioning on multiple levels and the loss of the innate instinct of mammals — sucking at the breast — point to a psoric process. As a follow-up to Chamomilla I give Morgan pure C30 to sort out the case and obtain a clearer picture.
The inflamed airways and ears calm down somewhat, and the breathing improves a little. In return the little one becomes increasingly phlegmy and now refuses to drink. She seems to have so much mucus in her digestive tract that it makes her feel sick and she no longer wants to take anything. The mother reports that she can literally hear her daughter swallowing the mucus and suggests that it might be better if she vomited it up. Although the patient shows no signs of fluid depletion, she passes less urine than usual. That worries us.
The mucous congestion now comes to the fore and becomes the key symptom. Ant-t. is present in both repertorisations and when I consult my materia medica I am pleased to find the following symptom: "Infants let go of the nipples and cry as if out of breath." Now I can understand why a content breastfed child suddenly refuses the breast. I repertorise once more and prescribe Ant-t. C30.
For the first time in a week the patient sleeps through the night again. When she wakes in the morning she is hungry and takes the offered breast with obvious pleasure, which of course makes everyone very happy.
