The Restless Child
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1997 May / Jun VOL 5 NO 3.
Dr Prashant Shah
'Jalap / Opium / Pall

Case 1
Baby KC, age 4 yrs, was brought to me with the complaint of restlessness at night, which started soon after her birth. On inquiry she also had some intestinal problem. Many a times she had high fever with diarrhoea and severe colicky pain. She had aversion to food and if fed forcibly, she immediately vomits and becomes more restless.
According to her mother she is restless at night. "When I go to sleep she harasses me by doing awkward things. She puts finger in my nose and tries to wake me up. It starts from 1'o clock at night till 4'o clock in morning. She hardly sleeps in between. She is more mischievous at night. When she was born she used to sleep throughout the day and cry throughout the night. Very obstinate by nature and she wants new things everyday. 

Rubrics
1. Restlessness
2. Child good throughout the day, cries at night [irritability]
3. Restless at night
4. Shrieking, screaming, shouting at night. 

Jalapa 200 1 dose was given on 25/6/95. Good improvement after 1 dose. She needed another dose on 19/7/95. She is fine from then to date. Not only her restlessness improved, but her colicky pain and complaints of nose block also improved.
This medicine is needed in many cases as a 1st prescription especially in infants fro night colic. 

Case 2
Mr BB a farmer, 80 yrs of age, was brought to me for Carcinoma of hypopharynx diagnosed clinically. He was on glucose drip with MVI for last 6 days. Tracheostomy was about to be performed on him. He was brought to me a day before the surgery. He had severe pain and skin eruptions all over the body which had started after Rx he had taken from one of the Homoeopaths for his Leucoderma problem.
Carcinoma of hypopharynx was clinically diagnosed by an ENT surgeon at Rajkot. As it was impossible to get any history from patient, I relied on the information furnished by a relative. According to him, it had started suddenly. The patient said "Give me some routine medicine. I do not have any major problem. Simply I have little problem in my throat. Give me medicine today only because I want to go back to my place immediately". He said "Doctors say it is cancer, but I don't believe it."
His relative told me about his nature; he is a very cool person, he never complains about anything and is always busy with himself. The day he came to Rajkot, he wanted to go back to his home town Morvi. 

Analysis
I have observed that the patient was totally away from reality. Even though his problem was diagnosed as cancer it had no effect on him. He was narrating his complaints as if he had a sore throat. I was looking for a medicine which produces a state of anesthesia in a patient. 

Rubrics
Anesthesia SR II
Says well, when sick
Painless of parts which are usually painful 
Desire to go home
I prescribed Opium 1M 91d on 5/7/95. To my surprise the patient started eating that very evening. I sent him back to the cancer hospital on 10.1.1996. Report suggests there is no evidence of cancer anymore.
Patient lived peacefully without any complaint till 23.3.96. He died suddenly on that day. After giving Opium his skin eruptions got worse. In that he improved gradually. In between I repeated Opium 1M on 9.9.95 for constipation and on 10.1.95 for skin eruption.

Case 3
Baby NS was brought to me for the complaint of telling lies. Her mother described her nature as follows.

"She is a very intelligent girl and has her own identity. She mixes very fast and makes friends easily and has good sense about keeping relations. It is there from beginning of childhood. She has an extraordinary sense about purchasing household things, decoration etc. she started talking at the age of seven months, and at the age of 1, developed the art of conversation.
She is extra-ordinary bold, but very submissive with her teacher. Previously she was brilliant in studies, but after changing school performance started deteriorating gradually. Once the Principal inquired about her fall in grades and to defend herself she fabricated a nice story. She made her Principal believe that both her parents are working so they are not able to pay attention to her. In fact her mother was a brilliant student in her time and gives full attention the patient.
Once made a story about film star Shahrukh Khan. She told all her relatives in a party that she met him in Bombay. When her relatives asked her mother, it embarrassed her, for it was not true.
She likes to decorate dining table with imported crockery. She very much likes the company of friends, relatives and guests. She loves them and likes to entertain. She is excellent in hospitality.
In school whenever she gets good marks, immediately she shows it to her parents. But if her performance is not good either she tells lies or hides it. She also lies about her homework. If she is punished in the assembly, she never tells her parents.
At the age of 1 ½ yrs, she remembered many stanzas from Sanskrit books. She has a very sharp memory and is very intelligent. But she misuses it some times." 

My Observation
She was very lively while talking to me. She accepted some of the facts without any hesitation or denial in the first interview. She talked to me at length and I also felt like talking to her.

My understanding about this case is: The crux of the problem was lack of appreciation. She wants to be appreciated by those around her. This she achieves by fabricating stories, decorating house, talking and by performing well at school. But after changing her school her performance has gone down. In order to balance this her stress on other activities increased. When the stress increased too much, her performance deteriorated gradually. She started telling lies to balance her feelings and relieve her stress.
I took following rubrics into consideration to prescribe her medicine.
1. Delusion, appreciated she is not
2. Longing for good opinion from others
3. Desires flattery

I prescribed Palladium 1M, 1 dose on 9/2/96. After 15 days her mother reported that there is marked change in her nature. Every 15 days she reported good improvement. She responded very quickly to the medicine. On 9/6/96 she reported significant change and desired to stop the medication.
Palladium is a metal placed before Platinum. It has delusion of growing tall while walking in evening. 

In the past, evening was a time to show one self off by dressing well etc. When Dr D Chabbra proved this medicine, one theme which came out was height/length. Too short, too big. That is the problem of Palladium. Feeling short and so wants to be big.
"Very" is a word which is frequently used while narrating this case because "very" is used as an adjective. She wants that 'very' to be inculcated in her personality. While Platinum does not need to exhibit it because it is spontaneously present in them.