Recurrent URTI In Children
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1999 Nov / Dec VOL VIII NO 6.
Dr S. P. Koppikar
'Dros

Recurrent URTI, seen in children, especially of elite class has become very common and troublesome problem for most of school physicians.

Till about 10 years ago I used to struggle to cure these children with my knowledge of Materia Medica and Kent's Philosophy, mainly seeking the help of Nat-sulph, Ars-alb, Sulph, Thuja etc with no definite guarantee of 100% cure.

The rule "treat the patient and not the disease" is interpretable in various ways and may lead to quite different prescriptions for the same child if treated by two capable, top of the line Homoeopaths. It all depends upon an "individual doctor" approaching an "individual patient". I had managed like this for about 30 years - not without success. I did cure quite a percentage, but there was no guarantee that the particular child would fall in that percentage. Something was missing; I accidentally found some ten years ago; that made me work on it for more than five years to realize the reason why the cure by the new method could be sure and sometime dramatic.

Case 1: MY first inkling came from the case of a child about 15 months old. The mother, a pediatrician, had taken the child to her hospital for intensive treatment of severe attack of asthma with bronchitis. A mother of one of the patients directed her to try Homoeopathy, especially giving my name.

Now, as is done by all Homoeopaths, I took down the case history from birth. No Asthma or eczema or itch in the family. The first attack was a simple bronchitis on 100th day; which took two days to go with some Elkosin syrup etc. Next one after 40 days took a bit longer to go. The third one, which came after two months, was fairly severe needing an antibiotic and some antihistamine syrup. From then on, almost every 3 weeks the child was down for 4 to 6 days, each time bronchitis, threatening broncho-pneumonia and wheezing-dyspnoea, (expiratory wheezing more), needing a stronger antibiotic each time. The cough was severe, with choking. Leaving aside the constitutional picture of the acute stage, one thing struck me. The first attack happened 10 days after Triple antigen injection (plus oral Polio vaccine). The 2nd came 20 days after the third one. Every attack was more severe than the previous one. The child used to vomit after severe cough. Of the four antigens that might have produced the allergy, I felt sure the whooping cough vaccine must be the culprit. Diphtheria toxin can play havoc on nerves, but any choking produced is purely mechanical.

I administered an antidote: one dose of Drosera 1000. Luckily it was NOT in the acute stage, having got over that in the hospital. Imagine the surprise and pleasure of the doctor when no more attacks occurred. Well, I am always a pessimist - (the pessimist being a "A man who wears a belt and braces"). So in spite of no attacks, I gave one dose of Tuberculin 1000 and Psorinum 1000 each at intervals of 2 to 3 months. The cure was permanent.

I started getting a quite a number of similar cases, many from the same hospital. The history was also practically the same; only some had also received BCG.

So for me, Drosera was my important discovery for curing this trouble.
I discovered that one of the top Pediatricians of Madras, late Dr Govinda Menon, was diagnosing (or treating) almost all such children as Primary complex-with full course of INH for 18 months. Of course they improved and became strong and healthy. But why not Homoeo- pathy ? If my theory was correct, Pertussis-vaccine had produced a tubercular tendency. One day, re-reading Margaret Tylers Drug Pictures, I came to the discovery of Drosera by Drs Curie and Tyler as the only drug which in the proving (on cats) could destroy immunity to TB and thus could thus produce immunity in potency. Why was Drosera such a powerful specific for whooping cough and TB. Working on this idea has helped me perfect a technique for the cure of these children.

The following treatment has been evolved as a standard treatment and can be tried in every case of this allergic bronchitis etc with history of the preventive vaccines.

1. Drosera 1000 (2 doses in water 4 hourly -on same day,).
2. Thuja 1000
3. Pertussin 1000.
4. Sulphur, Calc-c, Lyco, Pulsatilla, Silicia, Nat-mur etc (indicated by constitution-1000)
5. Bacillinum 1000 or Tuberculinum-aviare 1000.

(Bacillinum in Bronchitis - or Tonsillitis ("Itis" being important),Aviare (when dyspnoea is more with the rapid breathing or pneumonia).

This or a modified cycle is repeated at intervals of 10 to 15 days. Then next cycle every 3 to 4 weeks. We can substitute Nat-s 1000 for the Sulph in one of the cycles, (if parents have asthmatic history).

Note 1: Never start Drosera etc. during an acute stage.
Note 2: No objection to any palliative treatment during acute stage
Depending on the picture, the parents keep a stock of Ipecac, Ant-tart, Antim-ars (a great remedy), Arsenic-alb, Coccus-cacti, Aralia- all in 30s or 6th) with instructions to try them according to clear indications. But if the attack is severe, do not withhold the usual syrups like Tedral syrup, Benadryl syrup etc

(Editor: So not be shocked. Discriminate use of these will help to not make the patient suffer too much and also hole the disease in check).

Though the cure is certain, there may be a few acute attacks and any treatment for relief does not affect the cure. This particular view may be abhorrent to orthodox Homoeopaths. But I can assure others that it is a fact.

Actually allergy is the subject for research for all of us, Homoeopaths. We are the only ones who can cure it.

PS: How we underestimate our remedies. After reading Dr Shepherd's article, admiring the cure of a most likely case of "Primary Complex" (the last case) I feel sorry for thinking "Diphtherotoxin" can play havoc on nerves, but any choking it produces is purely mechanical. "I have already begun using Diphtherinum 1000 as the dose No 1 and allowing it more time than the usual 10 days to observe the effect. Most probably, it should be administered at least once, in every case of "Allergic Bronchitis of modern children". (S P Koppikar)