> Health and Disease > Pain Management > inflammation

All of the common illnesses of childhood are inflammations. "Infection" is the wrong word for them because it suggests that we get sick because germs invade us. This is misleading. We are always exposed to and often harbour germs, yet we only occasionally get sick.

Childhood is a time of most rapid growth and dramatic change. A child will remodel and renew his body many times as he grows. Every remodeling job requires some demolition–a breaking down of part of the inherited body structure in order to rebuild it better. This breaking down of old cells and tissues results in debris, which must be cleaned up before the body rebuilds itself.

It’s the immune system which does the breaking down by creating fever and inflammation to destroy and digest foreign or outworn bodily material. And it’s the immune system which cleans up the digested material and debris by pushing it out of the body. That is why children so often have skin rashes and discharge of mucus or pus, because their immune systems are actively working. Debris that remains in the body may act like a poison, or may cause allergies or repeated inflammations later on. Germs do not "attack" us, but they often multiply wherever the body’s living substance is dying, breaking down and being discharged. Germs don’t cause illnesses–they feed on them. Every childhood inflammation, every cold, sore throat, earache, fever and rash is a healing crisis and cleansing process. It’s the body’s way of "cleaning house."

Homeopathic remedies help and promote this cleansing process and help the illness to work its way out of the body in order for healing to occur. Antibiotics, aspirin, tylenol and other anti-inflammatory drugs cool down and suppress the "fire" of the immune system so that the symptoms subside before the illness has fully worked its way out of the body. When an inflammation is suppressed in this way and prevented from fully discharging its toxins, then either the inflammation comes back, or else the tendency to allergies and asthma is increased. Recent research has confirmed that antibiotics and vaccinations are a cause of increased allergies and asthma.

Cleansing and Detox

The first and best thing you should always do at the onset of any inflammation, fever, cold or "infection" is to cleanse the body as follows:

Give infants a glycerin rectal suppository. For adults and children over one year of age, give a Bisacodyl (Dulcolax) suppository. If you prefer, an enema may be used instead of a suppository (of course, do not use any of these if diarrhea is present). It’s important to keep the cleansing going until the illness is all better by giving a dose of milk of magnesia, once daily for three to five days:

• Children, one to five years of age: one to two tablespoons or two to four tablets.


• Children, five to 12 years of age: two to three tablespoons or four to six tablets.


• Over 12 and adults: four tablespoons or six to eight tablets.

After the first three to five days and until fever and pain are gone, stewed prunes will help to keep bowels loose. For infants under one year: fennel tea and diluted juices from stewed organic apricots and prunes will help to loosen the stools.

Drink lots of warm herb teas, especially horsetail (equisetum) which cleanses the kidneys.

Body Warmth and Fever

Philip Inaco was the first president of the Physicians’ Association for Anthroposophic Medicine (PAAM) in the US. He has an active general practice in Denver, Colorado.

Source: alive #219, January 2001