The Most Common Questions that AS Parents Ask About Homeopathy

How do I know if homeopathy can help my child?
If your child has AS, or is on the milder end of the autism spectrum, it is quite likely that homeopathy can help. If your child has autistic disorder or is non-verbal, it depends on the child. There are several factors: the relevant experience of the homeopath, the severity of disability of your child, and your level of motivation. Sometimes it is helpful to speak with the practitioner before scheduling to get an idea how familiar he is with AS. While each patient is considered a unique individual the homeopath, it is undeniable that experience counts.

Since it is the unusual symptoms of the individual child, even different from other children with the same diagnosis, having treated other AS children is very helpful. The definitive answer as to whether homeopathy will be an effective treatment for your youngster can only be given after the child has been in treatment for six months to a year. Some children, regardless of their diagnoses, are virtually “textbook” as far as matching a homeopathic symptom picture. Other youngsters are more challenging and may require trials with a number of medicines before the correct one is found. A homeopath can give you a better idea of her level of confidence about your child's treatment prognosis at the conclusion of the initial case taking.

How much can homeopathy help my child?
This again depends on a number of factors, including how severely disabled your child is, and how well the homeopath can find a medicine that matches her symptoms very well. If your child has AS, our experience is that homeopathy can help significantly, even to the point of academic mainstreaming, dramatic behavioral changes, and impressive social interactions. We have had some AS parents use the word “normal” to describe their children after homeopathic care.

Rest assured that homeopathy can never take away the positive features of your child that make her who she is, but rather bring into balance anything that interferes with her health, happiness, and functioning in life. In the case of children with ADHD, we generally expect a seventy percent or greater improvement if the child continues treatment for at least a year. Because the autism spectrum is so wide, we hesitate to give any numbers regarding percentage of improvement. We can certainly say that, if your child benefits from homeopathy, everyone will notice- you, grandparents, teachers, friends, caregivers. The difference is marked and clearly recognizable.

How long does it to notice the positive effects of a homeopathic medicine?
Depending on whether your child receives a single dose or daily dose of medicine, you should notice a difference within one to four weeks. There may be an initial, brief worsening of symptoms, called an aggravation. After a few days, the symptoms should steadily improve. After your child has become stabilized on the medicine, the positive changes should be lasting. Of course, there will always be some vacillation due to the stresses and adjustments demanded by everyday life. This new and improved state of being should last until, either because of an interference or the passage of time, the homeopathic medicine needs to be repeated.

Can homeopathy help adults with AS?
Although the thrust of this book is AS children, the information and guidelines apply equally to adults. No age is too old to begin homeopathic treatment. Homeopathy treats the whole person, adult or child, and can address the AS adult's physical, mental, and emotional complaints, as well as problems related to work, relationships, communication, and sensitivities.

What about “lower-functioning” children with ASD?
Homeopathy has the potential to treat more severely autistic children. The biggest problem can be the inability of the child to verbally communicate, however this is not always an insurmountable obstacle since we do not actually speak with some of our other pediatric patients, either because they are too young, too shy, or for some other reason. If there is no speech, we rely more on our own and the parents' observations of the child's movements, facial expressions, and gestures. There are parents who know their children so well and are such articulate reporters that they give us all the information we need in order to prescribe effectively. Some parents are less able to provide the objective information that is useful to a homeopath in the initial interview. Over the course of homeopathic interviews, they learn which information we are likely to find most useful. Regardless of exactly where a child is on the spectrum, when the right medicine is found, the transformation can be remarkable.

Will phone consultations work for my child?
Many homeopaths see patients only in person. We have developed a phone practice, in addition to the patients we see in person, because there are relatively few homeopaths throughout the United States, especially those specializing in treating children with mental, emotional, developmental, and behavioral problems. We have found that our twenty-plus years of experience generally make up for what may be lost by not seeing the child in person, although we welcome parents to bring their children to see us for the first appointment. Just as a blind person learns to cultivate other senses, so we find that we listen in other ways and are that are results are generally as good as those with our local patients. In fact, when we present our best teaching cases at seminars or conferences, we notice that they often turn out to be our long-distance patients. We do ask all patients, local or long-distance, to send us a picture. It is also possible to send us a video clip and we are looking into two-way video telephones. Even if the first interview is conducted by phone, it is possible to visit us in person later in the treatment process.

Does homeopathic medicine have side effects?
Homeopathic medicines are prepared by a process of serial dilution so that only an imprint of the original substance remains in the medicine. This explains why even poisons, such as arsenic and strychnine, can be made into homeopathic preparations with absolutely no risk of toxicity. Homeopathic medicines do not produce side effects like those of prescription, or even over-the-counter, medications. They are natural and nontoxic, and, because of the serial dilutions, are actually far safer even than herbs, much less pharmaceutical drugs.

As we mentioned earlier, sometimes people will have an aggravation period when symptoms temporarily worsen before getting much better. Another phenomenon, which occurs less frequently, is a return of old symptoms where, in the course of treatment, symptoms from the past come, last three or four days, then go, usually never to return. An aggravation and return of old symptoms typically occur only after the correct medicine is given. One other reaction is a proving, in which a patient who takes the same homeopathic medicine over and over begins to develop new symptoms he did not have before. We rarely see this in our practice and the symptoms abate as soon as the medicine is discontinued.

My child is highly sensitive or vaccine-damaged. Is homeopathy safe for such a child?
Only you can decide what you feel comfortable with for your child. Homeopathy is probably the safest of all types of medication, yet a highly sensitive child can react even to our medicine. If you let us know, before we prescribe the indicated homeopathic medicine, that your child is extremely reactive or sensitive can help us decide which potency of the medicine to select. There are various ways to diminish even those relatively few reactions that a child can experience. It is possible to prescribe a lower potency medicine, use an LM (fifty-thousand dilutions) preparation, or a double-glass method of dilution.

Can homeopathy be combined with psychiatric or other medications?
Definitely, yes. Some of our patients are taking conventional medications, such as psychotropic drugs, when they begin homeopathic treatment. Sometimes, as improvement occurs, it is often possible, under the guidance of the prescribing physician, to decrease the dosage or discontinue these medicines. There are some drugs that need to be taken for life, though this is less true with children. Homeopathic medicines cannot interfere with the action of conventional pharmaceuticals. Some prescription medications, particularly steroids and long-term antibiotics, can suppress the immune systems or suppress or mask symptoms. It is important that your homeopath know about any medications prescribed for your child.

How does a homeopath decide what to give my child?
A classical homeopath bases the decision of which medicine to give your child on a lengthy interview along with parent(s) and child. You will be asked to fill out a medical history form as well and information from teachers, other providers and caregivers, or assessments can also be helpful. You may want to inquire first just what information to send, however, since we have at times received far more extensive notes than we need. Practitioner choosing homeopathic medicines based on electrical machines, muscles testing, pendulums, radionics, or methods other than an in-depth interview are not using classical homeopathy and is not what we are describing and recommending in this boo,.

How long will my child need homeopathic treatment?
With ASD, plan on continuing treatment for a minimum of one to two years. If you are happy with the results, you will probably want to continue with homeopathic care long-term as well as having the other members of your family treated.

Can homeopathy be combined with a GF/CF, SCD, Feingold or a hypoallergenic diet?
Yes. Many of the ASD children we treat are already on one of these diets just as a number of our ADHD patients have benefited from the Feingold diet. If you are not aware of your child's nutritional needs, feel free to discuss this with us so that we can make recommendations. Simply increasing the frequency of protein in a child's diet can make a big difference in behavior.

Can nutritional supplements complement homeopathy?
Being naturopathic as well as homeopathic doctors, we are strong believers in a healthy diet and high-quality nutritional supplementation. We have an extensive naturopathic, as well as homeopathic pharmacy, though all are used secondarily to homeopathy. Supplements can be extremely effectively supportively to keep ASD children healthy. We are continually looking for the best new natural products on the market. One difference with a homeopath, however, is that you will not be given a shopping bag full of supplements, but rather a few, since the correct homeopathic medicine should address all of your child's problems.

How frequent are appointments?
Frequency of appointments varies somewhat among practitioners, but, typically, appointments are six to eight weeks apart initially, then every three to four months as the child gets better. It is necessary to allow enough time to elapse after a dose of the medicine is given to thoroughly assess its effect. The same frequency is true of phone consultations.

What is the cost of homeopathic treatment?
Cost of homeopathic care is highly variable depending on the following factors: training, degree, and licensure of the practitioner; board certification; experience; length of office visits; location. If you are comparing the cost of homeopathic versus conventional treatment, it is important to know the length of the visit, since a first appointment for a child in our practice lasts two hours. Practitioners with similar credentials and experience are likely to charge much more than a homeopath with no formal medical training. Fees vary enormously- the highest we know of being two thousand dollars for a first visit and the lowest two hundred. Fifteen hundred dollars should easily cover the first year of treatment, excluding any additional nutritional supplements. Homeopathic medicines themselves cost so little as to be virtually free, especially in comparison with psychotropic medications.

Do insurance providers cover homeopathic care?
Homeopathic medicine is not a licensed profession, so the licensure depends on the medical degree of the practitioners, whether ND, MD, DO, etc. The third party payer scenario has changed dramatically and promises to continue to do so, making it difficult to generalize about coverage of homeopathy. Since homeopathic visits, particularly the initial case taking, are much longer than most insurance providers allot, even if your practitioner is covered, the full cost of the first visit may not be. The same is true for telephone consultations. In certain states, naturopathic physicians, acupuncturists, and even certified, unlicensed homeopaths are covered by insurance. Even if you are not reimbursed, the care may be included in your out-of-pocket deductible. The best bet is to check with your insurance provider.

Can I combine other therapies with homeopathy?
Yes, many other therapies are quite compatible with homeopathy. Discuss with your homeopath whichever adjunctive therapies you are pursuing or considering. He may ask that, once a new homeopathic medicine is prescribed, you wait a couple of months before introducing a new intervention in order to adequately evaluate the effect of the homeopathy. Adding too many therapies at the same time can make it confusing to know to what extent which of them is working. Most therapeutic modalities that are already being used before beginning homeopathy are likely to be fine to continue, depending on the advice of the individual homeopath.

How should acute illnesses be managed during homeopathic treatment?
Depending on the severity of the illness and the proximity and availability of your homeopathy, there are several choices of courses to follow. If possible and the situation is not urgent, call you homeopath first for advice. Homeopathy can be rapidly and amazingly effective for many acute illnesses, as well as first-aid situations. If your homeopath is not available, the condition is urgent, or your homeopath instructs you to do so, consult a local physician for a diagnosis and, possibly, treatment. Many of our patients have on hand our book, Homeopathic Self-Care: The Quick and Easy Guide for the Whole Family and the companion home medicine kit. The book is filled with, not only homeopathic, but naturopathic, advice for self-care of seventy acute and first-aid conditions. If you do seek out conventional treatment for an acute illness, be sure to notify your homeopath as soon as possible afterwards so she can record the information in your child's chart, make appropriate recommendations, and, if appropriate, give your child an acute or constitutional medicine.

How do we know if other family members should be treated as well?
Rare is the individual, child or adult, who cannot benefit from homeopathic treatment to some degree, especially given the stresses and strains of living with and caring for a special-needs child. Although you may rise swiftly to the occasion, apparently coping to beat the band, you may be quietly fraying around the edges. The same may be true of your spouse or co-parent, and for siblings who may experience, openly or silently, their share of disappointment, resentment, and jealousy. It is wonderful to see how much more smoothly families can function when everyone is receiving homeopathic treatment. Read Chapter 16 to learn more about the benefits of treating the whole family with homeopathy.

What is the difference between getting homeopathic treatment and buying the medicines at a pharmacy or health food store?
You may find either single or combination homeopathic medicines, as they are becoming increasingly available even in neighborhood pharmacies. These medicines are commonly in 30C potencies or lower, not as strong as your homeopath would typically use. Such products may be helpful in self-treatment for acute illnesses, but we discourage self-treatment for chronic conditions such as AS, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, eczema, or allergies. You would not go to a pharmacy to buy bandages so that you could perform minor surgery on your child. In the same way, treatment of chronic conditions should be left to professionals.

How can I find a qualified homeopathic doctor or practitioner?
Make sure the prospective homeopath is well-trained and experienced in classical homeopathy, and is at least certified, if not, board certified, in homeopathic medicine. We recommend a homeopath whose practice is at least seventy-five percent homeopathy and who participates actively in continuing homeopathic education. When choosing a naturopathic doctor, make sure the individual graduated from a reputable four-year naturopathic medical college and is a board certified diplomate. It is wise, in the case of children on the autistic spectrum, to choose a practitioner well-versed in treating children with psychiatric problems. The more experience that person has had in treating children with ASD, the better, although there are as yet very few of us who have seen any significant number of kids in this population. For more information, see Chapter 6 and the Homeopathic Resources section of the Appendix.