Maia's Favorite Things: Homeopathic Remedies

allergy and colds remedies - pulsatilla d4/allium cepa d3/apis
mellifica d30/sabadilla d6/kali carbonicum (not in photo)

Since becoming a mother, I also became more conscious of the choices I make. I always made sure I do my research first before I come to a decision.  I read books, interacted with other moms, asked questions and made sure I find out the explanation behind myth-sounding advices before I even give it a thought. If there's is no explanation, then I won't even consider. I am after all a believer that everything in this world is dynamic, constantly evolving. And I grew up knowing how important science is in our lives. Whatever might have worked for our elders, might not necessarily work for us. I believed that making an informed decision will rid me of the what-ifs and the regrets later on (read: no sick days). But of course, that was never the case. I learned the hard way that there will always be days where I'd be overwhelm with exhaustion and yet will be found tending to a sick little girl. It is in this sleep-deprived moments where I'd be cursing myself for being such a lousy mom for letting my little kid get sick (again and again and again).

At first I'd always be rushing to the pedia nearest to us when Maia's fever would hit 38. And we will always end up with prescriptions for various traditional meds (cough/allergy medicines mostly) and most times another prescription for antibiotics with instructions to give it once the fever persists on the 3rd day. Being the first time mom with no one to really direct questions to, I'd most often be caught submitting to our pedias orders.

I would eventually learn (or sige believe na lang) however that constant intake of oral medication can be damaging to one's body (to the liver most especially). So I took caution and became even more cautious (bordering on paranoid actually) after my PT diagnosis and subsequent surgery. Gladly, I sort of stumbled upon Anthroposophy and homeopathic remedies while researching on alternative medications for common colds one time. With the help of a fellow n@wie and my AP (attachment parenting) idol Jen I found Dra. Cricket Palanca-Chen, a natural medicine doctor (who is also a licensed pediatrician) who helped us understand homeopathy more and made me realize the importance of investing on building my daughter's immune system rather than become totally dependent (and hostage victims) to commercial meds. 

cough remedies (ferrum phosphoricum d6/pyrite d4/cinnabar d6)

We started treading the unfamiliar waters of homeopathy remedies a few months before Maia turned one (that was in 2009). We were initially prescribed the 'first aid kit' for commons colds and coughs - Pulsatilla (for hinog na sipon) and Allium Cepa (for watery na sipon) then the anti-cough combo of Cinnabar and Pyrite powder. The first year, I would still find myself running back into the arms of traditional meds especially when I couldn't see upfront the homeopathic meds taking effect after 2-3 days. But each time we come back to Dra. Chen she would assure us that Maia is well and that her body is still building up her inner defenses. 

So where are we now 3 years after we were first introduced to homeopathic remedies? I'd like to say that we now have a good, solid relationship. Maia responds well to the homeo meds. That's not to say that she never gets sick. She in fact does but her cough and colds usually goes away after 3-5 days. Since Maia turned 2, we only get to see Dra. Chen twice in a year for her well-baby check ups but in our last visit in April she was happy with how Maia is thriving. I happily reported too that she has not taken in any commercial meds for almost a year already (that bad tummy flu last January was what broke our supposed to be longest record). We don't give Maia commercial (by commercial I mean those produced by big pharmaceutical companies) vitamin supplements. If she isn't eating well, we'd break a malunggay capsule and mix it with her food or with yakult. 

Maia is already very familiar with these homeo meds. When she gets sneezy she would call on Ate and say, I want 5 drops Ate. Please! (when she says 5 drops she's actually referring to Apis Mellifica which helps her allergic rhinitis attacks). Then she calls the powdered ones "polvoron". I'm lucky we didn't have difficulty convincing her to take homeo meds. The liquid ones taste weird at first (almost like mild white wine) and takes a bit of getting used to but it didn't take long for her to get used to it.

I intend to stick to these babies for as long as we can and for as long as Maia is willing to take them. Of course, I am not totally discounting the help and the role that traditional medicines play in saving millions of lives and this is not to say that we will never, ever seek the aid of these medicines because I still would when the need arises. But what I'm trying to say is for those common illnesses, this works for us for now and we'll stick to it for as long as we can.

For those who are interested to see Dra. Chen here is her clinic schedule and other pertinent info:

DRA. MARCELLE 'CRICKET' PALANCA-CHEN
Pediatrics/Natural Medicine

Clinic schedule:

Medical Plaza Makati
(she recently moved to her husband's clinic at the 18th floor, just ask the receptionist at the bldg lobby for the room number)
contact: Ms. Ayie
844.9185/0927.9877079

St. Luke's Global
Room 539, Medical Arts Bldg
contact: Ms. Ayie
789.7700 loc 7539/569.7217

A Spaceship Ride To School

I seriously thought I was the only one excited for school opening in our household. When I was younger, June was my most awaited month of the year. I was more excited for June than for July (which is my birthday month). I looked forward to the smell of newly wrapped books and notebooks, to arranging newly bought school supplies in my bag (i have this secret love affair with school supplies and making tambay at National Bookstore is my idea of killing time), to neatly hanging my newly ironed school uniform (yes my siblings and I each took the responsibility of preparing our own school uniforms) and most of all I was just excited to touch base with friends again. I can only hope Maia takes after that zest I had for school when I was younger. (digress, digress, digress)

So anyway, as I've mentioned, I thought I was the only one excited for school but this morning Maia just proved to me how wrong I was. While I was preparing our breakfast, she took out her scratch papers and drew something for me and her dad to bring to work.While we were admiring the details on her drawings, she started telling us what's the story behind one of her drawings. She pointed to one of the stick figures and told me it's her daddy. Then she went to encase daddy's head. I thought she was trying to draw daddy's hat but I was amazed when she said it's daddy's spaceship suit because we are going to ride a spaceship to bring her to school. Then her next statement made me laugh: "Kasi ayaw ko sumakay sa van, Mommy kaya sa spaceship na lang"

You see, the poor little girl has motion sickness (she gets nauseous riding closed air-conditioned vehicles) so if she could get away with it she would always prefer open-windowed jeepneys over everything else. I guess that's the price we pay for being jeepney-loving, commuting parents ourselves. (On a side note, our pediatrician tells us that motion sickness is actually genetic. She attributes it being born with sensitive nerves in the ears - I'm guessing probably the same nerves causing vertigos? - and I already know who is the culprit -- ME! I've been a byahilo up until I was in my teens. She prescribed a homeopathic remedy called Cocculus Inducus for Maia but I have yet to find it since the 3 Healthy Options stores that I went to didn't have stocks on hand. In the meantime, the school service's solution to this is to open the windows when Maia rides the school service to school. Sigh, that's the only thing that's making me anxious in this new adventure)

Still, here's to exciting adventures ahead!