Question:

Hi.  I have an autistic son aged 6.  I am the Natrum Muriaticum type. During my pregnancy I experienced a lot of grief because my spouse was abroad. 

My son has been autistic since birth.  His personality matches the remedy Thuja. Should I give him Natrum Muriaticum as a remedy for the miasm of my grief during pregnancy, or should I give him Thuja?  Or can I give both at different time intervals?

I have contacted many homeopaths who treat autism and continued their remedy for more than 6 months. I believe their remedy does not match any symptoms or miasm, and there has been little or no results.  But I believe in homeopathy, as I got many cures for acute illnesses for me and my family.

Also, what is your opinion about multiple remedies? Some homeopaths say that for difficult syndromes like autism, multiple remedies are needed and claim that it works.  Even my homeopath says that.  What is your take on it?

-Binti

Answer:

I often get questions where a parent is sure of what remedy to give their child and asks me to support their self-treatment of their child.  My usual answer is — treatment of autism is difficult for even the most experienced homeopath.  I believe it almost always unwise for a parent to try and treat their autistic child.  In fact, I believe it is unwise for homeopaths to treat their own children, except for acute situations or emergencies.

In addition, just because a parent does not understand why a particular remedy was given to a patient does not mean that the remedy was obviously inappropriate to the case.  If it were, the homeopath would be incompetent, or perhaps, is treating according to some “formula” that does not apply to the child.  In either case, they should be abandoned. It is also possible that the homeopath just didn’t find the right remedy or dosing regimen and needs to try again. Or it’s possible that there were subtle signs of improvement that the parent didn’t see. Or it’s possible there was some factor that was antidoting the case.  It’s impossible for me to say!

That said, however, I have also heard of cases where budding homeopaths (often mothers of autistic children) did find a curative remedy for their child.  Maybe they did not achieve a full cure on their own, but they moved the case along, whereas a previous, more experienced homeopath had not.  So my answer, in general, to this question is:  I advise against treating your own child. Your best course is to find a new homeopath who will take your views and suggestions seriously. 

On the other hand, my guess is that you are determined to give Natrum Muriaticum or Thuja to your child and won’t rest easy until you do.  If this is the case, you could proceed quite cautiously, with a single low dose and see what happens.  It turns out that Thuja is a remedy that is sometimes used for vaccine damage, and is thus not uncommonly used in autism cases. In fact, it is a key remedy for the sycotic miasm.  Natrum Muriaticum can belong to any of the major miasms, and is not an uncommon autism remedy as well.  It’s really impossible  (and quite inappropriate) for me to recommend what you should do.  I am not practicing as a homeopath, and I never treated autistic children.  I merely am an educator to the general public about homeopathy.  So this is entirely your choice.

As far as multiple remedies goes, yes, I know many homeopaths who treat autism have begun giving more than one remedy at a time.  In general, this is frowned upon under the rubric of classical homeopathy.  Hahnemann believed that it would lead to confusion in the case  — what was doing what?  The habit of multiple remedies also tends to open the door to the use of pat “formulas” for this and that.  Usually a bad idea.  A midway approach would be to use multiple remedies that are specifically tailored to the case, perhaps in relatively quick alternation.  I believe this latter practice is what many autism homeopaths are beginning to do.

My honest answer is:  I don’t know.  Personally, I have never experienced the use of multiple remedies.  In fact, my tendency over the years has to become more conservative with my use of remedies — abiding by a more strict “wait and watch” approach. On the other hand, while this might be appropriate for relatively healthy people (as is now true for my entire family), in the case of a complex disease like autism, perhaps the single remedy approach is insufficient in some cases. One thing I do know, from talking to autism homeopaths, is that the cases they see have become more and more complex and severe over the years, due to more and more vaccines and toxins in our milieu. Here is one way to think about the (cautious) use of multiple remedies.

Imagine that a structure is built from many different materials and your goal is to dismantle it, one chunk at a time with a chunk-specific tool.  Whereas the approach of using one tool at a time (choosing the most appropriate tool for the current structure) is quite systematic, it may  also be possible that the structure has become so interlocked that no one tool will suffice at some particular time.  Things may have become so knotted that multiple tools must be used to remove more than one piece simultaneously.  It’s a riskier procedure, but it is necessary to proceed.  Later, however, using one tool at a time might become more appropriate. Perhaps this is what has happened with autism.

In summary, my answer to both of your questions is:  I’m not sure.  Proceed with caution. Work with a good homeopath that respects your views and opinions.   Trust your instinct.  Be patient and don’t give in to reckless desperation.  Slow and steady wins the race!

I hope this helps!

-Amy