Using Gesture to cure a small child

Female Patient, 8 weeks old

Current state:
(mother’s report)
Rash on both cheeks
Started just near corner of eye, a distinct circle of red raised lumps, spread downwards to cheek, then started at side of left eye and spread down to left cheek
She does grab at it (might be itchy)
Red, raised bumps, scabby
Red rash around anus, buttocks, vagina (looks fungal, red raised patches)
Possibly thrush
Has 2 white strips along both sides of tongue, and inside cheek

Runny nose, clear mucus
This is first child I have breast fed
Everything seems ok
Sleep is ok, feeding ok
Position on back (mother’s choice)

Birth?

Birth was shorter, more intense
Waters were broken by midwife

Hiccoughs a lot

Not sweating
Cool hands and feet

Rash on back of head as well

< breezes, like under a fan – would weep
< wind also

Prescription = Sulph 12c, 1 drop, once a day for up to 5 days

Next Interview

Current state:

Last Sunday, wasn’t herself
Fever on and off for 4 days
Hasn’t really been awake, even when she is her eyelids drop
She has stopped smiling
Stopped talking
(she looks very distressed, is grunting, face looks distressed)
Head is falling back, neck appears unable to hold up the head
Eyes roll back
She stopped kicking and wriggling much
She was vocalizing, grinning, active

She was fine one day, then the next morning, she wasn’t herself
That night she developed fevers, very hot, hands and feet sweating
She was very still, not crying, not wriggling
Her breathing was very fast
Head was hot
Sweat was sticky, on the hands and feet
If she was moved she cried
Mother says she looks drugged
Breathing changed
Mother would offer her the breast, but she wouldn’t seem hungry
(she is on the breast now but isn’t really feeding)

Still has clear runny nose
Still has thrush in the mouth
Rash on the bottom is clear – disappeared about 2 weeks before the illness

Prescription = Opium 200, 10 drops once only

Phone consult: Gels 200 given, 1 pill crushed as Opium gave no marked improvement

Gels 1M given as drops as 200 helped but not quite enough.

Next Interview

Presenting symptoms:

Baby holds her head with her heads, when sitting – has always done this ( I observe this)
After Gels 1M, she had been fine until 1 week ago
- she had a fever again, hot during the night
- she woke again with a stiff neck, head turned to the right and cannot turn it back
- crying, would cry on being picked up, didn’t want to be moved by mother
- repeated the Gels 1M, within 2 hours the fever stopped and she woke up ok again, smiling and without fever
- she was fine until yesterday (so lasted about 5-6 days)

Any new symptoms?

Sweats on profusely on the forehead, front of the head, beads of sweat, when she is feeding, only when feeding
Mother feels hot when feeding, hotter than the weather would explain

Prescription = Gels 10M, 10 drops; Calc-p 1M given as back up but was not used; Gels 10M returned the child to a more normal state and reversed the regression

Next Interview

Has rashes on the legs
Child seems very unhappy, doesn’t want me to look at me, cries
Mother will breast feed her to calm her down, but she doesn’t normally breast feed at home
When she is out, when she is not familiar with the place, mother says it is her insecurity with people she doesn’t know
It is with men and women
She turns in towards the family member she is holding, when confronted with a stranger
(she is spending a lot of time crying, she wants to go out of the room)
She hits out at her mother, is pretty irritable
When mother tries to show me her skin and teeth, she kicks and hits, just wants to leave the room

The teeth has crumbled at the bottom

She scratches a lot, only sometimes bleeds, mostly scratches at night in bed
You can hear her scratching, wakes her mother

(she comes back in the room, she is very upset, gets angry and cries, pushes her sister away, pushes her mother away, then wants to be held)

She isn’t walking yet (at 20 months) on her own; she can pull herself up
However, she has trouble pulling herself up, seems to be the legs
She will cry and yell for help to be put down, cant seem to sit herself
Will breast feed when she is upset, with strangers

She only says a few words at this point, usually single words
She feeds herself

She is very cautious about animals, even if she sees them on the TV
They freak her out
She doesn’t like them at all in real life, she will pull away, pull her legs
She turns away

She has had blisters on her hands and feet
She sweats profusely on the head, mainly when sleeping
She used to get rashes on her face from the sweat dripping on to her face

Hasn’t started toilet training yet
She is lazy, doesn’t want to go to her toys, wants someone to carry her

Prescription = Calc 12, split dose every 3 days

Interview date: 5 August 2008

Current state:

(observation: when mother takes her food off her, she is looking at me – she has been constantly looking at me since she came into the clinic – then she starts crying until the food is given back to her)

Mother says she is like this with most people, wary of them
If it is someone she doesn’t know, but her mother does, she cries and wants to be picked up

Rash still hasn’t completely every gone
Trying to make sure I wasn’t aggravating it
1 drop in ¾ cup seems to take away the itching
the rash is the best it has been
Not so much insistent itching, but still comes up at times

With this cough she has right now, she gets this itching with it
Her eyes will water
After the cough she seems to go to sleep
That may last for 1 minute or so
She will get herself into a position where she can put her head down

Describe the cough

It is phlegmy, she gasps for air because it is all coming out
She vomits the mucous up while coughing, which then stops the cough
She is running out breath while coughing, sometimes goes red but not blue
She also passes stool while she is coughing
She closes her eyes while she coughs, her eyes are watering

She tends to eat a lot of bananas

(she is whispering to her mother, asking for more food)

(mother asks her to put out her tongue, she will only do it when I am not looking, mother holds up her hand to hide her)

The tongue is not much coated right now, sometimes is more at the back of the tongue, a whitish coating

She was craving milk quite a lot, cold from the fridge

She has been sick for the last 2 weeks or so

She is always talking about men, about boys – always mentions them

She is still slow to walk, she is walking now but only slowly
She is very wary of people
She doesn’t usually resort to crawling
She can climb now
She seems a bit more motivated to do stuff
Her fine motor skills are good, she can put lids on things, threat needles
She is picking up words that she is not being taught

Fears?

She still wants to be held by her mother or siblings, when she is anxious or scared
Before she was turning in and hiding
Now she will keep an eye on them, but not look at people
If they are not looking at her she is ok
She will hide her face

She is still not as well developed as the other children her age (she is 2 now)
She seems to really think and concentrate before she does anything, that seems to stop her doing things

Sleep?

She is still breast-feeding to go to sleep
She cries if it is discussed that she might not be able to breast feed

Prescription = Ant-t 30c, with Ant-t 200

Next Interview (2 ½ years old now)

Whole right side of the face had swollen up, cheek and across the bridge of nose
The teeth are decaying, she is going to have surgery
She has no enamel on some teeth, and it is uneven on others
That means rapid and early decay of the teeth, some have decayed down to the gum
Stopped breast feeding her at 2

She didn’t complain of pain in the teeth
Possibly some pain in jawbone
Mostly the top teeth affected

The swelling last 2 days, started after waking from her nap

The skin is still a problem
She is getting blisters now

(she doesn’t want to be examined, she says No a lot)

(examination reveals largish blisters on the palms and in-between the toes; she cries forlornly when I try to examine her, curls her toes up and pushes her face into her mother)

They itch a lot, she was scratching until the blisters pop, > application of ice
She asks for ice when it happens

Itching < when she is upset, in a new environment

What upsets her then?

Frustration when playing
She yells at her siblings to play with her
If they don’t go, she cries, throws tantrum
She asks for food, when her mother says No and she gets upset

(she is a very serious child, frowning at me constantly)

She isn’t scared of animals or people now
Likes the word scary
Loves to wrestle, likes being thrown around, being upside down

She will get scared of toys with strange faces
She is scared of ants, because she was bitten

She has normal fear, she shrinks back from bikes, or runs away from cars
She moves back a little

She always watches people, focuses on people’s eyes
She yells at her siblings to stop looking at her
She often comments that people are looking at her, babies looking at her, men or women looking at her
She is hesitant, it is not right, looking for comfort from mother
If they come close she heads to me, comes back to me, holds my leg
She turns her shoulder to them, keeps watching to see where they are


Where doesn’t she hide, turn away, pull away?

At home, unless someone new is there
At home with familiar people
When out, if she is with familiar people she doesn’t do it

Mother says ‘she is looking for security, she seems insecure’

Something I have noticed during this interview, is that the entire family used words like Pull in, Pull away, Shrink back, Withdraw, Turn away, Turn to hide, Curl up, when talking about the child. I had seen all of these people in clinic and it was not their normal language when talking about themselves. I felt very confident that even as a group, we were observing something very important and objective.

I had not used Gesture in this way for someone before, certainly not for someone so young. I felt that at this point, if I was going to learn any more about the Sensation method I would need to take a chance.

What could I understand about this case, from our observations?


There is a threat, that threat comes from people mostly, from even their looks and their eyes. In response to that threat, she moves in a specific way. This is the energy of the case, it is the deepest level of a case if it can be understood. Movement in response to threat made me think of the ANIMAL KINGDOM.

The specific defense to being threatened is to Pull in, Shrink back, Withdraw, Hide, Curl inwards. From observing her, when the threat appears to pass, she tentatively comes back out, moves slowly and cautiously away from her mother. This seemed clearly to me to be MOLLUSC behavior, and I thought it could be GASTROPOD (SNAILS). This was a jump without clear direction to do so, I know.

The only Gastropods I had as remedies were Cypraea eglantina, (Cowry) and Murex purpurea. Without anything else to guide me I chose Cypra-e

Prescription = Cypr-e 1M, 1 drop full cup 1 teaspoon

Next interview (which actually was for one of her sisters rather than for herself)

First thing I notice is that the child walks into the office unaided, and without needing her mother’s hand. She smiles at me! (first time since she was born). She stands straighter and walks without her legs bowing or seeming weak.

The mother says that the child has caught up with her developmental milestones quite quickly. She is walking quite well, and even beginning to speak. She is still resistant to learning to use the potty. However she was easily weaned off the breast and is eating solid food with no problem.

Most of the fear has gone, she will interact with most people now without any problems (I notice this – she walks over to me to inspect my desk and look at what I am doing, she smiles several times at me). Her mother says she is not the bravest of her children, but seems fine in most normal situations now. She rarely shrinks back from anything. The frown was gone, replaced a pretty face that loved smiling!

Several teeth came through normally, not decayed. The rash also reduced noticeably, although is still there on parts of her body. However the itching has more or less stopped.

The child needed 4 more doses of the remedy over a period of a year. The last time she was given a dose the change was remarkable. Within 4 days she began using whole sentences which were easily understood even by people who were not familiar with her. The mother said that people in her life were commenting on how straight the child stood and how talkative she now was.