Please help me figure out my son's constitutional _{Page 28 of 32}

Ok. What is 'as expected'? The puls is still working through his system you think?

Hi Sameer. It's Sunday afternoon, and I thought it was best to update you now, rather than wait until tomorrow because he is in daycare monday-wednesday anyway, so will be hard to get a clear picture of his total behaviour between now and Thursday.

So, the current status is mixed. His sleeping has improved, as has his appetite. We are back to the stage where he is only waking once a night or not at all, and it is just to have a drink. He is eating most meals, and although he is still being picky with some things, he is at least filling his tummy.

His mood however, is all over the place. I really just wish we could go back to the kid he was 2 months ago. It was before that last bout of sickness when we gave him sulphur. Before that, he was such a charming, easy going kid (on the whole). These days he is a little menace. I know that part of it is to do with his growth and development, and many people would say it was normal 2 year old behaviour, but he was not like this a very short time ago, and I find that when I look at the BIG PICTURE of his character and temperament, this is not the same child. So I definitely want to address this. I don't think he is happy and it's making me and his dad unhappy too.

Basically he is very temperamental. He is having outbursts of intense anger whenever he doesn't like the situation or get what he wants. He does not throw tantrums like other 2 year olds, he never has (eg. he does not cry uncontrollably, throw himself on the floor or kick and hit). He will make short, gutteral yelling noises with clenched fists, usually directed at me or his dad. I would say overall his mood is unstable, and particularly bad in the afternoon. It only takes a tiny thing to tip him over the edge. He whinges constantly. He will wander around the house following one of us, crying and wailing if we're busy or he can't see us. He is just very hard to satisfy. He gets mad with his toys too and will do the same gutteral yelling at them too, when they're not doing what he wants them to do. I often think he is bored and is whinging and crying because he wants attention and can't work out what to do with himself. But I think this is against his nature, as he has shown himself to be a very independent and self reliant kid over his life so far. If we play with him, he is happy. If we take him out of his normal environment and he is free to roam and explore, he is happy (outside or inside equally fine). He is interested in other kids and reaches out to communicate quickly and confidently, but definitely shys away from anyone who appears rough or too boistrous.

Can you deduce anything from this description?

Oh, and the other thing is that he hasn't had a bowel movement since TUESDAY!!! This is highly unusual and a bit of a worry!

The other characteristic of this unhappy behaviour is that when he wants something, he will just cry and wail about it, without actually telling you what it is he wants. His communication skills are excellent and we know he is perfectly capable of asking for things (like a drink or something to eat) because he does it 50% of the time, but the rest of the time he will have a major emotional outburst over it and it takes ages to get out of him what he wants (he probably doesn't know what he wants?). When I start questioning him, he will cry or get angry as if we aren't listening to him, and it will escalate unneccessarily. I hope that makes sense. It's a bit like when he wakes up from his nap. I mean, obviously he wakes up disoriented and that is probably quite a normal thing for him, but instead of calling out to one of us, he screams at the top of his lungs and seems very upset. I've never understood why. He knows we're here, and we always respond to him immediately. Yet his reaction is so extreme and melodramatic.

Yes, absolutely. He is at his worst for the hour following his nap. Often it stretches on until night time, but we try our hardest to snap him out of it. For example, right now I have put his favourite movie on because it is a surefire way of cheering him up.

You have sleep afternoon agg. in there twice. :)

Can we add in something to describe the behaviour I'm concerned about.... not sure what the correct terminology is but something like the following:
- melodramatic reactions
- angry outbursts when not getting own way
- disobedient/unphased by chastisement

Those three things are very strong indications right now, and if they were on the list I would pick them above all else. So I'd love to see if you can find the right way to repertorise them and then I can make a more accurate assessment of your question.

Aah, ok, good.

Well, with that in mind, if I look back at the list, I can say that those that stand out as the most important indications right now are:
Hunger agg., Phos, Sil
Bite; desire to; Carc, Phos, Puls, Sil, Calc, Lach
Desires to be held/magnetized; Carc, Phos, Puls, Sil, Calc, Lach
Sleep afternooon agg; Phos, Puls , Lach
Perspiration on head during sleep ; Sil, Calc , Carc

Actually the perspiration is more extensive than just his head. Does it make a difference? I would say head, back and neck.

Because otherwise, my choices do not help clarify anything, as the seem to be the most general ones!

Phos, Sil or Calc... this is our choice I suppose.

What can I look at to figure this out...? What is the essence of each of these remedies in terms of personality?

What is the reason, if any, you think we should maybe move on to another remedy? I definitely think that we made some headway with silicea, esp. once we gave the 200c, but then a host of other problems emerged.

He loves being wrapped up lately. Covered with blankets, etc. He enjoys feeling snug.

He loves to watch TV. It is becoming a bit of a problem!

What about thirst? That is quite a prominent thing. How is thirst indicated in those three remedies?

Ok, I am happy with that! Will try and give it tonight before bed, and update you in three weeks. Thanks again.

Hi Sameer. It is only 2 weeks and 2 days since I gave him the sil 1M, but I wanted to update because I'm a bit confused about what is happening and need your perspective.

3-4 days after the dose, he had a RADICAL change in behaviour and mood. It is definitely the most dramatic and obvious change we have experienced yet with any of the remedies and potencies we've given him. He returned to the old kid, the easy, fun, independent, happy kid. He also became very obedient and easy to communicate with.

Not only that, but his sleeping and appetite improved a lot too.

It carried on like this for about 12 more days. He was sleeping through the night almost every night, occasionally waking up in a good mood. And the other thing we noticed quite obviously is that his aggravation on being hungry had vanished. In fact, most mornings, he was just not hungry at all when he woke up, and took quite a while to work into an appetite. This was a very strong characteristic of his when he was a much younger baby (under the age of one).

We noticed discharge from his eyes on several occasions. At one point it was so obvious I thought he was going to get conjunctivitis again, but it wasn't. We also noticed a nappy rash around the time that his mood first ameliorated.

Everything seemed to be going perfectly, like a textbook!

Then about four days ago, he started to deteriorate. As we have come to recognise certain signs in him, we immediately suspected he was getting a cold. His mood became irritated, he began to wake at night time - extra thirsty, very warm and sweaty on the head, crying for no apparent reason, very picky with his food (dramatic reduction in quantity of food). A day or so later, he got a runny nose, and now a few days after that he still has a runny nose. It is blocked at night time and then runs all day long. It is mostly clear but sometimes a pale yellowy white colour. Beneath his nose it is a bit red and chapped and spotty, but interestingly we noticed this before the cold came on.

Now, I would not call this an acute situation. It really isn't that bad. Not as bad as he normally is when he's sick. His mood is still fine, on the whole. He is just tending towards the 'unhappy/unpleasant' behaviour and his sleeping and eating is disturbed.

The only other thing of note is that during the mental amelioration he began to sing a lot. He is singing so much now, we've never heard anything like it. He sings to himself, he makes up songs, he sings WITH us. All rather unusual. We have always been aware of him having real enjoyment from music and he loves to hear us sing, but this is new. I'm not sure if it has any relevance at all, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

Anyway, because I took my 1M dose around a similar time to him, and my reaction and process has been soooo different, I am just wanting to hear from you to see what you think of how things have been going now. And if you think that this cold is a result of a secondary action after so many days or it is just another virus. I'm just a bit confused.

Thanks heaps.

ok Sameer, thank you, will do. :)

Hi Sameer. We have a bit of a problem

Yesterday afternoon his condition deteriorated suddenly and rapidly. He has a very acute cough. This is exactlty the same sort of cough he has had SO many times before. It is relentless, dry and hacking.

He hardly slept all night. So today he is completely miserable, and still can't stop coughing.

His nose is still runny, though not as bad. There is no sign of temperature. He had a VERY foul bowel movement yesterday evening. His appetite is reasonable, but eating is aggravating the cough. So it seems is everything aggravating it. I haven't found an amelioration yet. He drank loads and loads of water during the night, but I couldn't tell if it was because he was actually thirsty or he saw it as relief. He is so, so tired today and I think that is part of why he is so miserable. The cough is also aggravating his ears quite a lot.

I wondered if you thought we should treat this with an acute remedy because I remember how you told me in my thread that I should have come to you during the acute episodes that came up after I took lach 200c so we could get rid of them for good. But then I'm not sure if there is enough specific info to prescribe a remedy. Please let me know what you think.

Hi there. It's very strong. He wants to be as close as possible to us, stroked, held, calmed. He quietens briefly each time full body contact is made.

It's late afternoon now and still no change or improvement. I thought it might also be helpful to know that although eating is not easy, he has not lost his appetite too much. He is wanting a lot of fluids (milk today particularly) and is eating bread and fruit and cheese. I seem to recall somewhere along the line you saying something about some remedies being more strongly indicated when appetite is lost during sickness or vice versa, so hopefully that info helps.

Really? It probably will pass, I can't imagine it getting worse, but I just want to do something to relieve his suffering. I feel so terrible that I can't do anything to help him, and my husband wants to give him a cough suppressant so he can at least get some sleep. I don't really want to give him a cough suppressant as I understand how bad they are, but I was hoping there would be an alternative.

Cough subsided overnight. Will update you again soon.

Hi Sameer. It's been just over 3 weeks since the dose of sil 1M.

Since my last update, a few things have changed, so I thought I would let you know and see what you think might be happening.

The cough disappeared like magic, and for the following day he was in such a great mood it was hard to believe there had been anything wrong with him. There was no sign of a cough and no other cold-like symptoms at all.

He went back to sleeping well at nighttime and for his naps during the day, only waking for a drink of water occasionally.

The day after that (Saturday I think), his mood deteriorated somewhat. He also had a lot of mucus in his nose - it was thick and brownish, with some bits of blood (not sure whether that was a discharge or he had just been picking his nose and made it bleed). But it was definitely a different kind of mucus to usual for him. That continued for two days and then stopped.

His mood is not as bad as it was a few weeks ago, but not as good as it was a week following the 1M dose. He is waking up more cheerily than usual - particularly in the mornings - but he is prone to angry outbursts and tears over very minor things. He is tending towards a very fragiile mood in the early afternoon, straight after his nap, but he gets over it reasonably quickly.

His bowel movements have returned to normal.

His thirst is still quite high. He is sweating on his head during his sleep, but not as much as he was a week ago.

His appetite is very unpredictable. He is being picky and changeable over what he wants to and doesn't want to eat. Some days he will eat a lot, and other days hardly anything. This is not new behaviour for us, but it's a bit different to what he was like a few weeks ago.

That's about it. What do you think?