“Are they gonna have to burn her clothes and body when she dies?”
“Oh. My. God. Are you serious?”
“This is because you didn’t get her vaccinations, isn’t it?”
“If your an herbalist that knows what they are doing, how did your daughter get something like that?”
“I think it’s criminal that you aren’t taking your daughter straight to the hospital! You should be arrested!”
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Yes, people really said those things to me. I swear. And, that was just from my family.
See, here’s what happened.
My youngest daughter is very prone to sore throats and she used to get an annual case of strep throat. We know this. We’ve known this for years. So, you would think that we would just prevent it from happening, right?
Well, for several years, we did. Things were running along quite nicely. Then, I made the mistake of loosening the apron strings. The result was three teenage children who don’t take the preventative measures they should. Go figure.
Don’t blame me! Every December, I make up a fresh batch of Immune Boost Extract and a bottle of Immune Boost capsules. I keep a jar of raw, locally-produced honey and a fruit bowl full of lemons on my counter. Our neti pot sits in the bathroom cabinet, right next to a small vial that holds a mixture of golden seal and sea salt. I have instructions with everything and I’ve shown each of my children how to mix everything up.
Now, I know, trusting my children to actually do it may, at first glance, seem like a moronic thing to do. After all, they are teenagers. Honestly, though, we’ve been doing this for eons! I’ve seen them do it. I know they know how. What I underestimated was their actual desire to do it.
So, when strep-throat season rolled around in January, there all of those preventative measures sat, looking lovely on my shelf, untouched. And, when my daughter came and said her throat hurt, I looked at those bottles and jars. Then, I looked at my daughter and sighed as I pulled out the penlight and shone it on the lovely mass of white blisters coating her tonsils and tongue.
Now, as a rule, strep throat will usually run its course and disappear on its own. There is no debating that, as far as I am aware. However, doctors still hand you a prescription a for an antibiotic and tell you just ride it out. We’ve been on that merry-go-round. In fact, we were on it so long we started to get motion sickness.
So, we started treating it naturally.
Extra doses of immune-strengthening tonics several times a day, limited diet to exclude anything dairy (I’ll explain that one in a minute) or white-flour based. We don’t try to fight the fever.
After about 24 hours, as expected, her fever broke, her symptoms lessened and she was tolerating the recovery process pretty well. After 72 hours, she was feeling great. We kept her home from school all week, just to be sure.
I, feeling rather proud of myself, put the ordeal behind us and moved on the next item on my to-do list.
Imagine my surprise when, just a few weeks later, my daughter comes to me again and says that her throat is hurting and she isn’t feeling so well…
Sure enough, the blisters are back. The fever is back. Plus, she has this really weird red patch on her knee that hurts. I didn’t really think much about it, seeing as how my daughters are kinda like me…allergic to everything, and I was far more concerned with the reappearance of the strep throat.
Craptastic in a gift box! Back to square one. She took a shot of the Immune elixer concoction and went to bed.
The next morning, I awoke to her shrieks of horror. She had spots. Lots of spots. They were all over her side and legs. A quick bit of research and a few phone calls and I was reasonably certain of what was going on.
My daughter had Scarlet Fever.
I’m gonna admit this, but I might deny it if you ask me later…I thought about taking my daughter to the emergency room. I know, right?
But, I remained calm. I asked a few medical professionals that I know what would happen if I took her in as far as treatment. The unanimous answer was 1) internal antibiotics 2)external antibiotic cream. Scarlet Fever, like strep throat, will disappear on it’s own in about a week. The spots may hang out for a bit longer, and the resultant peeling may last up to a few weeks. Also, expect a little scarring.
Hmmm.
So, I had a decision to make. Do I take the information I’ve spent half my life gathering and put it to the test again, or do I take my daughter to the ER? Well, of course you know what I chose. Otherwise, what would be the point of this whole long, drawn-out story?
You know on those tv shows where they tell you this is being done by a professional and not to try this at home? Well, you’ve reached that point in the program. I’ve been studying herbs and their many uses for a very long time, but I am not a doctor. I can’t diagnose, treat or advise you on how to deal with any illnesses or diseases. I don’t recommend doing this without the advice of a licensed medical professional.
What I did was to set my daughter down and explain to her what was going on. I told her what I believed she had and what she could expect to happen. I relayed to her all of the information I had gathered, including what the medical community had told me. I gave her all of her options.
Lest you think this was irresponsible of me, let me explain. My youngest daughter is fourteen. She, like all of my children, has spent her entire life immersed in this lifestyle that I have chosen. They know why I feel the way I do about Western Medicine, and they know why I have such a strong faith in Alternative Medicine. They think that sometimes I go overboard with the whole ‘natural’ thing ~ you know, like making my own shampoo and soap ~ but they understand it, too. They ask questions. We have real, intelligent discussions. They know the statistics.
Now that they have reached an age where they are able to rationalize and problem-solve with less help from me, I feel that they deserve to be able to have a say in any decisions that will personally affect them, including their choice of health care.
This situation was no exception. My daughter considered all of the alternatives and took an hour or so to sort through them. She decided that she wanted to treat it naturally if possible, but she reserved the right to change her mind. Smart kid, huh?
Then, we laid out a plan.
Heavy use of the Immune-Boost/lemon/honey.
A blend of herbs to help cleanse her body thoroughly while providing it with some of the vitamins and minerals it would need to heal quickly.
Her diet was restricted to nothing but raw or lightly steamed veggies, distilled water, herbal tea, fresh fruit juice and whole grain rice. The purpose of this was two-fold. Processed foods, dairy and meat are known to cause a mucus build-up in the body. Bacteria and other nasties love this mucus and they entrench themselves in it, where they grow and multiply. Group A streptococcus bacteria, which is the bacteria that causes both strep throat and Scarlet Fever, has been closely associated with the use of dairy products. Plus, the fresh fruits and veggies would ensure that she was still receiving plenty of the nutrients her body would need to heal quickly, and they would help to cleanse her system of any toxins that had accumulated in her digestive tract.
She took a bath 3 times per day using a blend of salt, herbs and oils that are known to help detoxify the body. This was followed by a vinegar/distilled water rinse to remove all the toxins from the skin. The added benefit was that the oils and herbs helped to protect the skin from the damage caused by the toxins being released.
Three tablespoons per day of our Herbal Honey Soothing Syrup with a pinch of cayenne and three garlic cloves.
It was an aggressive approach and she knew that things could get worse before they got better, but we were ready.
By the end of the first day her fever had reached 104*. I admit to being nervous, but I knew that the fever was fighting off the bacteria, so I didn’t fight it. I know the common school of thought is that we want to bring a fever down, but natural medicine dictates otherwise in most circumstances. The fever is simply evidence that the body is working exactly the way it is supposed to. The heat generated by the body kills the invading bacteria and causes the body to perspire, thereby pushing out the dead, toxic waste through the skin. This is a completely natural, healthy response. This fever lasted for about 16 hours
She was mildly itchy, but she said it wasn’t unbearable or painful. When it got to be too much, she would head back to the tub. Over the next 24 hours, the rash got continually worse, eventually covering her from head to toe. Literally.
We were expecting the rash to turn dry and scaly, since that is what we had been told and what we had read that we should expect. It never happened. We kept expecting her skin to start peeling, but that never happened, either.
Instead, on the morning of the third day, she woke to find the rash was fading. Rather than peeling off, it was simply fading away. It left her skin looking a little strange…something like a sunburn after it’s peeled. Like this:
I took a deep sigh of relief. Whatever we were doing was working! She didn’t itch at all anymore, the blisters on her tonsils and tongue were shrinking and disappearing, there was no fever and she was feeling great.
With the worst past, I got to wondering why she had developed such a nasty thing in the first place. After all, she had been taking the Immune extract.
Yeah. Sure she had. That’s another story.
I was concerned that she would grow lazy with our plan now that she was healing up, though. To my eternal pride, she didn’t. She stuck to it faithfully for the entire week that we had originally planned. By then, the rash was completely gone. There is nothing left behind to let anyone ever know that it had been there in there in the first place.
So, all this to say that, no, scarlet fever would not have been prevented if I’d gotten my kids their vaccinations. Not unless they have come out with some type of vaccination against strep throat that I’m not aware. We didn’t have to burn either her clothes or her body to prevent infecting other unsuspecting folk and yes, even a wise herbalist like myself still comes down with the common cold, flu, or even strep throat. So do my kids. As for me being a criminal and needing to be arrested, well…
That’s another story.
I wanted to thank you for the inspiration to treat our 16 year old daughter’s Scarlet Fever without resorting to antibiotics.
On 3/9/2011, my daughter wasn’t feeling quite right, she didn’t have a fever but said her throat was sore; she’s prone to allergies, so I just let it go at that and said she could stay home the next day if she wasn’t any better.
The morning of 3/10/2011 she really didn’t feel good, she didn’t feel like she had a fever and I again gave her the option to stay home but she said she couldn’t because she had tests to take. I told her that if she were to make it through the day she had to tell everyone that the runny nose, sore throat and puffy red eyes, were caused by allergies; otherwise she’d end up in the nurses office.
My daughter normally has after school activities that would keep her there until about 6:30pm but one of her friends called me around 5:00pm stating that she wasn’t feeling well and wanted to come home.
I brought her home and diagnosed her with strep throat; which is easy for me because I must have had it 5 to 6 times within a 3 year period as a teenager; probably because I was never made to complete the course of antibiotics prescribed. She had a fever of about 102 and I began my normal routine of vitamin A & C with an Airborne chaser and a 500mg capsule of cayenne pepper. I expected about 2-3 days of fever and bed rest, boy was I wrong.
Sometime on the third day my daughter came to us and showed us her stomach which looked as if she had received a bad sunburn. Upon further inspection she had this redness on her neck, back and legs but it was most prevalent on her stomach. Immediately, my mind began running through all of the possibilities. Mind you, I know a little bit about everything, which can be a dangerous thing but what came to mind was Scarlet Fever, which I had never seen firsthand. How could this be and how could such an old disease be affecting my 16 year old daughter?
While doing some further research, to help verify what I was seeing, I stumbled upon your Scarlet Fever Adventure article.
I’ve been in the horticultural industry for most of my life, so I know about the healing power of herbs and that most, if not all, of our modern drugs would not exist if it were not for them. So, to cut to the chase, I took your experience and used it as a guide for treating my daughter.
I cut out the dairy, first and foremost, and only allowed her to eat brown rice, green veggies and a little protein. Snacks consisted of fresh fruit and fluids were 100% fruit juices, Gatorade or water.
I gave her 600-800 mg of Ibuprofen 3 times a day for her fever along with a daily shot of 1000mg vitamin C and 8000 I.U. of vitamin A.
I ground Quaker Oats into a powder and added 2 cups of this to a bath, which she took 3 times a day. After the bath, I wiped her down with a 50/50 vinegar water mix; the first time I did this, the white hand towel turned yellow.
In addition I made the following puree:
The juice from 5-6 large lemons
10-12 cloves of garlic
8-10 Whole cloves
About 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
And probably a 1/4 cup of honey
Two tablespoons of this were given 3 times a day.
On 3/13/2011, and to her surprise, the puree stopped burning her throat and on 3/15/2011 her fever finally broke. During the 5 days she kept asking me when this would be over and I kept reassuring her that her body would beat this. Also, during the 5 days she consistently had a fever that would average around 102 degrees and one day it spiked to 104.
On 3/14/2011 we seriously considered taking her to the doctor but I was keeping a record of each temperature check and could see a downward trend, so we gave it one more day before succumbing.
As for the rash, the redness is gone and left behind are some red bumps and some very minor peeling of dead skin has begun.
All in all we are pretty happy that we let her body take care of this infection without having to resort to antibiotics. Luckily, or unluckily for her, this happened right as spring break started. Any other time, and we might have been more inclined to go the antibiotic route just so she wouldn’t be so far behind.
In closing, I want to again thank you Tamara for giving me the courage to following my instincts and not to give in to the quick cure that a course of antibiotics would have provided. Hopefully, my daughter will never get strep throat again because I let her body take charge.
Stephen in Texas
Thank you so much for sharing your story. I am glad to hear that your daughter is doing well ~ without any antibiotics! Nicely done!
Very interesting stuff in here and good food for thought for a mom who’d like to take more of a natural approach.
I would like to say that sending your kid to school knowing they are sick and contagious, and then advising them to lie and tell others it’s allergies is downright mean and inconsiderate of others though. Boo. Not only are you exposing others, but you are giving them a false sense of security so they don’t take the proper preventative measures to help boost their own immune system after being compromised.
I agree, Suzi! It makes me very angry when I hear that parents are sending their children to school when they suspect any type of illness. Unfortunately, by the time many parents realize their child is sick, they have already passed the contagious stage without knowing it. Our family always starts taking a daily dose of immune boosters so we can avoid all the icky stuff floating around the schools and public places!
I really do love that you stick to herbs and treat naturally. I am in the medical field and I believe in a balance. I’m on the holistic nursing approach. However, I would like to point out (because you didn’t mention this in your post) that scarlet fever that is not treated with antibiotics, almost always leads to organ failure later in life. I hope you are aware of that because I did not see that mentioned in your post from your ‘medical friends’. I’ve seen is in a professional setting (many times) and personally twice. First my grandmother had Scarlet Fever when she was 15 and lived on a farm, my family also treated her with their version of home remedies. She had her first heart attack at 35 yrs old and went into kidney failure at 38. She was sick her whole life after that. The next case was my friend in NP school. She was 8 when she had a sore throat and she is Filipino, so her parents treated her with their version of alternative medicines. Her sore throat was gone by Monday and as she told us about a month later she started peeing blood. She had a Strep A infection and because her parents didn’t take her to get a throat culture and then decide whether to treat it at home, she had to have a kidney transplant at age 9. Please do not mess with such severe infections. At least go to the DR or a NP’s office for a throat culture to ensure it’s not Strep A next time. I hope your daughter is ok now.
I appreciate your input, but I have to point out a few things. If your grandmother had scarlet fever at 15 and a heart attack at 35, how did the heart attack get linked definitively back to the scarlet fever? Moreover, how was the kidney failure linked back to it? I have been unable to find any medical studies, reports, or even documented cases where something like this has been proven to be the case. Heart and kidney problems are more often caused by unhealthy lifestyle, medications (both prescription and OTC) and other external factors.
Furthermore, since we are discussing your grandmother, it is a safe assumption that she was a child of the 30’s, 40’s or 50’s? Many people from that generation had similar problems that have been linked back to medications and vaccinations that were, at the time, considered to be safe, but were later proven to cause things like heart problems, organ failure, cancer and, later in life, dementia and Alzheimer’s. Add to that the fact that that period of time saw the invention of foods packaged in aluminum and the whole encyclopedia of new chemicals and preservatives that were experimented with, you have a recipe for disaster. Even Tylenol has, at last, been proven to have serious long-term repercussions including liver/kidney failure. To link your grandmother’s two medical situations over a 20+ year time span is over-reaching just a bit.
Your Filipino friend is beyond the scope of my input as I don’t know exactly what you mean when you say ‘alternative medicines’ as this encompasses a large, subjective group of treatments. If you read the blog then you know I do not recommend or suggest using herbs alone to treat this condition. You are correct in saying that scarlet fever can be very serious, which is why I was careful to say the entire system needs to be purged during an illness like this one. Healthy, nutritious, raw foods, detoxification of the system, herbs, fresh air and close attention to the one who is ill is necessary to ensure a complete recovery.
The beauty of using natural antibiotics is that, while they are at least as potent and effective as prescription antibiotics, they do not work by tricking your immune-system, but rather by stimulating it to work on its own, thereby decreasing the likelihood that the disease will return. A continued healthy lifestyle is also necessary, but that is not just in the case of strep throat. An unhealthy lifestyle in which any artificial, chemically-based substance is ingested into or applied onto the body is guaranteed to cause any number of illness and disease down the road.
I agree with Brittney Ann.
There are hundreds of journal articles and government websites that clearly document the link between GAS pharyngitis and a whole host of potential complications like Rheumatic Fever (heart disease), glomerulonephitis (chronic kidney impairment) or arthritis to name a few.
Heres a statement from the American Heart Association:
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/119/11/1541.full
I am amazed my colleagues didn’t explain the risks associated with not treating with penicillin. Where is your evidence to prove that your natural therapies reduce the likelihood of such complications? The resolution of the rash doesn’t necessarily mean she wasn’t exposed to the risk. To the contrary, there is plenty of data to support that penicillin saves morbidity in this setting:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3336421
As a GP I support the parents and patients decision not to use antibiotics if they are presented with all the information and can thus make an educated decision. In this case ” A quick bit of research and a few phone calls and I was reasonably certain of what was going on. My daughter had Scarlet Fever” is a decision made without consultation and without all the information at hand.
I’m honesty grateful to hear shes recovered and I’m the first to admit that a healthy diet and good self care plays an important role in holistic health care. However when there is the risk of such serious complications, it begs the question why take the risk?
Your response was that antibiotics tricks the immune system and should be avoided. Penicillin for example works by affecting the cross linking of the bacteria’s cell wall, inhibiting cell wall construction and hence the bacteria dies. The immune system sorts out the rest which would be considered enabling at the very worst. Our immune system once exposed to an antigen, forms its Memory B cells to mount a more aggressive response the second time whether antibiotics are used or not.
So I fail to see your reasoning but one has to respect your decision. I can only hope this information helps other readers with their decision making in future.
Donetta
I appreciate your informed input on this matter. As a GP, I am sure that you see many more cases of this than I do, as well as the complications involved when left untreated. However, treating it through completely natural methods is NOT the same thing as leaving it untreated.
and
I am rather surprised that this amazes you. Standard medical practitioners are notorious for treating patients as if they are ignorant and unable to comprehend even the most simplistic medical terminology. In fact, the medical practitioners that we have dealt with, without exception, have done nothing more than write out a prescription. When questioned as to why the prescription is necessary, they most often become defensive and give only a minimal explanation. I can honestly say that your comments have provided a better explanation than any of the doctors I have ever dealt with. It took me countless hours of research to learn that information on my own over the years, and I sincerely hope that it helps others to understand a bit more clearly should they ever find themselves facing this decision.
As for treatment with antibiotic ~ are you suggesting that the only effective antibiotics are those made in a laboratory? Have you ever done any real research on natural antibiotics and immune-system building herbs/foods? If you had, it is quite likely that you would have come across several studies that show the tremendous antibiotic and antibacterial properties of garlic. Honey also contains potent antibiotic and antibacterial properties – a fact that even many mainstream medical practitioners are finally admitting. As I have often pointed out, if the study is not done by 1) a pharmaceutical company, 2) medical institutions of standard Western practice or 3) the government, then it is scoffed at and deemed irrelevant by most of mainstream medical practitioners. Many studies have been done by reputable, reliable natural health institutions that are largely ignored because a group of MD’s scoffed at the reliability of any natural cures. It seems that you may be one of them.
Furthermore, by using natural antibiotic and antibacterial methods we also avoided all of the negative side effects that come with their synthetic counterparts. Depending on the type of penicillin taken, side effects can include: Black or hairy tongue; exaggerated reflexes; mild diarrhea; nausea or vomiting; pain, swelling, or redness at the injection site; twitching; Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); bizarre behavior; blood in stools or urine; changes in heartbeat; chest pain; chills; coma; convulsions; decreased urination; excessive sweating; extreme tiredness; fainting; fast heartbeat; fever; flushing with lightheadedness or fainting; hallucinations; itching; muscle pain; pale skin; pounding in the chest; rapid breathing; seizures; severe diarrhea; stomach pain/cramps; unusual bruising or bleeding; vaginal irritation or itching; vein swelling; worsening of skin lesions.
But, I’m certain that you’ll be very grateful that the bacterial infection might be going away…
I have to say, with a list like that, I’ll take my chances with the natural alternatives. Alternatives which don’t include the negative side effects. This should also answer your question, “why take the risk”? It seems the greater risk by far is taking the penicillin.
This was not the point at which any decision was made. It was the point at which we figured out what, exactly, the problem was so that we could determine the best course of action. If you read the entire post you would know 1) The strep throat was an issue that we had dealt with many times over the years. I made it clear that we did see standard medical doctors on several occasions. We tried the whole prescription antibiotic nightmare. This was far from “a decision made without consultation and without all the information at hand; and 2)I clearly state that I spoke with a few medical professionals. Not one. Not two. Three. All of them gave me the same information.
This is my child. I would hardly make a decision like this without researching it as thoroughly as I possibly could and considering all the possible treatments available. I, too, am grateful that she recovered. I am also very grateful that over the course of humankind many cultures and civilizations have discovered the tremendous potency and effectiveness of the medicines provided by Nature. I hope that sometime in the very near future in the United States these natural alternatives will be accepted as viable options to prescription and synthetic drugs as they are in a good portion of the rest of the world. I look forward to a time when MD’s will work with NP’s and other alternative medical professionals to come up with answers and solutions to many of the ills that we face.
There’s two majors points to be made here.
Firstly, the diagnosis. The second, management.
DIAGNOSIS
Your statement regarding her diagnosis confuses me. I did read your entire post and acknowledge that your daughter had a history of pharyngeal infections. My issue was that the diagnosis was reached without consultation with a medical practitioner. By consultation I mean one including a physical review including investigations (as appropriate) and a management plan discussed. My concern is that there are many infections and conditions that mimic your daughters symptoms. I don’t care about the qualifications of your ‘health professionals’ – no doctor can make a medical decision without seeing the patient.
You say… “This was not the point at which any decision was made. It was the point at which we figured out what, exactly, the problem was so that we could determine the best course of action” Isn’t “figuring out exactly the problem” the same as “a decision being made” on her diagnosis? I’m not trying to criticize here but I feel strongly about patients and parents self diagnosing. Not because I’m interested in drumming up business or pushing my own agenda – but because I am aware through my own training and experience how often we can be deceived by seemingly straightforward presentations.
Its a shame you have been dismissed by my colleagues and I apologise on their behalf, but we are not all the same. I guess like most professions, its about finding a doctor that practices in a way that instills trust.
TREATMENT
There are many healing properties in natural substances and I dare say we are just scratching the surface as to their potential benefits. I must admit, I would appreciate you posting some links to articles about how garlic and honey at a molecular level because being a science dork, I like knowing how things work.
But what you didn’t answer is whether natural antibiotics/immune stimulants are as effective as penicillin at reducing the risk of rheumatic fever and other complications of Scarlet Fever? You say there are no studies due to big pharma and I agree that’s a shame, but unfortunately it doesn’t put you in a position to say that is AS EFFECTIVE as penicillin. Parents and patients need more than faith, they need facts. If a neutral mother came to me with her Scarlet Fever child – she would want evidence that the therapy I propose works and an objective measure of the risks of taking the medication. Each medicine we prescribe is made considering these two factors.
I”m not going to sit here and pretend that there are no risks associated with penicillin (which started off life as a mould I’m sure you know). You’ve cut and paste a very long list of side effects but neglected to state the frequency in which they happen. I don’t prescribe penicillin for every dribbly nose that walks in my door, but I follow a majority of patients I prescribe to, I’ve been at this nearly 10 years, and I am yet to see a hairy leukoplacia, hyperreflexia, bizzare behaviour, haematuria, blood in stools, coma (!), hallucinations, muscle pain, pale skin (how it reduces melanin in the skin I cant even conceive), vein swelling or worsening of skin lesions (if anything flucloxacillin is great for reducing staphlococcus colonisation of wound infections, especially in diabetics). .
On the contrary I do occasionally see a range of allergic reactions – often in the minor spectrum (nausea/vomiting/rash) but only very occasionally in the moderate spectrum (facial swelling, breathing difficulty). Allergic reactions can occur with any medication – natural and synthetic. (I’ve seen allergies to Evening Primrose Oil and Black Cohosh for example). All patients with any new medications are counselled as to the risk of allergy and what to do in such a case.
I digress but to circle back to my point, our patient will want to know what works in reducing their child’s risk. We are left saying “well honey and garlic are great natural antibiotics, so by extrapolation they should reduce your child’s risk of complications'”. But the problem is Tamara there is NO evidence that natural remedies like garlic and honey reduce the risk of complications from Scarlet fever (like Rheumatic Fever and glomerulonephritis). I have articles coming out of my ears that state that penicillin does. Yes, it has more potential side effects then garlic and honey but that alone does not make it the inferior treatment. Medicines must be chosen on a balance of efficacy and cost. On the balance, the risk of complications from penicillin is low whilst protecting against the high morbidity of Rheumatic fever.
I’m not contesting the worth of healthy living and natural remedies as an adjunct – and perhaps for different conditions it provides the complete solution, but in the case of Scarlet Fever, we just don’t have the evidence to support that it is effective at reducing the risk of complications.
Doreen, in response to your comments and their validity, as well as in respect to the length of my reply, I posted a new blog that I hope you will take time to read and comment on. While we are on opposite sides of the debate here, I do truly enjoy the dialogue that it has inspired, the points you raise and the overall nature of the discussion! You are definitely keeping me on my toes!
The new blog post is here:
My son has some spots doc says its a viral rash but I dnt think so I’m confused
What all of the other medical professionals have failed to mention is that penicillin is an herbal remedy. It can be synthesized in a lab but is also grown by subjecting the fungus Penicillum to continuous stress. To disregard it’s origin and that it truly is an “herbal remedy” because we now manufacture it in a lab and ensure safety and potency is irrational. Calling penicillin “unnatural” would be identical to identifying the honey in your cabinet “unnatural” or “lab grown” because the bees live in boxes and it isnt harvested from spontaneously occuring hives in nature. By not treating your daughter with penicillin you avoid using one of the first herbal medications that LITERALLY impacted the life span of mankind.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4829a1.htm (see figure 1)
Well, I suppose if you spin it that way, you might have something of a point. What you skipped over, though, is that, since I am not growing my own ‘natural’ penicillin, what is available is the synthetic form offered by the pharmaceutical companies. Instead, we focused on using several other herbs and foods that are known for their ability to boost and strengthen the immune system, bypassing the need for antibiotics completely. As for the analogy of honey, again, is a bit of twist and a stretch. It may have worked better had you compared real, raw, unheated honey to the crap you buy at the grocery store. That’s another post, though….
Hello Tamara, I am from Germany and we strongly believe in natural cures. I have been a Naturopathic Practitioner for a long time and do not use antibiotics nor did i vaccinate my children. I never regret my choices, since there is more to life and our bodies than popping those pills. You have a huge support group and I love that you slam dunked all of those opposing and negative comments out of the ball court. :-))) It proves your professional demeanor and passion for a healthy body. I would recommend you anytime and your natural approach is great. Some advice…add some homeopathy like Belladonna and Rhus Tox….it heals it all even faster. Take good care of yourself
How did she slam dunk or debunk anyone? It was more like wilful ignorance.
Thank you so much for this. I needed to read this. I feel scared and unsure for my kids right now. I have 4 and 3 have been displaying cold to flu and now scarlet fever like symptoms for 2 weeks. Same story, natural family, generally healthy and now this. I really needed this. God bless you.
just to add, actually there is a type of heart disease caused by scarlet fever if untreated with antibiotics, it’s Valvular stenosis and valvular insufficiency. It is caused by the strep bacteria tricking the immune system to attack and destroy heart valve cells
Scarlet fever is a bacterial infection and doesn’t go away on its own like a viral infection. It is possible that your daughter didn’t have Scarlett fever all at, but some type of viral infection (since many rashes and symptoms closely resemble each other) that is why it went away on its own. Only a culture swab would confirm Scarlett fever, but since you never took her to the doc there is no way of knowing. I don’t understand why parents insist on self diagnosing their little ones. Whatever kind of treatment is up to the parent (naturalpathic remedies, whatever etc. no one can force antibiotics down your kids throat) but if you’re not a doctor, you have no way of knowing 100% what your kid has, even if you think you know. Leaving Scarlett fever untreated can lead to future problems such as kidney and heart problems. Not to mention you are sending your sick kids to school possibly infecting other children.
I get the impression you are a member of the medical community, Charlotte.
If you actually read the entire post, I did not self-diagnose my little one. First of all, self-diagnosing is, well…diagnosing one’s self…not one’s child.
Secondly, Scarlet Fever was suggested by ‘real’ medical personnel that I often consult with.
What you are failing to grasp in the midst of your slightly-off-base-lecture is that it doesn’t really matter if it was definitively identified through a swab. It would have been treated the same, regardless of the outcome. The human body does not need synthetic, dangerous drugs like antibiotics. What the body needs, regardless of what the disease may be, is fresh, healthy food/drinks; rest; natural, immune-boosting stimulants (herbs); sunlight. Those things were all given. At no point was the scarlet fever left untreated.
Your inability to understand or accept the fact that herbal medicine is viable and extremely effective does not make it untrue. You are free to take the more dangerous path of antibiotics and medical intervention if your child is ever in this situation. I wish you the best of luck in that venture!
As for sending my possibly-sick child to school to infect others….did you miss the part about keeping her home from school? The reality is, most kids wandering the halls of every school in America are most likely carrying some type of ‘bug’. Flu bug, cold bug, shedding from a live-vaccine, chicken pox….something. My kid just might have been carrying a strep bug, right along with the other handful of kids doing the same thing. Truth is, though, after all of the immune-system building and cleansing of her system, she was more likely the cleanest, most bug-free kid in the whole school.
Finally, though, I wonder if someone like you really believes that I simply did a Google search and decided to treat my child. Do you really think I would undertake this task without knowing all of the possible outcomes and how to avoid them? There was no ignorance, willful (this is the proper way to spell it, btw) or otherwise. You know what they say about assuming things, right…?
My 2 daughters currently have scarlet fever.
Would you tell me how you make that immune booster?
Hi Kobus!
The recipe is:
Equal amounts fresh lemon juice and raw, local honeyy, 4-5 cloves of pressed garlic, a 1″-2″ piece of fresh grated ginger root and a pinch of cayenne. Take 1 Tablespoon every 3-4 hours until all of the symptoms Scarlet Fever have been gone for 72 hours.
Good luck and I hope your daughters get well very soon!
Thank You so much.
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for sharing your story!!!! My daughter is going through this exact same thing and although I have been panicked a few times and wanted to rush her to the ER, my gut keeps telling me to treat this naturally, that this whole experience will just make her immune system that much stronger! I’m so grateful you shared! It calmed my fears:) I think western medicine has done a great job placing fear in us, but really God created our bodies to do some pretty amazing things.
Hi, I’m always looking to solve things/illnesses naturally first if I can and I’d love to know more about what you do. I was a little worried about the scarlett fever without antibiotics because of the danger of rheumatoid fever later down the line, but our immune system is there for a reason is it not?! If you have an email list, please feel free to add me to it and thank you for sharing!