child with strep throat

The remedy depends on what precisely you mean with "Strep Throat".

If your child has already been diagnosed with Beta Haemolyticus Streptococcus, I would be the first to advise you to use a long course of Pennicillin to eradicate this bacteria which is an extremely dangerous type to be harboured in his throat as this can create a chronic condition in later life which can afffect the heart, kidneys and the joints. If you wish to be quite sure of his throat bacteria you can have a culture of his throat done at any laboratory to check for the Haemolyticus bug.

If however you have referred to the normal sore throat, you may use Belladonna 30c. Dose 2 pellets taken 4 times daily. You should observe an easing of his condition and also his headache after the second dose. This will indicate that he is responding to this remedy and if so you should continue using it till all symptoms have stabilized and for 1 day after when the dosage can be reduced to 3/day.

Maryo--

Just a word of warning, many times strep will clear up on its own, but should your boy develop a red rash, please take him in to see a doctor immediately. That rash is called scarlet fever and means the infection has spread. That can lead to rheumatic fever, which causes heart disease and arthritis even in children.

Antibiotics get overused, of course, but in an instance of scarlet fever, it's better to err on the side of caution. ;-)

I hope he gets better VERY quickly! Best wishes! :-)

Oh, and strep can also cause pneumonia. If his breathing gets labored or "rattly" please seek a professional for help.

I'm sure he'll be fine though. Like I said above, many cases of strep clear up all on their own. :-)

did the doctor actually take a swab to confirm strep throat?

A classic signal for scarlet fever is a strawberry red tongue. Also pale around the mouth and flushed on rest of face. rash tends to be on abdomen and chest. But not everything fits the classic picture.

Since you suspect strep, may I strongly suggest that you immediately get a laboratory test to confirm or rule out strep, and if strep to determine if it is penicillin resistant or sensitive.

If you wait till another two days go by you will have that much longer to wait to get results of a Culture and Sensitivity test.

I agree with Joe de Livera that strep is not something to play around with, and I think you need to know for sure what you are dealing with, ASAP.

Post Script:

It might help if by any chance you have an MD with openness to alternatives or an ND with strong medical knowledge in your area who can get the lab test underway, and then help you determine what is best to do for your son being able to see him in person. Someone who will be understanding that you want to avoid antibiotic as much as possible, but who will also know when they should be used.

Some places, I understand, have MD's who are also qualified homeopaths.

Post-post script, I looked up rheumatic fever in my Merck Manual 15th Edition (which is not the most recent) after I got offline. It states on page 2090,

"For unknown reasons, rheumatic fever is now a rare disease in the USA, even when streptococcal pharyngitis is not treated."

If you happen to be in the USA this might be relevant to you. And relevant to any discussion with a doctor about how to decide to treat this, if it is in fact Strep. More recent editions of this same book are available online.

Whatever you decide for the current acute illness it would no doubt be helpful to come back to homeopathy afterward to build up his constitutional vigor and immunity.

I'm disinclined to argue with Orume, but wanted to note also that my reading in the Merck Manual just now does not exactly accord with her or his statements. (Yes, streptococcus can be implicated in Scarlet Fever, Rheumatic Fever, and a pneumonia -- but the relation between these illnesses may be different than indicated. In particular it is not clear that scarlet fever represents "spread", nor that it represents moving on to rheumatic fever, rather it appears that the rash has to do with a toxin related to the bacteria being released. )As neither Orume nor I are doctors there is no point debating it here. I suggest you read for yourself.

I also note that whereas in my first post I mentioned possible penicillin resistant strep, that is not mentioned in what I just read. I thought I had heard that there was now resistant strep, but may have recalled wrong.

Good luck, and I hope he gets well soon.

I know that's why I suggested someone who has medical knowledge but is not too extreme toward either allopathic or avoiding allopathic side to help you evaluate and decide.

My Merck is an older doctor's type edition, not home, and says what I wrote--that even w/untreated strep, Rheumatic Fever has become rare. (It says this in the RF chapter not in the streptococcal infection chapter). Specifically that something around 3% even untreated may go on to RF. Only 0.1% of untreated cases w/ mild to asymptomatic strep may go on to RF. (guess if it is asymptomatic it would be hard to get an accurate figure, but anyhow your son sounds beyond the mild stage, from long distance reading of your post). So apparently they changed their mind about reason, or someone else wrote the relevant chapter.

My edition says about *Scarlet Fever* what yours says about Rheumatic F, that Scarlet Fever is probably now rare due to antibiotic treatment. But it is the RF that is the more serious thing to worry about due to potential permanent cardiac, and other associated problems.

I agree with you that even if this particular illness turns out to not be strep, that if it is common at his school and if you treat repeatedly with antibiotics that will be an awful lot of antibiotics. And may run him down to where he gets more and more strep.

All the more reason to try to find a good homeopathic way (boosted by nutrition and other supportive therapies) to build him up.

You probably need to keep him away from the other strep cases as much as possible too. Especially while working on building him up. Since it is summer this prob. works well right now.

Nowadays there is not much done with isolating people who are sick, staying home from school or work, or going to infirmary, not going on sleepovers when sick, but there probably should be.

Certainly basic lessons about washing hands frequently, esp. before eating or touching mucous membranes, using handerkerchiefs and so on might be useful for the whole group of kids not just yours.

If you have time and inclination you might look into what has been done in past times with homeopathy for infections, and or continue that inquiry in this thread or another with title more apt to attract people who might have knowledge about that particular area. And also look other ways of dealing with strep infections. (for example high doses of intravenous vit. C for some things, but I have no idea whether for strep.) The problem right now is that you really need to have your ducks all in a row on this before he gets sick and be ready to go if needed rather than to be trying to search it out during an acute illness.

After what I read though, I would be more comfortable with not jumping into the antibiotics immediately if it were my own child. I would still want to know what the culture showed, strep or not strep so as not to be guessing. Modern medicine is great at being able to do tests and figure out what is being dealt with--no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Right, RF, at least here in US and apparently in England is rare. Strep throat alone with or without scarlet fev. not such a big deal.

Also while thinking more on it I considered that my stepmom had RF as child--she had a really really bad year, but did not have lasting problems from it, so even if RF comes it is not nec. the case that it would lead to lifetime problems. I don't know what the % there is, but only some smaller % of the 3% will end up with permanent troubles. A final Merck quote for you, "except for carditis, all manifestations of rheumatic fever subside without residual effects." And not all RF cases get the carditis, and of those who do, it can range from very mild to severe--apparently with much higher risk in previous RF with carditis patients.

That being so, I decided if he were my child, unless he had a personal history of RF, esp with carditis, I would not use antibiotics.

I would probably do either what you did and go for various alternative remedies, or more likely now, I would choose (or get help to choose)whatever homeopathic remedy fit the individual symptoms and use that.

I'll look in and see after you sleep on it what you come up with.

to help clear the throat he can gargle with sage tea/infusion.
Gaertner 30c (a bowel nosode) can be helpful after antibiotics - 3 times daily for 3 days after the course has finished

If you really want this problem cured with homeopathy, you cant use homeopatic remedies wildy, and think one of them wil hit.
The case need to be handled properly, the case worked on as it is to be done, in homeopaty, and a single remedy chosen for it.
As it is now, with wild use of homeopathy, the picture is at its best clouded, and make a proper remedy choice difficult.
The worst scenario , is that the disease is seemingly cured, when its in reality supressed , and the disease go deeper, and transform into a far more serious form.
Often a deadly one, who works slow, over years.

And, if you want to avoid new problems in the future, mind this, strp do all have in the troath, why you get that angry type, is simply cause the defense is killed down, every day, by use of dental cream that contains antibiotica.

The internal tract, is only a continuance of ouer skin, and we have friendly bacterias on it, that defend us against harmfull bacterias and viruses.
When you constantly take in antibiotica, theres two things that happen, one is death of the friendlys,leaving us with a impaired or dead denfense, second, its a modifiction of the unfriendly bacterias, making them resistant to antibiotics.
I suggest one doee of hepar sulph 200, once only, to clear his system, for wrong remedies and the streps, along with getting antibi free dental cleaners.

As a ps,
Give udos super five , or eigth, as prescr on the bottles, for app 14 days minimum, or more, in order to build up a normal defense again.

allvis - where is the wild homeopathic treatment here, I do not understand?
Hepar Sulph is possible of course if the symptoms fit.

Maryo,

I am relieved to learn that you had finally consulted your doctor who had prescribed the antibiotic. I note however that you did not mention what the "strep" bacteria was and whether a throat swab was done by a laboratory to identify the bacteria. You did not also indicate the antibiotic prescribed.

You will remember that I specifically mentioned the Beta Haemolyticus Streptococcus (BHS) bacteria which is what you had to identify first prior to giving him the antibiotic. I believe that doctors in your country commonly classify many cases of bacterial infection in the throat as "strep". This is perhaps due to the lackadaisical approach adopted to patients by your GP's who perhaps are not knowledgeable or are too lazy to carry out the simple non invasive throat swab test with the culture to identify the offending bacteria.

I do realize that this may seem to be a case of my teaching the "grandmother to suck eggs" (English saying) but believe me that although I am not qualified either in Homeopathy or in Medicine, I have a reasonable experience in both sciences and I would strongly advice you to carry out this simple test a week after your son has completed his course of antibiotics. It will not do to do so right now as the antibiotic would have killed the offending bug.

I note that there have been many posts after mine all giving you advice on how your boy should be treated all of which I have read with interest. I did note however that none of these posts referred to my point, that you have this throat culture done in the interest of your son.

I do hope that you will do so in the future preferably when he gets his next infection as the BHS bug can go dormant after he seems cured after the antibiotic, which I hope was Penicillin based as it is most sensitive to this antibiotic.

If this organism is isloated, you will have to give him a long course of the same antibiotic Penicillin for about 6 months daily to eradicate it and also carry out further blood tests which will indicate the extent to which this bug has damaged his system. I would suggest that you consult a specialist ENT for this phase of treatment.

I agree with Joe here. Incidentally my doctor only prescribes antibiotics after taking a swab (except rarely in emergency while awaiting the swab) - when swabs are taken the bacteria is identified and also there is usually a lab 'test' done to find which antibiotic will treat this particular bacteria bug - this is obviously much more effective.