Alternative therapies may benefit children as well
April 9, 2009 by Personal Liberty News Desk
Doctors increasingly believe that children can benefit from safe and effective complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies.
Alternative medicine has been shown to be effective when OTC medications were not. Doctors now increasingly recommend natural remedies such as honey to treat common colds or cough in children over the age of one.
"There is a huge place for complementary and alternative medicine in pediatrics," says Dr. Dolores Mendelow, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases at the University of Michigan Medical School.
She also stresses that CAM therapies are safe and effective if conducted under the supervision of a physician.
Dr. Mendelow further points to acupuncture, nutritional supplements and herbal or botanical therapies as being most promising for the treatment of a range of common childhood illnesses.
In addition to that, therapies such as yoga, with its deep breathing techniques, have been show to relieve symptoms in asthmatic patients and reduce stress in teens and adolescents.
According to a survey by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 40 percent of adults and more than 10 percent of children sought alternative medicine help in 2007.
Some have suggested that the increasingly dysfunctional healthcare system that excludes millions of Americans and frequently provides insufficient coverage for those who have insurance has also contributed to the growing popularity of alternative medicine. 
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Alternative or natural remedies do work….. I have treated my children for ear aches and infections successfully with garlic and olive oil. They will be smelly for a few days, but that beats the questionable overuse of antibiotics. Honey works better for a sore throat or cough better than any OTC med. As with anything, do your research and use natural ingredients with caution because they can be dangerous. Garlic can cause serious burns.
It is a sad state of affairs when economy woes keep children from getting the care they need. Unfortunately, CAM does not offer the goods when it comes to child care, and there are no clinical studies showing otherwise. Even NCCAM, which has been funded hundreds of millions of taxpayer’s dollars over the past decade, lets down proponents of CAM in government.
I know for a fact that alternative medicine works. I have a deep tissue massage every week, and I have come from not being able to do much and feeling terrible, to being able to be up and around, do a few chores, and feeling so much better. It works!
My daughter uses alternative medicine in treating herself and her children for ear aches, colds, coughs, muscle aches and they all get over their cold or whatever more quickly than if they had gotten something OTC or if serious enough, from the doctor. My daughter used one of the preparations on her father’s leg, which had been broken from a car rolling over it. It was still swollen and hurting a lot when he visited her several weeks after the accident, so she used the preparation on his leg and within an hour, the swelling was down and he had relief from the pain.
Home remedies and herbs do actually work. It is necessary at times to visit a doctor for some things, so don’t just abandon “modern medicine” but using alternative medicine with modern medicine can be just what is needed.
my daughter hated washing her hands. I admit i let her get away with being “dirty” rather than fighting her to wash. end result – she was rarely ill. one ear infection in 20 years. hard to believe i have lived as long as i have without the benefit of disinfectant wipes. honey and lemon for sore throats has always been in my family.
Love good natural remedy and alternative remedy blogs like this, we really need more of them to better educate the people. Keep up the good work!