Who profits from your fears?
By Mary Aspinwall, ISHom, PCH, Registered Homeopath

A report just out from the Food Commission (UK) warns that the contents of children's medicines (including cough syrups, paracetamol tablets and teething gels) contain dyes, preservatives, and sweeteners, which are so dangerous they are banned in food and drink aimed at under-threes. One product alone contained eight “E” numbers. Although these additives can lead to asthma, wheezing, skin rashes or act as mild laxatives, few of the medicines displayed any warnings of these possible side effects, even in the small print.

Always read the label
A Food Commission spokesman, Ian Tokelove, said additives were usually listed in fine print inside product packs. "If you are a concerned parent, you are often not going to know what is in medicine until you get it home." The commission is lobbying the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to ensure child medicines are additive-free.

Fevers are the solution, not the problem…
Aside from these most recently publicised dangers, children’s medicines may be undermining children’s health in other ways, too. Many of these products are marketed by convincing anxious parents that fevers are a dangerous problem to be rectified, but in fact the fever is not the problem, it is part of the solution.

Hippocrates the father of modern medicine is reported to have said:”Give me a fever and I can cure any ailment”. A fever simply means that the process of healing is speeding up. Because a fever is regulated by the body as part of its self protection mechanisms, it rarely reaches a hazardous level.

A basic fever, caused by acute bacterial or viral illness, means the immune system is working at its best. Most animals (certainly vertebrates) respond to illness with a fever and animal studies show when fever is blocked they are much more likely to die.
What happens during fever?

The fever process is fascinating. When a person develops an infection, white blood cells release pyrogens, raising the body’s temperature and stimulating the production of additional white blood cells; increasing their activity and move them rapidly to the infection site, in a process known as “leucotaxis”. These cells then fight the infection by destroying the bacteria and viruses and removing the dead tissue. Metabolic rate and oxygen consumption also increases. Iron, which bacteria need to survive, is removed from the blood and stored in the liver, reducing the rate at which the bacteria can multiply. Later a substance called interferon (a natural antiviral and anticancer substance) joins in the fray. Fever promotes sweating, fasting and sleep, three good things in any illness. When a fever is artificially suppressed, by any method, the body's defense system can’t be fully activated and the true situation is likely to be masked. Repeated sabotage of the immune system in this way leaves it weakened and less able to respond effectively.

When not to panic
One child can be very sick with a low or even subnormal temperature, whilst another child can be quite well whilst running a high fever. Trusting your instincts and observing your child’s other symptoms closely is more important than the reading on your thermometer, because the severity of a fever is not a reliable indicator of how serious the illness is. If your child is drinking, urinating once every 3- 8 hours, can be cheered up or consoled and still shows interest in things, it is unlikely that there is anything seriously wrong.

Fever – Does and Don’ts

DO
Get them to take sips of water, watered down fruit juice, light vegetable broths if all else fails tempt them with ice lollies!
Encourage your child to rest and sleep, this is Nature’s best cure
Be guided by them about how covered up they want to be
Console them and reassure them that this is the body’s way of making them well
Act to bring down fevers over 104 ºF (40c) using tepid baths, fans, conventional or homeopathic medicines (for advice see www.homeopathyworld.com)
Observe their other symptoms closely and get professional medical help if you are concerned
Get professional medical advice if your child has a febrile convulsion
DON’T
Give any product that contains aspirin as it reduces the effectiveness of white blood cells during fever
Give sugary or processed foods
Force a child to eat if they have no appetite.

FEVER FACTS
Normal body temperature (adult) 98.6ºF (37ºC)
Normal body temperature (child) 97º - 99.4ºF (36º and 37.4ºC)
This can be raised one or two degrees F by:
hot food, recent exercise, over-dressing, hot weather, overheated rooms
Fevers usually hit their highest point in the late afternoon or evening.
Children often have their lowest temperature of the day early in the morning.
Febrile convulsions are frightening to observe, but are thankfully usually short (five minutes or less), benign and don’t generally reoccur.
Some authorities say fever is unlikely to cause brain damage in a previously healthy child. During most infections, the brain keeps body temperature at or below 104°F (40°C). So in most - not all - cases, you don't need to be afraid that your child's temperature is going to continue to rise above that point.
Very high fevers - above 106°F (41°C) can harm the heart and brain.

© Mary Aspinwall

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