Homeopathy At Home with Melissa
I am a Registered Homeopath and Lactation Consultant who loves Jesus and believes in the power of prayer in healing and restoration. God designed our bodies to heal themselves. We interfere with the body’s abilities by introducing medications which stop the action our bodies were made to do - heal! Homeopathy comes in and stimulates the immune system to help the body remember how to heal itself. ALL people are welcomed here, no matter your beliefs! I discuss mostly homeopathy here, but also I bring an encouraging word from the Lord and touch on the topics of parenting, homeschooling, marriage, and nutrition. Welcome to my world! It’s a beautiful, healthy life!
Homeopathy At Home with Melissa
Managing Whooping Cough with Homeopathy
Send a text to Melissa and she’ll answer it on the next episode.
Can whooping cough be managed effectively outside of conventional medicine? Join us for a compelling episode where we uncover the reality of this alarming illness, especially through the lens of a mother’s fear and determination. Melissa shares her heart-wrenching story of her son developing whooping cough shortly after vaccination, detailing the chilling progression from mild cold symptoms to severe, uncontrollable coughing fits. We also address the limitations of traditional medical practices and open the door to alternative approaches, shedding light on how homeopathy can offer hope and relief.
Tune in to learn about specific homeopathic remedies that could make a significant difference in managing whooping cough. We discuss the benefits of Drosera for those with loose, rattly coughs and Ipecac for managing gagging and vomiting due to thick mucus. Explore the potential of Pertussin as a preventive measure and the use of various remedies for complications like pneumonia and fever. Whether you're familiar with homeopathy or seeking new ways to support your child's health, this episode provides practical advice and resources like Dr. Murphy's homeopathic repertory that can guide you through each stage of this daunting illness.
Welcome back to Homeopathy at Home with Melissa hey.
Speaker 2:Melissa, hey Brie, I'm excited to talk about a not so exciting topic but useful for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tonight we are going to be talking about whooping cough, so this topic is, I think, potentially triggering for some people, or just something that can create a lot of fear, especially, I think, more for moms of young babies. It's something that is talked about, at least when I had little babies like this is the most dangerous thing to look out for in them dangerous thing to look out for in them. So I'm hoping this will be really helpful.
Speaker 2:I know you have a lot of remedies to talk about, so should we just get started? Yeah, so you know, just just touching quickly on what the scary part of it. It is scary because it affects breathing and then when you can't breathe you can't live, and and so, yeah, it's scary. But you know what? Um, I've seen homeopathy do much more, and all the scary situations or I guess I should say a lot of scary situations do a lot better job. A much better job than conventional medical practices.
Speaker 2:And my own experience with whooping cough was when my oldest son I don't know he was either one or two and I only remember that because of where we lived at the time and I remember calling an ambulance for him in the middle of the night Actually it was 11 pm, but he had just gotten the whooping cough vaccine the day or two before. And then it's 11 pm, I'm getting ready for bed and all of a sudden he comes into me. He can't breathe. You know, he's like, and I'm like what? I have no idea what's happening. This was sudden out of nowhere and, um, I call an ambulance because I have zero idea what's even, why my baby can't breathe, what's happening? So it didn't start with, like the, you know, he's just coughing. So, anyway, we go to the hospital and I actually I mean, this was almost 30 years ago, so it maybe he did have a cold before and I just didn't know, I don't know. You know, like that was so long ago. All I know is that there was a. Suddenly, there was a sudden thing that I had to call the ambulance and he was diagnosed with whooping cough. But it wasn't until years later.
Speaker 2:When I put the two things together, I was like, oh, when I started learning about conventional medical practices and I and I just said, oh, you know what, he had that vaccine. Right before he ended he got whooping cough. So it did not prevent whooping cough for him, and so that's my experience. But what, what is whooping cough? How do, how would you know? And then we don't diagnose and we don't, you know we're not suggesting you self-diagnose but what even? What is it? What's, what characterizes it? What, even what is?
Speaker 1:it? What characterizes it? So whooping cough is obviously a type of cough, but it is a long lingering cough typically and a lot of times. I think why it also can be scary is because it often starts mild and seems just like a normal cold. So you get normal cold symptoms. It can develop into a cough so you might have, like all the cold stuff congestion in your nose or your eyes are bothering you, maybe a fever and a cough. But what sets it apart? And this is obviously again, we're not trying to prescribe anything or diagnose anything, but this is just typical progression.
Speaker 1:So, like with Chandler, for you it didn't happen that way, but a lot of times it is a week or two later that that cough starts to worsen and the cough sticks around and it gets really thick. A lot of thick mucus accumulates in the airways and that is what causes that uncontrollable coughing and it can get pretty severe and have those long coughing attacks where you can't catch your breath. They may vomit from just either coughing so much or not being able to breathe. Well, they in severe cases, if there's not a lot of oxygen, you might notice blue face, blue lips or red from coughing so much, extreme fatigue, from not being able to breathe super well. And the whooping cough part is because when they breathe in after that coughing fit you hear like a whoop.
Speaker 1:So I've never, my kids have never had it. But I can imagine the first time I heard a croup cough they would describe it like a seal barking and I I mean I'd never heard that, but when I heard it I knew exactly what that was. So I don't know, did you remember hearing that?
Speaker 2:Well, so that's what I was going to say. You just described it very well. Could have happened that way. But again, being almost 30 years ago, I don't remember. I wasn't keeping notes back then. All what I remember was the urgency and the sudden, you know, him coming to me. I'm getting ready to go to bed and he comes to me and I'm like you know, we're alone, by ourselves. I mean, I was a single mom and we lived alone and, um, you know, I call an ambulance. So that's really all I remember about that.
Speaker 2:He very well could have been sick. Listen, the child was sick for the first three years of his life Constant ear infections, strep, throat, antibiotics. You know, if you've ever heard any of my story, you know it was because he was so sick and we were constantly going to the doctor and he was constantly getting antibiotics. Then he got this GI condition and then that's what started me in homeopathy, when I left the doctor's office and she said, oh here, just give him this medicine indefinitely. And I was like Something doesn't feel right. So I went and started researching.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I did see, though too, not not everybody gets that whoop Like, so I think also people will wait for that big like it becoming very obvious, kind of like croup you. It becomes kind of obvious, but sometimes it's just a cough for a long time and you don't even notice that it's gotten so um, junky I guess, like in their lungs, and it's obvious. It's spread pretty easily, just like a lot of other things. So droplets. So if somebody coughs or sneezes or you touch something at the store that somebody's touched, I mean it's spread like most coughs, and I think that's also. And people that is something prescribed or not prescribed but recommended during pregnancy the DTaP vaccine is encouraged because they want your baby to be protected from that when they're born. Infants are the most at risk because their bronchioles are so small, and so that is. Those are the things you hear, and I'm saying it that way because that is what you hear and not that none of this is dangerous.
Speaker 1:But I'm saying that because I my journey to homeopathy was very similar, similar in my mind. I didn't have all the stuff that you had to walk through with your oldest, but it became where I just there was not answers for these things other than just more medication, and I had seen that not work for my family before, um, with croup for my oldest, but um, what felt really empowering to me was learning about these things. And then, how? What can I do to take care of this if we were to get it at home? And that's where I started learning homeopathy. I learned other things at the time too, within like the natural realm, but luckily we've never had to deal with it. Um, now, though, I would not be worried at all. The freedom that comes from knowing I have I'm equipped to take care of these things is the biggest gift I think homeopathy has brought my life. Like, I'm not scared of any of these things.
Speaker 2:So, that said, yep, I agree, that's that I was telling my daughter the other day, um, what happened. I had, like I had a sudden stomach ache or something, and I was like I texted, um, I texted the family chat or just the kids, and said I'm going to lay down, nobody wake me up. And then she was like later um, she was asking me what, what happened, what's wrong? I was like I don't know. But you know, I knew, and what I said to her next is this is why I love homeopathy. I had the tools in my hand.
Speaker 2:I knew that that CarboVeg was going to work, it's just going to take a little bit of time. And so I didn't have any fear or worry over that, where years ago, before homeopathy, I would have absolutely been worried about oh my gosh, what's coming next, what's going to happen, what's? You know what's going to. And no, and I don't do any of that anymore so, um, yeah, so I, you know, I want to start with the way um, whooping cough starts is it looks like just a cold. So you don't know, and so so that's the again, the beauty of homeopathy. You just address the symptoms that are presenting. If it looks like a cold, take cold, calm. You know, if you've got a little cough, take the little remedy that that matches the little cough.
Speaker 1:I was going to say that I want. I mean, there's literally no way for us to know without everyone getting diagnosed. But I wonder how often homeopathy takes care of these things so early on that we wouldn't. It wouldn't get to the point where you would even know you had whooping cough. Exactly, exactly that I it's funny that you said that. I thought that as soon as you're about to say that you have a little cough, you treat the little cough, yeah, whatever it is, whatever the symptoms are.
Speaker 2:So I don't even have to know, um, and using homeopathy, that it's called whooping cough. So we don't, I don't have to diagnose. Um, you know, and you don't have to, you don't have to know it's whooping cough. So here's the remedy Um, it's, you know. You can use the symptoms that Bree just described and if you're matching those symptoms, these remedies are going to match those symptoms, no matter what it's called.
Speaker 2:So Drosera is number one for whooping cough. And remember, these remedies are spelled in the blog, on my blog, on my website, and so Drosera has you would know to use. Well, first of all, it's number one for whooping cough, but then you would know to use um Drosera if it's a loose, rattly cough with yellow mucus. Um, the voice is deep and hoarse, there's pain in the chest, underneath the ribs, they might vomit from too much mucus, and worse at night, worse for singing or talking. So I really like Drosera.
Speaker 2:30 or 200. It's probably, you know, I would use one of those potencies 30 C or 200 C. Drosera can also be taken. So, let's say, somebody in your family has whooping cough, the rest of everybody else in the family can take a dose of Drosera to help strengthen their immune system and help them you know, possibly probably not get it Ipecac Ipecac is also a big whooping cough remedy and because it's remember, ipecac is also a big whooping cough remedy and because, remember, ipecac is the nag and gag, so is there a lot of gagging with whooping cough, I think did you say that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it can become that and even vomiting, because the mucus is so thick that you cough and cough and cough until you throw up.
Speaker 2:Yep, so yep, vomiting from too much mucus is in Ipecac, choking and gagging on mucus, bringing up white, thick mucus, and they might even get a nosebleed with the cough. So, um, ipecac, drosera, and um, oh, here's just a little note in my notes. I'll read to you If you have an ongoing cough, or you know someone who has a cough that they just can't seem to shift, then it may be the whooping cough, sometimes coined the 100-day cough, and so cases are becoming increasingly common in England and Wales. And blah, blah, blah. So we have homeopathy Pertussin. Pertussin is a remedy, pertussin 30C, and it is made from the potentized whooping cough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the bacteria is Bordetella pertussis, so that's a no-sode made from that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so Pertussin I actually just get. I made a little kit for a friend of mine and I gave her a little thing of Pertussin and she was like no, and she was writing down what each remedy was for and I said you'll probably never need this, but I wanted you to have it on hand in case you do need it. And so Pertussin 30C can shorten the duration and reduce the intensity of whooping cough. You can use it alongside the best match remedy that we talked about already, or one that we're going to talk about, and it can also be used to help strengthen your immune system if you've been exposed or you know, if you have other people in your family or you've been, yeah, closely, closely exposed. I would say you could, you could take Pertussin.
Speaker 1:I have a question about that from just knowing the principle of homeopathy, the law of similars, right that we use similar, and there I have seen a few cases where the no-sode of that thing can be recommended to use during an outbreak or during an episode, if you want to call it that. I mean just your personal thoughts on that, like if pertussis or pertussin is the whooping cough potentized when you have whooping cough, that doesn't match the law of similars, that's what do you call it Isopathy?
Speaker 2:Isopathy Yep.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And that still can work. Yep, yeah, isopathy works. Isopathy is a method of homeopathy, but or well, well, a method of, of practice and within the homeopathy, homeopathic um world. But that's right, isopathy means same, so you're taking the same, just like if you were to get stung by a bee, a honeybee, and you take apis. That's isopathy. That's not even homeopathy, but it still works.
Speaker 1:Yeah Okay. Um, I it still works. Yeah Okay, I anticipated that question. So that's have you ever given anyone else Pertussin?
Speaker 2:No, I get actually. Yes, I did so. Last year there was a little whooping cough scare and a place that we frequent I'm not going to give details and and there was a family that was greatly affected. But then there was another family that was directly, you know, in contact with them and so they quarantine, they did all the things that the health department told them to do and I gave that that family Pertussin and I I believe that they did use it, you know, once, maybe one dose or two doses, just to be safe, and nothing ever came up, they never got sick. Okay, Okay.
Speaker 1:So I did want to ask a couple other, let's say like follow-up questions to that. Let's say, somebody has whooping cough and it develops into pneumonia, what are maybe some other remedies that might not be just for whooping cough but to have on hand, for I know? We've talked about it in other podcasts but if it develops into pneumonia or you get a fever, how do you think you would address that if it was late stage?
Speaker 2:Yeah, pneumonia antimonium tart is number one for pneumonia Bladder, I think is great Fever. You know, it could be belladonna or aconite or chamomilla.
Speaker 1:Okay, good, I like to think through that for people who I mean, maybe if something changes and you need something else, okay, I'll go backwards. Then let's say, often in an acute, even though this is like a longer acute, is there, I guess, two questions. One is there a chance maybe a person with whooping cough would need Drosera for several weeks, or would you, I guess? I don't know if there's, I haven't ever had anyone I know have it. Is that something you've seen, or does it usually help within a shorter period of time?
Speaker 2:I have not seen it, I actually. So most of the people that I help or that come to me for help don't get diagnosed. So I don't know. You know they might come to me and say it sounds like a whooping cough, but yes, so you can use these remedies longer term. I don't know, you know they might come to me and say it sounds like a whooping cough, but yes, so you can use these remedies longer term. But if it, if it's becoming more chronic like that, you might. You're not going to use it every three hours for weeks. Then it might be just twice per day, or but yeah, the cough coughs can hang on, and then you just keep using the remedy that's actually working right. If it's not working, you change and then if it starts, if it becomes to just be a lingering thing with no end in sight, then sulfur 30C is a great remedy to try.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. And then one more question. Let's say, with a cough I don't know if this is typical with homeopathy and whooping cough specifically, but let's say, a lot of coughs start like really deep in the chest. And so you are, you know you're taking Drosera Ipecac. What if they start? It changes as they, excuse me, as they're getting better, either turns maybe into a drier cough at the end.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Would you change from that then?
Speaker 2:You, you follow the symptoms you could, yeah, so you know. Yeah, we know Bryonia is a dry cough and then we have the whole coughs podcast that we did, so you could always go there, but as long as it's presenting like whooping cough, these are going to be your main remedies. Yeah, um, dulcamara is another one that I always forget about. I pretty much never used Dulcamara, just because I forget about it, not because it's not good, and, um, you know, you could read it. Oh, I did want to say too, for anybody who, if you know these remedies aren't working or you need more ideas, you've already tried these and you know.
Speaker 2:Here you are, your, your repertory, so your homeopathic repertory. So, if you have the fourth edition of Dr Murphy's matter repertory, then on page 2537, there is whooping cough and you'll see a lot of remedies listed, a lot. It even goes to the next page. So you'll take the top ones or you'll look for the sub rubrics that match and you'll take the top ones, read them in your Materia Medica, see which one fits the best. And if you need more help and more guidance and learning how to do this, come to the mentorship program. Um, these we have coaching calls where we, where we can really practice this and get good at this yeah, awesome thank you, thanks for being here.
Speaker 2:That's whooping cough and I hope you never ever get it amen but we have the tools if we do, yep.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
