Stuttering is one of the commonest problems faced by growing children when they learn to speak sentences. Stuttering is also known as stammering and there is difficulty in pronouncing initial consonants in words. It is due to spasm of lingual and palatal muscles. Stuttering is a speech defect characterized by hesitation or stumbling and spasmodic repetition of some syllables with pauses. It usually begins between ages of 2 and 5 years, a period in which there is non-fluency of speech, and mostly occurring in boys.
It is quite obvious that children who are unable to cope with environmental and emotional stresses at this tender, growing age are more likely to stutter. The parents and playmates, which remind the child of this stumbling, hesitant speech or ridicule him, to the point he loses his self-confidence and becomes more hesitant to speak. Thus, they aggravate his stress and child goes into a shell, socially isolated from others.
Most children show some degree of repetition and hesitation in their speech at some phase of early life with individual speech variations. Parents should be reassured and advised that stuttering during phase of non-fluent speech (between ages of 2 and 5 years) will gradually pass off and hence not pressurize the child.
Homeopathy and Counseling to parents have worked wonderfully in treating mild cases to fully developed stuttering. Parents should know that this is a reversible condition with homeopathy and that stress caused by conflict between parent’s expectations and child’s achievements could precipitate or snowball into stammering in many children.
Homeopathy treats the cause of stammering like stress, shyness, fears, cerebral palsy, learning inefficiencies, etc, thereby reversing this condition. Parents should first understand that stammering is perfectly treatable and such children are not mentally challenged or retarded. In fact, their IQ levels could be higher than average, for that particular age.
Thus, homeopathy with counseling is recommended in such children with speech defects. Speech defects can be sorted with homeopathy and proper intake of homeopathic medicines. Such children can recite or sing poems without stuttering, and this inspires confidence that the defect is not an irreversible, life-long problem.
Pica is the craving for indigestible, non-edible substance in children; commonly include clay, paint, mud, paper, wall plaster, chalk, etc. Thus the child is often fond of eating such non-nutritive food items for a fairly longtime like a 1 month. Mostly, craving for pica is due to dietary imbalances and iron deficiencies.
Tasting or mouthing of inedible, strange objects is normal in infants and children up to the age of 2 years. Persistence of this habit after the age of 2 years is due to poor supervision by parents, parental neglect, abuse, lack of affection.
children are slower in mental development, have mental in-coordination, slow motor development, neurological defects and deviant behavior. Craving for pica is common in children from lower socio-economic status, poverty and malnourished, and in mentally subnormal children, pervasive developmental disorder, developmental disabilities, etc.
Once affected, these children show symptoms of eating inedible foods and symptoms are chronic abdominal pain and pallor and are prone to lead poisoning.
Homeopathy has proven medicines to treat the unnatural craving for pica in children particularly in developing cases and mild to moderate stages. As the part of treatment, the child should be taught discrimination between edible and non-edible food items.
Homeopathy effectively treats the cause of pica craving like malnutrition, iron deficiency, childhood disabilities and removes the cause of disease. Treat the child as a whole and not just symptoms is the key to treatment.
Once the cause is found out, the symptoms can be treated with homeopathic remedies. Parents are advised to take care of the child properly with proper bonding. In cases where the craving occurs due to dietary insufficiencies, nutritional imbalances, iron deficiency; extra nutrients, supplements, multi-vitamins can be added to the child’s diet.
Sleep Disturbances are the commonest problems encountered by parents during the growing process. The child may suddenly wake up after a frightful dream, nightmare. The child may have fear of the dark, difficulty in falling asleep, bed-wetting, night walking, enuresis, somnambulism, etc. Children’s sleep patterns include half-open eyes sleep, screaming in sleep, etc.
Physical causes of sleeping problems in children include parasites, pinworms, bruxism, magnesium deficiency, bed wetting, restless leg syndrome, etc.
Emotional causes include undue worrying, over-thinking of problems, anxiety, nightmares, fears, shock, insomnia, etc. Sleep problems or sleep deprivation is debilitating for parents and care-givers.
Homeopathy takes into consideration the complete state of the individual. Homeopathy treats the cause of sleep disturbance like anxiety, worms, bed-wetting, nightmares, etc. and removes illnesses from the roots. There are specific remedies covering sleep disorders and this successful application yields promising results in children.
Homeopathy treats the episodes of sleep disturbances and aid in normal sleep. Homeopathy eliminates unhealthy sleep patterns like disturbed or difficult sleep. Faulty lifestyle can be corrected by care-givers and homeopathic treatment alongside gives satisfying results in sleep disturbances in children.