If you use homeopathy in children, you are probably familiar with the situation in which, during an interview with the parents or the child, you do not discover any peculiar symptoms that would reliably lead you to a specific homeopathic remedy.
In other words, no matter how hard you try, with most children you come to the conclusion that there is nothing peculiar about them, and so you choose one of the following strategies to find the missing information:
- You begin asking in detail about the modalities of the main problem (e.g. when the eczema itches, when the cough is worst, and what aggravates or ameliorates the particular problem).
- You ask the parents the question: “What is the child’s character like?”
- You begin investigating food preferences.
As you can probably guess (and most likely know from your own experience), these strategies lead nowhere. You may obtain a little more information, but this type of information will not lead you to the correct remedy. Why?
Modalities are the least important for determining the remedy (in most cases, they are common for the particular problem). Most coughs are worse in the evening after lying down, and most eczemas itch after becoming warm. These symptoms are related to the particular disease, but they are not related to the given patient suffering from that disease.
The patient’s character is never a guide to the remedy because it is not caused by the diseased state. Character defines the patient in the healthy state while mental and emotional symptoms represent a deviation from the state of health.
And food preferences? We all have some, and that is why they are so easy to discover. A preference, however, is not the same as a pathological desire (craving) or a pathological aversion. A great deal depends here on the intensity and also on the type of preference in relation to age.
For example, a desire for sweets can be found in most children, meaning that this desire is in no way unusual in children unless it unusualy intense (e.g. the child eats plain sugar in large quantities whenever given the opportunity). In order for us to take information from this area into consideration, it must be a pathological desire or a pathological aversion.
So what is it that prevents us from seeing and recognizing important symptoms in children (beyond the main problem) that most often lead us to the correct remedy?
Imagine several patients who need the same remedy, for example Calcarea carbonica:
- Each of them has a different diagnosis.
- One of them is mentally and emotionally healthy, while another has developed mental or emotional symptoms.
- Each of them has a different character.
- In one of them we see a complete picture of symptoms (the totality of symptoms) clearly indicating the particular remedy, whereas in another we find only a combination of several key symptoms of that remedy.
To know a remedy (in this case Calcarea carbonica) means being able to recognize it in all of these patients.
So what can you do in order to be able to recognize symptoms that are currently “invisible” to you?
- Do Not Perceive a Remedy as a Fixed Picture
The most common problem with materia medica is that the homeopath associates the remedy with only one specific scenario or situation. For example, that Baryta carbonica is a remedy for mentally retarded children, Sepia is a remedy for women, and Aconitum is a remedy for acute conditions.
Because of this (incorrect) understanding of homeopathic remedies, most practitioners do not think of Baryta carbonica in children who are not mentally retarded, they practically never consider Sepia in children, and Aconitum in a child with chronic complaints is the last remedy that would come to their mind.
If you took a group of, for example, 10 children who recovered after a certain homeopathic remedy (e.g. Baryta carbonica), at first glance these children would not resemble one another at all. Yes, they must have some symptoms in common, but these very symptoms will create a completely different combination in each of them and will be part of a different context.
Below I provide a short list of successful pediatric cases in which a long-term therapeutic effect was achieved precisely with the help of the remedy Baryta carbonica.
The first three children (see below) showed no signs of mental retardation, and their complaints manifested primarily in the physical sphere. In the fourth case, mild mental pathology and marked emotional complaints were present (marked lack of self-confidence).
- Left-Sided Gynecomastia in a 7-Year-Old Boy
- Atopic Eczema in a 6-Month-Old Girl
- Chronic Cough and Hypertrophy of the Adenoid in a 6-Year-Old Boy
- Learning Disorders in a 13-Year-Old Girl
When studying a homeopathic remedy, it is essential that we become familiar with all of its aspects. It is precisely this knowledge that prevents us from perceiving a remedy as a fixed, static picture that will be the same in everyone.
Each homeopathic remedy represents a pattern that manifests in different patients through different combinations of the key aspects of that particular remedy. The pattern of a remedy does not mean a “shopping list of symptoms,” but rather the unique relationships between them (see the example with Belladonna below).
- Try to Understand What Differentiates a Particular Remedy from All Others
By this I do not mean knowledge of the type that Lycopodium is right-sided and therefore differs from Lachesis, which is left-sided. I mean understanding the unique way in which a remedy modifies disease and creates a specific pattern.
For example, one of the key aspects of Belladonna that modifies essentially any disease is intense local congestion. When a child has a fever, there is sudden and intense congestion of the head (intense heat of the head + intense redness of the face).
The same congestion of the head can be seen in a child who needs this remedy and suffers from anger spells (during which the child becomes extremely red, with a hot head and cold extremities).
The same congestion of the head can be seen in a woman who suffers from migraines, or in another woman who suffers from hot flushes during the climacteric (if both need this remedy).
If Belladonna is indicated in a child or an adult with atopic eczema, one of the first signs you will see is an intensely red coloration of the eczema (which is the result of intense local congestion). The redness is so strong that it looks as though the eczema had been drawn onto the skin with a bright red marker.
Belladonna modifies other complaints in the same way, for example if it is indicated in severe acne with suppuration in which marked local congestion predominates (the acne is extremely sensitive to the slightest touch and the patient feels as if his cheeks are burning, while the hands and feet are cold).
We see the same congestion in Belladonna in hemorrhoids, which pulsate and are so sensitive to touch that the patient has to hold the buttocks apart, similarly to the remedy Paeonia. In other words, whatever disease we see in Belladonna, the intense congestion will always be the part of it.
This is only one aspect of Belladonna, which is connected to another one, and if we see the connection between both of them (as you will read further), it is precisely this characteristic pattern (connection) that may indicate this remedy (Belladonna has many more such aspects, and I am mentioning only these two here). So what is the second aspect? Whenever congestion of the head occurs, the patient begins to experience intense anger.
Anger in Belladonna appears as a concomitant to congestion of the head.
For example, during fever the child bites, has fits of anger, and jumps out of bed (in this case, it is a type of delirium caused by irritation of the meninges as a result of severe congestion).
Women who suffer from menopausal hot flushes, which they feel primarily in the head, experience strong outbursts of anger during the hot flush (congestion of the head). The same applies in sunstroke, migraines (during which we also observe symptoms of severe congestion such as pulsating pains and a sensation of intense heat in the cheeks), and many other complaints.
In other words, whenever congestion of the head occurs for any reason and in any disease, intense anger is added to it. And what is very important—it also works the other way around. When a Belladonna patient experiences intense anger, it is precisely this anger that triggers very intense congestion of the head. These 2 symptoms always go hand in hand, regardless of the name of the disease.
This is only a small example of how fascinating the study of materia medica is and how understanding the unique pattern enables us to recognize a particular remedy regardless of sex, age, or the name of the disease.
Once you understand the unique pattern of a remedy, for example Belladonna, you will be able to recognize it not only in a child with fever, but also in children suffering from eczema or fits of anger, in women with climacteric hot flushes or recurrent migraines, and in other clinical situations. Your understanding of Belladonna will not be reduced to a fixed idea that it is a remedy “for fevers.”
This is the way in which the renowned homeopaths of history, such as Dr. Kent, Dr. Lippe, or Dr. M. L. Tyler, understood and used homeopathic remedies.
- Use Your Imagination
I do not mean that you should imagine symptoms that are not there, because the picture of a remedy is given by the proving. I mean that you should try to imagine every key aspect (keynote) of the remedy in a real patient.
For example, in the remedy Natrum muriaticum we find marked hysterical manifestations. Under ordinary circumstances (in adults), these manifestations are very well controlled (they are not apparent to those around them) and manifest only under certain circumstances (after drinking alcohol or in states of emotional breakdown).
In Natrum muriaticum children, however, hysterical manifestations occur on a daily basis because children (due to the immaturity of the nervous system) have a reduced ability to control their emotions. When you read in materia medica that a Natrum muriaticum child is hysterical, it is very unlikely that you will recognize hysteria when you see it, unless you find out what hysteria actually is and how it manifests in children.
For this purpose, it is ideal to use medical literature (e.g. an online medical dictionary) and your imagination (you imagine what a child looks like with manifestations that you have just learned are manifestations of hysteria).
If you imagine a child who, from the slightest stimulus, throws himself on the floor, screams, kicks around, etc., it will be much easier for you to recognize a hysterical state when you see it and think of Natrum muriaticum (or Ignatia) in such a case.
Another example may be irritability in Nux vomica. Every homeopath knows that Nux vomica has excessive irritability. However, knowing a symptom and being able to recognize it are two different things.
If a child answers angrily to any question, the homeopath may take it personally and become angry or begin to feel antipathy toward the child and the parents.
However, if you use your imagination already while studying this remedy and try to imagine a real child with all the typical manifestations of Nux vomica irritability that you find in materia medica (aversion to being questioned, irritability during questioning, etc.), then you will recognize these manifestations as symptoms as soon as you see them.
What would previously have been merely a bad impression of the child, which would have disturbed your relationship with him, may turn out to be the decisive symptom that had until then been invisible to you.
Remember that in children, what the parents tell you is only a very small part of the information that gives you a complete picture of the child necessary for determining the exact remedy. Your observation plays a key role here and should be completely unbiased.
The techniques described above are what help us improve our ability to extract the child’s symptoms through our own observation.
The most important technique, however, is clinical experience with real cases. which is the fastest and most reliable way to acquire these skills and improve the success rate of your homeopathic practice.
NOTE: Petr Zachariáš -is holding an International Clinical Training with live cases & follow-ups starting October 2026 | Live via Webex / The course will be held in English. Click here for more information
