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The Childhood Ailments Part 3. By Harry Benjamin N.D.
Compiled and Edited by Ivor Hughes.

Unless the trouble is of very long standing, all enlargements of tonsils and adenoidal growths can be got rid of in time by natural means. Even very septic tonsils can be set right by treatment along natural lines; only in this case personal naturopathic treatment will be desirable � treatment, that is, at the hands of a duly qualified Naturopath. Self-treatment is hardly likely to be completely effective here. But all ordinary cases of tonsil and adenoid trouble can be treated in the home as follows :

The child should be placed on the all -fruit diet for from five days to a week, and then the diet for children given in the Appendix should be adopted. (Further short periods on the all-fruit diet should be undertaken from time to time if necessary in certain cases, say for two or three days at a time at periods of from three weeks to a month.

The bowels should be cleansed nightly with the warm-water enema for the first few days of the treatment, and longer if necessary ; and cold packs (as described in the Appendix) should be applied nightly to the throat of the child. The throat should be gargled night and morning with warm water and a little orange juice. Fresh air and outdoor exercise are two essentials to successful treatment for tonsil and adenoid trouble, and care must be taken to see that the bedroom is well ventilated. The child should also be encouraged to breathe properly, and the exercises on breathing, in the Appendix, are invaluable in this connection.

The above treatment, although simple, has been effective in many thousands of cases of tonsil and adenoid trouble, but parents must not be disappointed if all signs of the disability do not disappear immediately. Some cases take much longer time to right themselves than others. In really stubborn cases, manipulative treatment at the hands of a Naturopath or Osteopath will be necessary. (See also Section 8, Diseases of the Ears, Nose, Mouth and Throat.)

Heart Disease. Heart disease in children is almost invariably the result of wrong treatment of some former child-ailment or ailments. Usually it is an after-effect of the suppressive medical treatment of some fever, such as scarlet fever or rheumatic fever. Many cases of heart disease in children appear to right themselves in the course of time, as Nature does her best to compensate for faulty heart action where the very young are concerned, and often the heart lesion, where present, gives no trouble at all for the same reason. But where definite damage to the heart-lining has taken place as a result of faulty drug treatment of previous disease, proper treatment is needed.

Treatment. To administer "tonics" to the heart, as the medical profession does, is only to make matters worse in the long run. The proper treatment for heart disease in children is mainly dietetic, although a great deal of good can be done by suitable manipulative treatment at the hands of a good Naturopath or Osteopath.

The child should be placed on the dietary for children given in the Appendix, with an occasional day or two every now and then on the all-fruit diet ; and in order to build up its stamina and vitality to the highest level, it should be encouraged to take as much outdoor and general exercise of a gentle nature�as is compatible with its condition. (The breathing and other exercises given in the Appendix will be very useful in this connection if performed without undue effort or strain.)

Remember, parents, then : proper diet, well-regulated exercise of a gentle nature, manipulative treatment (where procurable), and NO DRUGS, and there is no reason why most children should not grow out of heart disease in time.

Mumps. Mumps is characterised by painful swelling of the parotid gland, which may spread to all the other salivary glands, and usually occurs in either the autumn or the spring. The swelling is triangular in shape, the upper angle being in front of the ear, another at the side of the jaw, and the third behind the ear. One or both sides may be involved, the one usually preceding the other by a few days. In swellings of the glands of the neck, the enlargement does not extend so high upon the face. In mumps, the lobe of the ear is lifted outwards. Usually the saliva is diminished, and the mouth is dry and parched.

The disease continues for about a week on each side. An occasional and very peculiar complication is inflammation of the breasts and ovaries in girls and of the testes in boys. The cause of the trouble is dietetic.

Treatment. The treatment for mumps is to fast the patient for the first few days, giving orange juice and water. The warm-water enema should be used daily during this time, and hot and cold fomentations applied to the affected areas. The fomentations should be applied every two hours during the day for about ten minutes, and should consist of two or three hot applications, followed by a cold one. When the child can swallow food comfortably and the swelling has gone down, the all-fruit diet should be adopted for a day or two, and the regular diet for children given in the Appendix can then be gradually introduced.

Pleurisy. Pleurisy is not uncommon in young children, but it is always secondary to pneumonia (and is a result of the wrong treatment of the latter). It is accompanied with fluid in the chest much more commonly than in adults, and the fluid is apt to be purulent. According to the medical theory, pleurisy in children requires immediate surgical treatment, unless the fluid can be absorbed by some other means. But this is only adding insult to injury in the child system, as it were. For if the pneumonia had been treated properly in the first place itself the result of the wrong medical treatment of some former and less serious disease, please note, pleurisy would never have arisen. Thus does orthodox medicine force one disease into another, and still further into another, in its efforts to cope with disease by the use of drugs and the surgeon's knife.

Treatment. If a child has developed pleurisy after pneumonia, it is, as has already been said, entirely due to wrong treatment. (More often than not, it is the crass feeding which goes on whilst the child is totally unable to take, or wishful of taking, any food during pneumonia, which leads to the formation of the pleuritic condition afterwards.) The feeding of children during fevers is just as much a factor in the production of the after-effects and complications �which so often arise as is drug treatment itself.

The parent who has sense should call in a Naturopath as soon as possible if his child develops pleurisy ; for natural treatment is the only thing which will right the condition properly. Here, again, it is fasting treatment which is indicated, followed (at convalescence) by the all-fruit diet, and proper dieting afterwards. Packs to the chest and the use of the enema are both essential to the success of the treatment. Manipulative treatment is an asset.

Pneumonia. There are two varieties of pneumonia, broncho-pneumonia and lobar pneumonia. The first is the common form seen in children under two years ; the second is rare before the third year, but is the common type after the fourth. Lobar pneumonia is far less fatal in children than in adults. It usually pursues a short and sharp course, terminating generally within a week.

Broncho-pneumonia, pursues a course varying from ten to twenty days or longer. It terminates gradually, and not suddenly like lobar pneumonia. The onset may be abrupt, but is often gradual. In ordinary cases the symptoms are quite characteristic. There is a fever (usually about 102 degrees Fahr.) and persistent cough with evidence of pain. The breathing is known as expiratory that is, the expiration is prolonged and exaggerated, and accompanied by a slight sound, often by a slight moan.

When the child is quiet, this expiratory moan may be absent, but it appears when he is disturbed. The nostrils dilate with each breath. The child is commonly more patient and less irritable than in the digestive diseases, and rarely cries loudly. There is thirst, but the appetite is completely lost.

Treatment. Pneumonia in children usually arises as the result of the suppressive medical treatment of other diseases of a less serious nature, such as measles, whooping-cough, etc. That is to say, its cause is wrong medical treatment. It is a further complication of less serious diseases only because these same diseases have been treated wrongly in the first place. No wonder the medical profession says that measles is a serious disease�far more serious than most people are wont to imagine ! It is, if treated along orthodox medical lines, for many of the children thus treated develop broncho-pneumonia as an after-effect. But this would never happen if the children had been treated properly in the first place !

The treatment for broncho-pneumonia or lobar pneumonia in children is Fasting. All Fevers need fasting treatment for their real cure, cure that is, without complications and serious after-effects, such as attend the efforts of the medical profession. A fever is a natural attempt on the part of the body to rid itself of toxic matter ; it is NOT the result of germ infection. That theory is mere medical ignorance due to wrong thinking and wrong training.

The treatment of all Fevers, pneumonia included � should be in qualified naturopathic hands. This, however, is not always easy to obtain, and any parent of strong enough determination and willpower can carry it through successfully for himself in the case of his own child. The child should be fasted for several days, until the fever abates in fact and temperature remains steady at normal.

It may have orange juice during this period and as much water as it likes to drink, but nothing else. (No milk !) Packs to the chest several times a day will be very beneficial and a pack to the throat at night will help greatly. The enema should be used daily to cleanse the bowels. (How to apply the cold pack is explained in the Appendix.)

If the above simple treatment is carried out, the fever will soon begin to disappear ; and when definite convalescence commences, the child can be placed on the all-fruit diet for a few days, and then the regular diet for children given in the Appendix should be adopted. A perfect and complete cure will result if these instructions are carried out, with no fear of after-effects or complications. What a difference from drug treatment!

Whooping-cough. Whooping-cough is a contagious disease with catarrh of the mucous membranes and a peculiar paroxysmal cough. It is most common in the spring and autumn in children between the ages of four and twelve. It begins with a catarrhal stage, during which the symptoms are those of a cold, and develops into the spasmodic stage, which lasts for several weeks. The disease usually runs the following course : it increases for about two weeks, remains stationary for a further two weeks or so, and then gradually subsides.

The paroxysms vary from eight or ten to forty or fifty daily. Vomiting is frequent, and occasionally every paroxysm is a struggle for breath. In some cases an enormous quantity of mucus is secreted ; in others the quantity is small. Sometimes the whoop may be heard but a few times during the course of the disease. The cause of the complaint is the feeding�and more especially the overfeeding�of children with refined and demineralised foods, together with the absence of a sufficient quantity of fresh fruits and salad vegetables in the child dietary, thus leading to the formation of excessive quantities of catarrh and mucus in the infant system, which the disease is a natural attempt to throw off. Wrong medical treatment of former disease has also much to do with its development.

Treatment. If wrongly treated, whooping-cough may hang about for months, and often leads to serious complications. The correct treatment is to fast the child, using the warm-water enema daily to cleanse the bowels, and to apply cold packs to the throat and upper chest as necessary; (See Appendix for details of these.) During the fasting period the child may be given orange juice and water to drink. (Never give children anything but these drinks when fasting. Milk should never be given ; it is not a drink, but a food.) When the more serious symptoms have begun to clear up, the child may be put on to the all-fruit diet for a few days, and then on to the regular child dietary given in the Appendix. (Epsom-salts baths will be useful in this complaint during and after the initial fasting period.) The adoption of the breathing exercises given in the Appendix is recommended when the convalescent stage has been reached, and the child should be encouraged to spend as much time as possible out of doors. Manipulative treatment, where procurable, is strongly recommended.

Chicken-pox. Chicken-pox is characterised by slight fever and the eruption of small vesicles. Each vesicle rests on normal or slightly reddened skin, and looks as though a drop of hot water had raised a round blister. The vesicles slowly dry and form scabs, which fall off. They come in successive crops, so that some are drying whilst some are beginning to form, thus differing from smallpox, in which the vesicles are all found in the same period of development. The rash appears over the whole body, particularly the back and shoulders. The period of incubation is fourteen to sixteen days. The cause, as with all other childhood fevers, is persistent wrong feeding of children leading to a natural healing crisis (Nature\'s attempt to rid the young body of toxic matter).

Treatment. The treatment for chicken-pox is the same as that for Measles (given farther on in the present section,), only in this case there is no need for special protection for the eyes. Care must be taken to see that the child does not scratch the vesicles, which it will be very prone to do, as these are very irritating. (See also Section 13,)

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