The treatment of fevers , pg. 97-101
by Juliette de Bairacli Levy
excerpt from Nature's
Children
The treatment of fevers is of great importance, because on
this is based all the cures for "children’s ailments,"
from measles to scarlet fever, chicken pox to whooping cough.
I believe there is much truth in old adages, if properly interpreted.
One is "feed a cold and starve a fever." This may
be explained in several ways. I see it as meaning that if
one gives heavy food during a cold, one will soon have to
treat a fever. In any case, it seems confirmed that the natural
treatment for fever is fasting (starving).
The greatest and wisest statement on fever comes
from the Father of Medicine, Hippocrates. His pronouncement
was: "Give me a fever and I will cure an ailment."
He knew that the heat of fever is there to burn up the invading
bacteria and viruses and to support immune activity. It ill
serves the patient to try to curtail that fever by unnatural
treatment. Fever promotes sweating, fasting and sleep, three
good things in any illness.
How well I have seen this proved in animals:
The feverish animal hides away in a dark and secluded place
and remains without any food until cured. The domestic animal
is often fed by force when plagued with a fever, because the
owner, in ignorance of Nature’s way, believes that if
food is not consumed daily, death will result! Thus, a simple
fever often ends in death or in "complications,"
meaning physical deformity such as lameness or blindness,
which are something like living death for an animal.
During
fever the body has no energy to expend on food digestion;
all the powers are required for combating the condition which
is causing the feverish state, for fever is only a symptom
of one ailment or another attacking the body. This cannot
be said too often.
Therefore chicken pox, diphtheria, measles,
mumps, scarlet fever, whooping cough, and all the other fever
ailments of childhood, require similar treatment: rest, cleansing,
and the giving of natural and vital medicines to assist and
strengthen the body--antiseptics in the form of well-tried
herbs, and the juices of fruits and vegetables. Serious throat
obstruction must be attended to at once, and medical aid sought.
My children never suffered from any of the common ailments
of childhood until they attended school. And, because of our
frequent travels, frequent school did not come until his tenth
year for my son. Then came a time of being crowded into a
confined place with many other children, and the place was
one where the windows were closed either against the flies
in the summertime or the "cold" in wintertime. The
typical child's school.
Neither of my children had diphtheria, scarlet
fever, typhoid nor whooping cough, but they did have the other
diseases, and were never in need of treatment for longer than
a week. A short fast of three days, a few days on a fruit
and vegetable juice diet, and then out of bed again. No complications
and really improved health! But when the ailments came I welcomed
them, for they gave me a chance to impose the short cleansing
fasts which all growing creatures need, whether child or animal,
and which children are apt to refuse unless unwell.
Growing
children must have cleansing periods so their glands and other
organs can throw off impurities. Since much of the air we
now breathe is impure, and we are lucky to get truly pure
water, the natural cleansing processes are not allowed to
serve us as well as they used to. If modern vaccines inhibit
them, the general health of the body will be vitally impaired.
This is a book concerned with the natural care
of children, therefore nothing as unnatural, and unclean,
as vaccination can ever have a place within its pages. The
only true vaccination against any ailment is good health,
and the fever ailments of childhood are only cleansing processes
and never do harm if correctly treated.
There is no true need to vaccinate against them.
My children, now adult, when in my care never had vaccinations
of any kind, despite world travel along with me. By obtaining
a paper from a qualified doctor, stating that the parents
refuse vaccination on health, religious and moral grounds,
and that the family is in good normal health, people should
be able to enter any country, including those where vaccination
is a condition of entry.
Likewise, I have protected my Afghan hounds
from vaccination. I keep my children and animals protected
with herbal pills, and have no need of serum taken from artificially
diseased and tortured animals. Sentient animals, caged for
use of the making of serum, suffer stress beyond description,
and at the end of it all they will be killed with that very
instrument, the evil hypodermic syringe, which is mostly the
chosen, painfilled, frightening method of injecting vaccines
into humans. I could write a book about my hatred of vaccination
and hypodermic syringes!
To quote from that learned opponent of vaccinations
for children, Edda West of Canada, "Our children are
not getting healthier. They are being overloaded with environmental
toxins that encroach from at large, and from within, as deposited
by vaccine-laden hypodermic needles. There is a fundamental
flaw in the premise that infant and other young children's
health is protected by the injection of toxic substances into
their systems."
Similar to the manufacture of armaments, vast
fortunes are involved in the manufacture of vaccines. Therefore
that trade, as with armaments, is likely to persist for a
very long time yet.
As this new edition of my book goes to press
at the end of the twentieth century, I heard a strange (indeed
incredible) item on the morning TV news concerning immunization
against polio (infantile paralysis). While it is admitted
that there have been many failures, and that the vaccine has
actually caused cases of polio, we are told that it should
not be withdrawn from the market, for if it was, this would
cause fear in the other countries and the faith in, and demand
for, that vaccine would be spoilt.
At the first signs of fever in growing children, I put the
child to bed in a cool and shaded room, for fever is one condition
where sunlight is unwelcome. Take the temperature with a clinical
thermometer, and base the treatment on your reading. Very
high fever requires a lemon-water diet only (one tablespoon
of lemon juice to a glass of water). Apply cold cloths to
the head, and use mint brew or sprinkle lavender water on
the head cloths. Sponge the body down night and morning with
cloths also dipped in mint water or with lavender water added.
I use one or more of the proven antiseptic herbs
such as wormwood, rue, vervain, garlic, wood sage, all of
which are the old anti-plague herbs--and (mostly) intensely
bitter--in the form of a pill, which I make. It has helped
animals the world over, including cattle with foot-and-mouth
disease, sheep with contagious scour, dogs with distemper.
It may seem odd to recommend the same type of pill for one’s
children, but it is logical enough. And parents can make their
own.
Prepare Antiseptic Pills as follows: Pound the
herb or herbs into a powder or pulp (if the fresh herb is
used) and make a paste with thick honey. (Remember that it
may be dangerous to give honey to an infant under one year.)
Plain wormwood or garlic can be used, or the herbs can be
mixed; personally I prefer to use several herbs in the pill.
Though the most bitter, wormwood is "the wonder herb."
(John the Baptist used the herb so much in his healing work
that he carried it with him plaited in a girdle around his
body, and one name for this herb is St. John’s Girdle.)
Divide into regular-sized pills, about the size
of a common aspirin (which I never use!). Now wrap the pill
in a twist of fine tissue paper (peroxide-bleached if at all
possible; chlorine-bleached products are not health-promoting)
and have the child swallow this whole. I have used my finger
to push this pill down the throats of infants and delicate
wild birds. I often dosed my pet owls this way, with absolutely
no harm, but current opinion is that this could be dangerous. I give two antiseptic pills, night and morning.
When the fever lessens, add some liquid sweetener to the diet:
a teaspoon to a glass of lemon water. Give also drinks of
anti-fever herb teas: chamomile, red clover, rosemary, sage,
sorrel, strawberry leaf, valerian, yarrow, whichever is preferred
by the patient; all are good and well proved. Yarrow is dual
purpose as it promotes sweating, useful in high fever.
Another adage is "Old people and children
fast badly." This is true; therefore do not keep a child
fasting overlong. As soon as the really high fever has abated
or if the fever is low to begin with, fruit juices can be
given, especially citrus juices. Lemon can always be taken;
undiluted grapefruit and mandarin juice can be added, orange
juice is the least desirable. If citrus is not available,
give the juice of any berry.
Among the best are mulberry, raspberry, strawberry, blackberry,
black and red currants, gooseberry. First give these healthful
and cooling fruits as drinks, but as soon as the child is
feeling better the fruits can be eaten whole.
A child in bed is a bored child. This is the
time for the pleasure of storytelling and new picture books,
and the planning of celebration walks and picnics when health
is restored.
For mumps, massage the neck gently with warm
vinegar and cayenne pepper (a half teaspoon of cayenne to
a cup of vinegar). If there is no fever, give a diet of bananas
with a little honey added. (See page 78 for caution about
giving honey to infants.) Banana skins bound around the neck
also give much help. Do not forget the usefulness here of
pine bud syrup (recipe on page 89). The patient will appreciate
natural jells of fruit juices. Choose the type made from an
agar-agar seaweed base, with honey and fruit juices added
as part of the mixing water. Or use Irish moss and again add
honey and fruit juices.
The specific remedy for whooping cough is a
small, insectivorous plant, sundew (drosera). It grow in marshy
places in many parts of the world, and is used in orthodox
as well as in herbal medicine for spasm condition. A tablespoon
of the fresh herb is pulverized and infused in sweet red wine
overnight and given every few hours or as required to quell
the spasms.
Excerpt
from Nature's Children. The author, Juliette
de Bairacli Levy, a respected elder of contemporary herbology,
shares practical information and fascinating lore to help
you raise healthy children without drugs.
Nature's Children is "A simple well-balanced way of life
that brings radiant health and a clear mind. It did so for
me, my brother, and now my own child." Luz lancha de
Baliracli Levy
In Nature's Children you will find herbal remedies
for: mother and father, pregnancy and lactation, infants and
children first-aid. Plus, delicious, healthy, child-friendly
recipes! Order at: www.wisewomanbookshop.com
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