Homeo-Kids

A modern materia medica of children's remedies, exceptionally concise and practical. Patricia Le Roux was a leading homeopathic paediatrician, combining her practice classical methods with the new approaches pioneered by Jan Scholten and Rajan Sankaran. She had the unique gift of getting to the heart of the symptoms found specifically in children.

The 60 remedies described range from the classic polychrests such as Pulsatilla, Calcium carbonicum, and Lycopodium to less well-known but very successful remedies for children such as Beryllium, Helium, Saccharum officinale, Falco, Oxygenium, and Chocolate.

Building on Borland's homeopathic classic of children's types, Patricia Le Roux arranged the 60 remedy pictures into these four main types: sensitive to cold, warm-blooded, slow, and restless. This enables rapid differentiation. For each remedy there is also a very useful distinction between the symptoms found in babies and those found in children. The author has drawn on her great clinical experience, offering valuable tips for how the remedies can be recognized in very small children who may display little in the way of typical symptoms or signs. A comprehensive index of illnesses also aids selection of the best remedy. An original work that will surely help homeopaths to prescribe for children with greater confidence.

“Patricia Le Roux was one of the great pioneers of homeopathy: we are greatly indebted to her for this superb selection of the sixty most important remedies for the treatment of babies and children.
HOMEO-KIDS is an innovative book that will help homeopaths in their daily work, whether they be beginners or experienced practitioners."
François Gassin, president of the French association of homeopathic physicians

“With this book, we should be better prepared to recognise the remedies when we see them in practice. The reaction of the organism to the right remedy is phenomenal and hopefully, putting this knowledge to good use, we should be able to get far better results, truly easing the suffering of our little patients and creating better all-round health for our future generations.”
Firuzi Mehta in Hpathy Ezine, November, 2015

"... This book classifies remedies into four ´kingdoms´: Chilly, Hot, Slow and Restless. I like this, it immediately helps a homeopath if they take a case and feel Ì don´t know where to begin´!... My conclusion is - I like this little book very much after all.... It has added much to my knowledge of remedies for children. I wish I could have met Dr Le Roux...."
Amanda Bate (extract from "Homeopathy in Practice Spring/Summer 2016)

• Author: Patricia Le Roux
• ISBN: 9783955820084
• 256 pages
• Hardback
• Published in 2017
• Printed in Germany

• View PDF

Reprinted with the permission of The Society of Homeopaths, (from 'The Homeopath' Journal, Autumn 2017 edition). Reviewed by Tina Burchill.

Described in its preface as "an elegant and indispensable work" (Dr Francois Gassin), this is a packed little book promising 60 portraits of how some well known, and some not so well known, remedies might reveal themselves in children and babies.

It usefully divides children into four categories - chilly, hot, slow and restless, listing the remedies Le Roux (who tragically died in a road accident in 2011) considers to be most applicable to the category. While I don't necessarily agree with all of her classifications (for example, I would have put Tuberculinum in 'restless' rather than 'chilly'), it is a rather nifty way of narrowing down remedies.

The influence of Jan Scholten and Rajan Sankaran's work can be seen in these portraits as Le Roux fuses together developments in homeopathy in recent times to provide the most accurate pictures of remedies for children.

The portraits are presented in an easy to follow format with a brief summary and key words, followed by a description of the baby, and the child in the clinic and at home, with some clinical indications. Of course, our well known children's polychrests have far more information than newer remedies such as Chocolate, Aqua Marina and Falco P, which I was excited to see in the index, but disappointed in the lack of information on them. For example, Malandrinum, a remedy I had not previously come across, only had a page and a half of information which provided little more details (and no mental symptoms) than the summary: "This is a wonderful remedy for the ill-effects of vaccinations, as well as for skin problems. The child needing it is usually hot and dry". I wonder if it might have been better to just leave these smaller remedies out and give more on the remedies that Le Roux had had more experience of using.

This book is aimed at both practitioners and the novice homeopath, its preface stating that it is also recommended for health professionals, child carers and patients. It begins with a four page summary of homeopathy for non practitioners. This aim of making it accessible for the non homeopath has unfortunately lowered its value for professionals, with descriptions included that aren't necessary for professional homeopaths (such as the description of Hahnemann's under Tuberculinum).

That said, it is a handy little book to dip into for those who see a lot of children in their practices, especially in stuck cases, and may trigger ideas for remedies that you wouldn't otherwise have thought of. It also has a useful little alphabetical repertory at the end.