Page 44 - Winter2010

I decided not and raw milk regulations. And probably in a more returned to the doctor’s office our baby would
to return to sinister fashion, it has led citizens to believe that be on his way down the antibiotic-and-analgesic
if the government permits a certain practice, it pike. Our little one would then have vaccinosis, a
the doctor’s must be safe. Can we trust government regula- 105 degree fever, plus antibiotics and analgesics
office with tions and those who impose them to make better in his young system. The potential damages were
my weak and decisions than the dictates of big business? snow-balling in my mind.
I believe the point here is the same as the one

A few months before our son was born I had
fevered the Weston A. Price Foundation has advanced begun a class on using homeopathy at home. I
newborn and for over a decade. That is, we must educate had purchased a simple book, an audio tape and
instead to ourselves. The message throughout the land is a homeopathy kit. Because of this rudimentary
to stay informed, study, learn. We must read, education, I made an audacious move. I decided
figure out think outside the box, and bravely teach others not to return to the doctor’s office with my weak
what to do the same. We must hold group meetings, speak to and fevered newborn and instead to figure out

and treat it on our schools and politicians, but most important, what to do and treat it on my own.
I read the new homeopathy book with my
we must make the commitments to our families.
my own. Our first responsibility is to our children and son in my arms, scrutinizing it page by page.
grandchildren. There was nothing in it about vaccine reactions,
What does this have to do with homeopathy? but the chapter on fevers was enough to calm
If you can fast forward a few years with me in my fears. I pored over the differentials of the top
the story of my life, I can relay how my thinking remedies. Was it Belladonna or Sulphur? Perhaps
progressed even further from a corporate market- the best remedy was Hepar sulph. Hours turned
ing executive to a homeopathic mom, and then into nearly two days, my son still suffering from
to a practitioner and educator. high fever and lethargy, until I finally made my
Because of my own failing health around first bold judgment.
this time, I had taken to studying what I could Today when I look back at that decision
about natural health. Indeed, I was so taken made some twenty-three years ago, I don’t ex-
by what I was learning in the world of natural actly recall what my rationale was for choosing
healing, natural mothering, and natural foods Sulphur 30, for it was an embryonic deduction.
that I eschewed all that was corporate and gov- But I can tell you that it worked. And I don’t mean
ernmental. I even affixed a bumper sticker to my eventually or partially. My mother and closest
car that read “Kill Your Television.” But I was friend were with me in my kitchen when after
only partially correct. much discussion among us, I finally administered
When our first-born was a mere six weeks the four little homeopathy pills into my baby’s
old, I took him to the pediatrician for a “well- parched mouth and breathed a Hail Mary.
baby check-up.” I had had a discussion with the To this day, my mother still recalls the mi-
pediatrician before the birth of our son to make raculous tipping point that turned our baby well.
it clear to him that my husband and I had not yet “I wanted Joette to take him to the hospital or the
decided if or when we wanted our baby partially doctor, but she was stern in her resolve and all
or wholly vaccinated, or to have the vaccinations I could do was watch in anxious anticipation.”
postponed. As the pediatrician was checking over It was no more than thirty minutes when my
our healthy boy, the nurse trotted in and nimbly mother, friend and I witnessed a complete and
poured something into our son’s mouth. “What full recovery. My tiny babe looked up at me,
was that?” I gasped. “Oh, just his polio vaccine,” commenced nursing for the first time in more
she casually answered. Polio vaccine?! But I had than two days, became firm again in my arms,
made myself clear that we were going to at least and the fever adroitly melted away! Not dimin-
postpone the vaccines until later in life! Too late, ished. Not suppressed nor subdued; but vanished.
he had already swallowed the stuff. Never to return again, not even months or years
Two days later, my healthy, vigorous six- later. There are times in a mother’s life when we
week-old had spiked a fever of 105 degrees, and wonder whether there is an angel flapping above.
was listless and barely nursing. I knew that if I This was one of those times.
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