Blocked Ears

One of my kids was off school most of last week with a barking cough, mild temperature and complete loss of appetite. I don't usually bother treating mild viruses with homeopathic remedies because warmth, rest and plenty of fluid are all the body needs.

The hardest part is phoning the school matron to justify an absence - schools these days seem to think children should participate in rugby in the freezing cold and mud, attend detentions in their lunchtimes instead of eating, and sit mock examinations when they're exhausted and ill.

In the "old days", people were careful of illness. They knew that doing strenuous activity, getting cold or wet, and dehydration could lead to complications and secondary infections - and they didn't have antibiotics as a safety net. The attitude these days is (a) kids should be vaccinated against anything that might make them ill and (b) if they do get an infection, antibiotics will cure it.

I prefer to use my common sense and weigh up the risk factors. Keep the immune system fighting fit and you'll fight off a mild virus without the need to resort to any medicine.

Anyway, my son was happy to eat bio-live yoghurt with manuka honey mixed into it and he gradually recovered.

By the end of the week, he reckoned he was fine apart from he had "water in his ears" - did I have a remedy? I prescribe for the family if they're lucky: that's if I can think of a remedy off the top of my head, which gets barked at them over my shoulder while I'm doing a hundred and one other things.

"Try Kali-Mur" I muttered as I rushed round emptying wastepaper baskets, narrowly dodging the cat on the stairs and wondering why nobody else could hear the phone ringing.

The kids are well trained: they know how to use the remedy-making machine and they've got the idea that they need a 30c or a 200c potency in an acute.

He made up Kali-Mur 30c and took it twice that day with a 75 percent improvement, and once the following morning which cleared the whole business up.

Though after having no less than seven teenage boys rampaging round the house, kitchen and garden for a good deal of yesterday, I think I preferred him quiet on the sofa ...

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