Alternative medicine 'cured' my son

Aug 19 2008 By Ed Saunt

Joshua Hall

Some see it as the realm of the weird and wacky but for one Laleham toddler, homoeopathic medicine has changed his life.

At six months old, Joshua Hall's mother Angela noticed he was developing severe eczema on his legs and the back of his neck and, worried, took him to see their GP.

Joshua was prescribed a steroid cream but Angela was wary and looked into other methods of treatment.

She was initially sceptical about the effectiveness of alternative medicine but was persuaded to take him to the NHS-run Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital in London by her father, Baldev Jasser.

Angela was left baffled by questions about what Joshua dreamed about and confused by analysis of his head size but where, previously, he was consumed by the almost constant itching caused by his eczema, after six months of taking calcium sulphate droplets his condition cleared up completely.

Angela, of Lucan Drive, said: "When it cleared up I was amazed. They say some children grow out of eczema but as soon as I stopped giving him the drops it came back."

Joshua will celebrate his fourth birthday next month and Angela still gives him a drop of calcium sulphate, which is a component of plaster of Paris and tofu, in a glass of water each week and rubs a herbal remedy called Five Flowers cream into his legs when needed.

Although she is delighted with the progress Joshua has made with the help of alternative medicine, she is not completely sold on the practise as a whole.

She said: "People may think it is a bit wacky but when I met the doctors I was impressed. However, I don't think it is the answer to everything and I wouldn't stop going for more conventional treatment.

"Some of it was a bit weird. They were asking me what type of personality he has and the doctor asked what he dreamed about and said he had quite a big head. But it worked for Joshua so I wouldn't challenge them on it."

With an annual NHS budget of about £5m, the RLHH is one of four homoeopathic hospitals run by the NHS and treats more than 30,000 patients a year for a variety of conditions, including allergies, stress, rheumatology and even cancer.

But homoeopathic prescribing by GPs has fallen by 40% in the past two years and NHS trusts have cut back on funding for homoeopathy treatments, so the future of the hospital is threatened

Angela said: "I think it's important to keep the hospital open. It helped Joshua and I'm sure it can help lots of others."