The subject of homeopathy can be a very touchy one for some people. Here’s our personal experience.

When we started Beeyoutiful many years ago, our primary goal was to share products that we personally used to take care of our family’s health at home, to build health, avoid illness, and prevent trips to the doctor’s office.

We looked at all sorts of “alternative medicine” venues and products. Our first look at homeopathic remedies was before we had a baby, and at that time we gave it a pass. There was just too much drama and conflicting information surrounding the entire category of products, and we didn’t have any pressing needs that we thought could be met by homeopathy.

Then, our firstborn Noelle came along, and this wonderful little blessing of a baby suffered from colic. We looked for a good colic medicine (that didn’t contain toxic ingredients) and tried out a variety of them, but the one that other people seemed to use with the most success was a homeopathic remedy.

We decided that we needed to jump back into researching homeopathics before trying them with our precious little one.

The medical community said there would be, could be, no benefit at all from homeopathic remedies. Even what looked like the most reasonable and scientific of the homeopathic organizations admitted to only a mild benefit from homeopathic preparations, stating that much of the benefit from homeopathy was in the other care given by practitioners.

We noticed, however, that one thing was consistent. None of these folks said that homeopathics were dangerous, or that there were ANY side effects, risks, or other special considerations. This was in stark contrast to other options we were evaluating at the time, options that frequently had lengthy lists of possible unwanted effects.

We did find pockets of warnings about homeopathics from individuals cautioning that there was indeed a danger involved: a spiritual danger. These people contended that homeopathics did work, and that they worked using demonic forces.

This wasn’t something new. We had encountered identical warnings when originally researching essential oils years ago. So we investigated again.

I never could find out exactly what was supposed to happen to someone using a homeopathic preparation. Were we supposed to be made open to demon possession/oppression, damnation, destruction of the body/mind/soul, or what? Or maybe it was just sinful to use homeopathic preparations.

Our finding was that the voices online that were saying such things were radicals, sensationalists, and fear-mongers. The more reading we did on their sites (and believe me, it was hard for me to read), the harder it was to take seriously anything that was said, much less about homeopathics. Still, we proceeded with caution.

Noelle continued to suffer from colic, so we prayerfully decided to get a preparation and try it out. It worked better than anything else that we had used!

I don’t know if it was the charcoal ingredient or if it was the homeopathic preparation, and to be perfectly honest, at the time, I really didn’t care. I was just grateful that something had finally worked. (Do you know what it is like to wake up every 20-30 minutes ALL NIGHT LONG to a crying baby and never drop into the deep, restful part of a sleep cycle for weeks on end? I certainly hope not.)

It’s now many years later, and we have tried a few different homeopathic products for different situations. Our conclusion is that homeopathics are not like herbs, essential oils, or medications. They are very safe, but may or may not be very effective. This is kind of the norm when it comes to health supporting tools in general, though: the more potent a remedy, the greater the risks.

An analogy that comes to mind is this: you have a little paper boat out on the water and you need to change its direction. One “remedy” for this situation would be to throw rocks or various things at the boat or near the boat that would directly influence its direction. It’s possible that one of these remedies would be a bullseye on the nose of the boat, with just the right sized object at just the right angle and velocity to change its direction by exactly the right amount. It is also possible that some of these remedies would not be the right size and would destroy the boat or capsize it or water log it. Homeopathics would be more like sitting on the shore, making waves to try to change the boat’s direction. It might work, it might not, but it’s a gentle attempt and there really are no associated risks.

I think it is in the care of the very young that homeopathics really have a place for us. There are so many powerful and effective alternative remedies (such as some herbs and essential oils) that just cannot be used on the very young.

Without anywhere else to turn, folks often end up in a traditional medical setting where they get a prescription drug for their wee one. Unbeknownst to the poor parent, the medicine, as often as not, has a warning label as long as their arm listing potential side effects. So then you’re stuck using a tool which could potentially be just as dangerous to your child as any of the powerful natural remedies that you wouldn’t use because of their own set of potential side effects.

Or, you do your research and read that list of side effects and then decide not to use the medicine after all, and you just wasted a bunch of time and money to end up in exactly the same helpless spot. I believe that homeopathic remedies have helped us avoid this exact situation with our children many times. 

No remedy is a one size fits all for everybody. Not everybody is a user of essential oils, or herbs, or any other specific alternative remedy. And the same is true of homeopathics. You may not want to use them, and that’s alright. You may not agree with our conclusions and or our decision to carry homeopathics at Beeyoutiful, and that’s alright too. We support the freedom of each person to act and make educated decisions that serve their families best. 

We hope that, whatever your thoughts about homeopathy, we can continue to have a relationship with you and to openly share what we’re learning. We also love to learn things from you as you write or call in. If you have any questions or concerns about the new homeopathic products we’re carrying, please do feel free to contact me directly. But before you do that, please also do your own research, first for yourself, and then to pass along to me, if you’d like to share a different perspective. You can get in touch by emailing steve@beeyoutiful.com and I promise I’ll pay attention to your concerns.