Detox 8: My Children’s Detox Responses

Our elder daughter was born in 1995. We had not changed our diet yet. Naturally, my daughter was not healthy because my wife was still eating unhealthy food before and during pregnancy. After our daughter was born, she was fed with eggs, meat and milk powder. Naturally, toxins accumulated in her body too. When she reached five years of age in 2000, she gradually switched to follow our healthy diet.

During her early childhood years before 2002, whenever she had fever, she was fed with medicine to reduce the fever and also antibiotics, to be followed by cough concoction. She looked tired and weak after each treatment. After a few months, her fever returned and she had to take medicine again. My wife was particularly worried about our daughter’s fever. She kept various medicines in the refrigerator, just in case fever attacked during mid-night. This vicious cycle took place until 2002 when our daughter attended primary school.

In 2002, we decided to make a change on the way of treating her fever. Since we do not have to seek medical treatment when flu and fever arose, we thought the same could be applied to our daughter. We realize the fever medicine and antibiotics are not beneficial to her health in the long run. Her fever came in the month of December, i.e. during the long school holidays. My wife and I explained to our daughter that the fever is beneficial to her body’s immune system and we should not suppress it.

Our daughter accepted our decision. We bought a thermometer so that her body temperature could be examined hourly. This is to ensure that her body temperature does not reach the critical level of 40° C. Since it was school holidays, my wife put in a lot of effort in preparing apple juice and warm water for our daughter. This was to be taken hourly. Within two days, her fever subsided.

After two weeks, her fever recurred. The challenge came on the second day when her body temperature rose to 40.2° C. My wife was worried because she had heard stories where high fever could lead to brain damage and so on. We referred to the literature on how to treat children’s fever naturally and safely. It was confirmed that occasional rise of body temperature to 40° C is still within the safety level. Only when high body temperature (40° C and above) is sustained for some time that the child should be sent to the hospital. We decided to observe her body temperature for the next two hours before seeking medical treatment. The body temperature fluctuated between 37.0° C and 39° C and by the third day, her fever disappeared.

In 2003, my daughter had fever five times (February, March, April, July and November). She was in primary 2 and was exposed more to outside food in school and also children with all sorts of sickness. The toxin of the junk food had accumulated in her body too. By then, we learned more about methods in handling her fever naturally. The first is massaging her body, particularly her back and foot sole when her body temperature was high. The second was to drink chrysanthemum water to reduce body temperature. These two methods were very effective, as they also helped the child to sleep. Getting rest is essential for body temperature control and natural recovery.

Her fever in April 2003 raised our concern. The world community was worried about the possible widespread of SARS. After three days of having fever, her body temperature was still high, irregular and once reached 40.3° C. Should we send her to the hospital? We made a telephone call to Lapis Lazuli Light Society Malaysia to enhance our confidence. We also referred to the literature on handling children’s fever naturally. Most importantly, we explained to our daughter her fever condition, past experience and the reasons for not sending her to the clinic. We explained to her the impact of unhealthy food on children’s health and the need to avoid them once having food outside home. She was worried that she would miss her school lessons if she did not recover in the shortest possible time. We told her that health was most important, if she wanted to excel in school. By the sixth day, she recovered naturally from her fever.

Handling fever naturally is a big challenge if you do not have a thorough understanding and sufficient confidence. This occurred from 18 November till 9 December 2003. The detox responses were more severe. My daughter not only had fever and cough, her lips also were dry and peeling slightly with the appearance of white spots. Small little red spots also appeared on her chest and abdomen besides occasional chest pain. By then, we had more confidence that we have to accept this naturally. During this period, her body temperature fluctuated between 37 and 40.2° C.

We referred to the literature again and found that some children have fever for more than a month together with other symptoms. Accordingly, once the fever was over, the child would not look as if he or she had just recovered from fever. My family members did not take this seriously. It turned out to be true as my daughter had bright eyes. No one ever thought that she had just recovered from a long fever (i.e. 22 days) when our family went to attend an official function at Genting Highlands on 10 December 2003.

We have now acquired more knowledge of fever among children. When children are growing up, they are bound to have fever from time to time. It is rather a natural process. Therefore, we can handle it naturally. Secondly, during the fever period, the body temperature fluctuates but normally with natural treatment it will drop. Thirdly, we need to provide them with fresh fruit juice to reduce the body temperature. Most importantly, parents must be ready to spend time and energy attending to children with fever.

Our experience in handling fever has enhanced our family confidence whenever detox response appeared. When my daughter had fever in 2004 (3 times, 3–5 days each), 2005 (3 times, 3-4 days each), 2006 (2 times, 4 days each), 2007 (once, 2 days) and 2008 (twice, 3 days each) the normal healing methods were applied. They just worked. My daughter is now healthier than ever.

Handling fever for my vegetarian son is much easier. He was born in 2001, conceived after my wife turned to health food since 1996. The vegetarian baby was 4 kg at birth, to the surprise of many people, compared to normal baby weight of 3 kg at birth on the average. My wife experienced only two and a half hours of labour pain giving birth to our son compared with six hours when she gave birth to our daughter in 1995, which is common for the first child.

My vegetarian son has not taken any meat, eggs and dairy products directly since birth. This gives him health. Since birth in 2001, we sent him to the clinic only once when he was about two years old. He had very few episodes of fever in the past, and only once in 2002 (for a period of 2 days), once in 2003 (1 day), thrice in 2005 (2–3 days each), twice in 2006 (1–2 days each), thrice in 2007 (2–4 days each), twice in 2008 (3–4 days each) and once in 2009 (3 days).

On 16–19 February 2007, he had another fever. On the second day of the fever (17 February), he followed us by car to Air Jernih, my home village (330 km away from Kuala Lumpur) in Terengganu for Chinese New Year celebration. His slow recovery was of concern to my parents, brothers and sisters. It was difficult for them to accept that our boy was not sent to the clinic for western medical treatment. We did not explain much except continued to monitor our son’s body temperature, control his food and drink and massage him to sleep. To enable his smooth recovery, we came back to Kuala Lumpur on 19 February instead of the 20th. Before leaving the village, I told my parents that we would take my son to the clinic if his fever did not subside. When having fever, his body temperature ranged from 37–40.5° C. As always, he recovered naturally. Unlike his sister who is relatively impatient when faced with fever, our boy hardly complained and just rested.

What does this tell us? Firstly, when the mother takes health food prior to her pregnancy, the child is likely to be relatively healthier after birth. Secondly, if a child is brought up with health food, the child will grow up with little or no diseases. Thirdly, fever is a detox process whereby toxins are removed from the body and hence you do not need to treat it as if you are sick. Fourthly, it is important to learn more from the literature to enhance your confidence in facing detox responses. Fifthly, seek those with experience on natural healing whenever you are uncertain. Finally, when you are less confident in handling the detox responses, you may seek the advice of medical practitioners.