Childhood Delusions

While not exactly a mental health issue, some children can develop behaviours at a young age that really has their parents shaking their heads in disbelief. Rosie developed a sudden attachment to her mother that became increasingly difficult to manage. She would wake up yelling "I need you". If reprimanded she would run to her mother in tears and make a huge fuss if mum cuddles her siblings.

Even at the age of 2.5 yrs she would wake up saying to her mother that she is 'too delicate', and won't let her parents call her Rosie, insisting that her parents call her other names e.g, I am sugarplum or hazel. She was either a mummy animal or the baby animal. She is always an animal, a horse or a cat or a foal. She makes animal noises and she is never a human. Even to strangers she will tell them she is some kind of animal.

At the same time that this behaviour started she craved chocolate and sugary foods, even for breakfast. The Homeopath gave her a homeopathic medicine that was known for this delusion of being an animal and the behaviour and craving for chocolate improved within a few days.

Rosie's mother writes:

Within the first few days of Rosie’s treatment her cravings and animal behaviour were greatly reduced and by the end of two weeks, although she was still sometimes an animal, she was much less insistent about it. Her preoccupation with me was also markedly reduced, she was more willing to ‘share’ me, and she started being much more receptive to her dad, who she had recently taken an inexplicable aversion to.

It has now been four months since Rosie had her treatment and with every month she has continued to improve. She is now hardly ever an animal unless it is in the context of a specific game she is playing with other children – like horsie rides. When she is asked her name she says, ‘Rosie’ instead of ‘Sugarplum’, which never happened before.

She is completely over her aversion to her dad, and loves doing things with him and letting him help her. In the last month she has even started asking for him instead of me (sometimes!). She doesn’t burst into tears when she is reprimanded and is much less anxious. Rosie can also cope with me giving attention to other children again and is much more affectionate and nurturing towards everybody.

She has got a normal appetite again, no extreme cravings, except for one time just after Christmas when she had had more sweet things than normal and had a few days of insisting on them from early in the day – I gave her one dose of the remedy and she was back on track. She is so much more on an even keel and happier, it is just brilliant.

(Angela Hair, Havelock North)