I am a nurse and a mother of two children diagnosed with asthma. I worked successfully with doctors and homeopaths to release both my son and daughter from a heavy regimen of pharmaceuticals in favor of homeopathy, a gentle, nontoxic form of medicine.

Health care professionals to whom I have told this story have said that I must wait a year before considering homeopathy a success. It’s now been 25 years that both my children have lived without any asthma medications. I think it’s safe to say that the homeopathy worked.

At the time of the transition, my son, Andy, was six years old and had been receiving asthma treatment for five years. My daughter, Rose, was four years old and had been treated for chronic bronchitis, croup, asthma and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) for most of her life. Her asthma was eventually controlled with homeopathic treatment. But because of her other conditions, it is not possible to make a clear comparison of asthma treatments as was the case with my son.

From April 1992 until August 1997 my household was a textbook picture of a family living with asthma. The children did not play with stuffed toys, there were no carpets, all pillows and mattresses were covered, and there was a high-efficiency air filter on the furnace. Andy knew his peak flow meter so well that he figured out how to make it give the results he wanted when I wasn’t watching him carefully. We were never around smokers. We were regulars at the pharmacy for chromolyn sodium metered dose inhalers (MDIs), albuterol MDIs, Flovent MDIs, with albuterol and corticosteroid aerosols as needed.

In addition, there were frequent pharmacy visits for oral antibiotics and additional steroids. Despite all this, my children remained symptomatic. I read that childhood asthma symptoms can be controlled so that hospitalization can be avoided. This made it easy to place the blame for uncontrolled asthma on parents rather than considering that the medical regimen may be unrealistic, ineffective for some, and cause intolerable side-effects.

I felt something was wrong when the drug of choice for preventing asthma symptoms was steroids, and if symptoms broke through, then more steroids were given. (Since my children’s transition to homeopathy, additional pharmaceutical treatments have become available. But the relevance of my story remains.)

In the end, despite our precautions, adherence to treatments, excellent insurance and scrupulous medical care, the symptoms were unremitting.

I was deeply concerned that our children, despite their resilience, would become exhausted and lose their youthful spirits and inner happiness. How many times can children consume horrid tasting medications and inhale from movement restricting machines without a toll? If we were doing everything right, how could our children still be so sick? All the health care providers and health care literature told us that this is what life with asthma is like.

We continued to visit the pediatric pulmonologist every three months with phone conversations in between as needed. I asked him about the possibility of using homeopathy and he said, “It can’t hurt.” Deep down, I knew he meant it can’t hurt as long as we continued all the other medications, but I took this as a go-ahead.

I found a medical doctor who practiced homeopathy, and I scheduled back-to-back appointments for both children. I arrived at the doctor’s office skeptical and completely unprepared. For me it was like walking into a tap dance class when all I had ever studied was ballet—same body, but the moves were strange. When the doctor opened her desk drawer and showed me the albuterol inhalers that children had left behind, I simply didn’t believe it. I did not think it was possible that my children could ever give up inhalers.

The initial homeopathic interview was entirely different from a conventional medical consultation. It took two hours for Andy alone. By that time both children were tired, so I canceled Rose’s appointment.

After talking with us, the doctor left for about 15 minutes and returned with remedies. She instructed us on how to administer them. Further, she explained that it is possible for symptoms to worsen before they get better. (This sometimes happens with homeopathic treatment, but I now know it is a good indication that the remedy chosen is correct one. The body is getting stronger by evidence of its ability to produce stronger symptoms in fighting a disease.)

But in that moment, my mind went blank, my face grew pale, and my knees would have buckled if I were not already sitting. I could not deal with this. If the children got worse, they might die. I took the bottles home, put them in a cupboard and never looked at them again.

We continued for several months with our previous treatments. They weren’t working. Andy was still coughing on occasion. Rose was on oral steroids about every other month. We were walking a very precarious line, knowing one minor cold would throw us into a tailspin.

My first visit to the homeopath seemed like a failure, yet I had a gnawing feeling that I was missing an important option. I then attended an eight-hour homeopathy training which provided me with a beginning understanding. This knowledge prepared me to better answer the homeopath’s questions and to better understand the remedies.

Several months after the first visit to the homeopath, I scheduled separate appointments for the children. I felt much more comfortable with the interview process and that allowed the physician to better tailor the remedies. I prepared myself psychologically for the possibility that the symptoms could worsen. I also prepared myself in a practical sense. I made sure I had all the pharmaceuticals we might need just in case. Then, I began the transition while I was off from work for two weeks so I could be with the children all the time.

The treatments were simple and miraculous. I gave the children their prescribed remedies, which included three small pills under their tongues at bedtime for three days—Lycopodium for Andy and Phosphorus for Rose. Then, I very slowly weaned the two of them off their pharmaceutical medications.

After six weeks the children were medication-free. During the weaning process, neither child exhibited any respiratory symptoms. As strange as it may seem, Andy cried that he did not want his asthma to go away. Asthma had framed his life and that part of him was dying. As he emotionally let go of asthma, he took in the happiness of good health. He was medication-free, symptom-free, and gained more weight in the first month than he had in the previous nine months (during which time he had not grown at all).

As I noted previously, Rose’s clinical course had always been a little less clear-cut because of her mixture of disorders and symptoms. Rose still has GERD, but episodes of reflux occur much less frequently (every few months, rather than weekly), and she went from oral steroids six times a year, to once a year or two for severe croup. She had no asthma symptoms, and bronchitis episodes became diminished in severity and duration.

We went through routine exams during the next follow-up visit with the pulmonologist (around two months after the initial homeopathic treatment). Both children were healthy. When the doctor asked what medications they were taking, I answered, “None.” He looked up at me, smiled and said, “Well, you certainly took the bull by the horns.”

After one year off medications, Andy had pulmonary function tests and the technician noted how well he was doing.

Many people said, “Isn’t it wonderful they have grown out of asthma?” It seems very unlikely that both children grew out of asthma on the same day. I recognized that the symptoms could return and so maintained many of the environmental controls like a high-efficiency air filter, keeping the house clean, and avoiding cigarette smoke.

The kids, however, had their stuffed animals close by, they ran around outside in all seasons, and they played with dogs. Ultimately, visits to the pulmonologist were no longer necessary. Today, my children are healthy young adults.

The cost of homeopathic treatment for my son’s asthma was far less than the standard pharmaceutical treatment. Prior to using homeopathy, our family was spending $2,500 per year on Andy’s care. Once homeopathy was fully instituted, the costs went down to $649 per year. (These numbers include insurance payments and reimbursements.) For this article I looked back at our bills and determined that homeopathy is not only effective, but cost-effective. But, even if it were not cost-effective, I would still recommend it because of the astonishing results.

Marti Trudeau, RN, DSW, is a clinical educator in Philadelphia. She may be contacted at marti.trudeau@met-healthcare-innovations.com.