Book reviewed by

Dr Ajit Kulkarni

38, Bhavani Peth,

Satara-415002

 

Dr. Pravin Jain, a young and enthusiastic physician from Predictive school of homoeopathy has published a well complied and easy-to-reference book on the complex issue of pediatric prescribing.

Pediatric prescribing is indeed a matter of serious concern for a homoeopath who is deprived of adequate subjective totality. The importance of ‘observation’ is hence always underscored. But ‘what’ is to be observed, ‘how’ to observe and even after observation, how to make it meaningful through materia medica and reportorial perspectives are the exasperating concerns for a homoeopathic physician.

 

This book genuinely tries to give, in a comprehensive manner, all about pediatric prescribing – from case taking to Materia Medica. The author has divided the book into two parts: The first part deals with Introduction, Pediatric case taking, Development, Mind, Reaction to a stimulus and flow chart through 6 chapters. Part II is exclusively kept for Materia Medica.

 

The author presents ‘Pediatric case taking’ through 25 pages. The ‘portrait’ is erected with the incorporation of following points:

  1. Ailments from
  2. Complaints
  3. Constitution
  4. Mother’s history during pregnancy
  5. Obstetric history
  6. Feeding history
  7. Generals
  8. Temperament (Mind)
  9. Sociability - destructibility – activity axis


Each point has been eraborated in the successive pages except second point of complaints. Dr. Jain lists 4 factors viz. vaccination, emotional factors, physical ailments and medicines that lower the immunity. The ‘constitution’ chapter is one paged and Dr. Jain lists

  1. Distribution of fat
  2. Progress of emaciation
  3. Eating habit

as points to observe while determining the physical constitution. Some rubrics of emaciation and fontanelles wind up constitution. While emphasizing mother’s history during pregnancy, Dr. Jain gives 13 points viz. external and internal stress factors, emotional state during pregnancy, relationship with husband and other family members, attitudes of close friends and relatives, economic status of the family, not wanting a baby at all, not wanting a baby at that time, strong desire for child of a given sex, wanting to have a miscarriage or abortion, scorn for the child and time of unfavourable environmental conditions.

Under ‘Obstetric history.’ Dr. Jain provides Erik Erickson’s psychosocial stages. The feeding history goes for breast-feeding, its advantages and other means of feeding. Under the ‘Generals,’ thermals and thirst are given with teething and some relevant rubrics. In ‘Mind’ section, the author gives a basic temperamental patterns of behaviour in children of Thomas and chess and evolves his own grouping based on it and gives a flow-chart for simpler study. The flow-chart is based on two attributes: Approach and Withdrawal. 

Chapter 3 deals with ‘Development’ of infants with all stages and their characters. Toddlers, pre-school, schooling are elaborately presented. The chapter 4 of ‘mind’ is based on 3 factors: sociability – Activity – Destructibility axis and Dr. Jain has toiled hard to give various points to understand the theme. His approach definitely needs careful assessment and application. The ‘intellect’ chapter is presented through senses and Howard Gardner’s multiple theory of 7 types of intelligence are given with their characters and related reportorial rubrics. This is a useful addition to indicate pediatric prescribing.

‘Reaction to a stimulus’ is the fifth chapter where Dr. Jain presents through 4 basic emotions: anger, jealousy, grief and fear. Dr. Jain has taken pains to derive behavioral responses of children expressing these emotions.

Part II is Materia Medica of children and Dr. Jain has given 103 remedies. Each remedy is presented under following headings: Axis, life-situation, Ailments from, Mind, Generalities and Indications. To illustrate: Bells axis is Approach (withdrawal during acute illness) + Hyperactive + Destructive. To understand the axis one has to refer to flow chart and explanation given by the author. Yet Approach and Withdrawal being separately presented but hyperactive and hypoactive being given in both make the reader confused. In the next edition, author should make this point more clear.

Kudos to Dr. Jain for providing a useful addition to our literature and for making pediatric prescribing easier while making our vision more wide.