Homeopathy & Teething

a public health initiative

The Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (an autonomous body of the Ministry of AYUSH) Government of India public health programme Homoeopathy for the Healthy Child¹ promoted healthy teething through providing opportunities for home-based care of common complaints associated with teething.

Six pre-identified homeopathic medicines were included in a kit distributed to participating parents.

Calcarea phosphoricum was given regularly to each of the participating 11,400+ children aged from 6 months to one year, who were followed for twelve successive months.

Immediate home based care of teething associated diarrhoea, upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) and mild fever was provided by trained and accredited Social Health Activists (health workers) using the additional five homeopathic medicines in the kit:

• Ferrum phosphoricum

• Magnesium phosphoricum

• Belladonna

• Chamomilla

• Podophyllum

Patterns of teething and diarrhoea/URTI episodes were recorded and seen to decrease in the months after enrolment, with children responding favourably to the homeopathic medicine.

Ten children required a referral to medical care - one with diarrhoea and nine with respiratory issues.

The health workers reported satisfaction with the program.

Researchers concluded that provision of home-based care with a limited number of homeopathic medicines is both feasible and acceptable to the wider community - finding that regular use of Calcarea phosphorica in conjunction with home-based care with homeopathy provided by health workers for common teething problems enhances public health service outreach.

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‘In contrast to frequent claims, the available MAs of homoeopathy in placebo-controlled randomised trials for any indication show significant positive effects beyond placebo. Compared to other medical interventions, the quality of evidence for efficacy of homoeopathy was similar or higher than for 90% of interventions across medicine.²

Accordingly, the efficacy evidence from placebo-controlled randomised trials provides no justification for regulatory or political actions against homoeopathy in health-care systems.’³

1. Taneja et al., 2019. An Assessment of a Public Health Initiative of Homeopathy for Primary Teething. Homeopathy. Feb;108(1):2-11. Available from: https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-0038-1673650

2. Howick et al., 2022. Most healthcare interventions tested in Cochrane Reviews are not effective according to high quality evidence: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Clin Epidemiol. Aug;148:160-169. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35447356/

3. Hamre et al., 2023. Efficacy of homoeopathic treatment: Systematic review of meta-analyses of randomised placebo-controlled homoeopathy trials for any indication. Systematic Rev.  Oct 7;12(1):191. https://systematicreviewsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13643-023-02313-2#Abs1