2006 August

Hummingbird for ADHD

by Sally Williams
Client: C.B., age 10,
Chief Complaint: ADHD, May 2005

C.B., a very handsome boy with bright eyes and dark hair, is buzzing with energy. His small wire like body darts around my office. His restless nature prevents him from staying still for even a moment. When he first came to me he was on Ritalin, prescribed for his ADHD, and Benedryl for his sleeplessness.

Case:
“I am so incredibly happy most of the time. I can really get out of control. I have lots and lots of energy. I can sit to read though. I can read the same book three or four times. The thing I love best though is music. I just love being in the band. I play clarinet.”

C.B.’s mother reports that when he is not playing the clarinet he is constantly humming. “He hums and sings all day. He is all over the house all the time. He cannot sit still even to eat, but there are those times where he will be running around the house and all of a sudden he will just stop and day dream. He will just go off somewhere in his mind and he will be just kind of frozen there. Then something will bring him back and he will be off and running.”

His mother continues to say that he is very smart and talented, but that he is either too distracted or day-dreamy to use his abilities productively. C.B. has very little appetite and eats “like a bird.” He craves sugar even though his mother strictly forbids it. He will even sneak into the kitchen to steal candy from the cupboard. C.B.’s mother calls him “Professor Stealth,” because he “quietly flies into the kitchen, steals candy, and flies out.”

C.B. is very sensitive to pain and can become melodramatic if injured. He is also sensitive to ridicule by his peers, and becomes “furious” when bullied because of his small size and restlessness.

He has allergies to pollen, grasses, dust, and mold.

Prescription
Rx Tuberculinum Aviare 200c

Six week follow up:
There was little improvement in C.B.’s restlessness, but his craving for sugar had grown more severe. I questioned him more about what was difficult for him:

“I have such a hard time being in control. I just feel like I have to fly all over. Then once in a while I just stop because a thought takes me and I just hover, thinking like this.” C.B. runs around my office and comes to a sudden stop. He stares straight ahead, stands on one foot, holds his hands up at his shoulders pointing outward and flapping like little wings.

Prescription 2
Rx Calypte Anna (Hummingbird) 200c.

Six week follow up:
“I feel GREAT. I do not feel like I am a hyper maniac anymore. I think this remedy is the best. School is going better. I am sleeping better so I am not dozing off in school. I can pay attention. I can sit and relax, I feel calmer inside.”

Six week follow up: (twelve weeks from initial dose)
C.B.’s mother says that he feels better than ever before. Finally, he can stay on task and accomplish things productively. His grades have gone up and as a result, his teachers have commented that the Ritalin has been working very well! His mother admitted that he has not been taking Ritalin for months. C.B.’s craving for sugar had subsided while his appitite had simultaneously increased. Also, his allergy symptoms have seemingly disappeared for he has stopped complaining about them. His mother finally commented happily, “The big change is that he is making friends. He comes home and hangs out in his room with friends instead of flying from thing to thing to thing,” like a hummingbird!

C.B. continues to do well. There have been two occasions in the last year where he began to relapse and was given another dose.

The proving of Calypte Anna can be downloaded from the Luminos Homeopathic Courses website- (Select New Provings - Calypte_Anna_Proving)

Sally Williams RSHom (NA) CCH

Categories: Remedies
Keywords: ADHD, Ritalin, craving for sugar,
Remedies:

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Posts: 6
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Reply #3 on : Fri February 27, 2009, 15:31:13
Hello Ilona,

The boy continued to do well for a very long time until just this past winter. His mother brought him in with respiratory infections that settle in the lungs. He is now on Tuberculinum aviare and doing quite well. I find this nosode is a common follow up for bird remedies.
In regards to sugar cravings and ADHD, in Calypte Anna the relationship to sugar is a bit different. They tend to be able to taste sweet in foods most of us cannot.

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Reply #2 on : Mon February 26, 2007, 13:36:33
Dear Sally, I'm very interested in the long term follow up of this case(I have some ADHD-cases too): how long and on which levels acts this interesting remedy.
Ilona

I made a possible repertorisation, not differentiated enough. (I didn't take "craving for sugar", all hyperactivs do so)

MIND; CHEERFULNESS, gaiety, happiness; tendency
MIND; SINGING
MIND; DAY-DREAMING; tendency for
STOMACH; APPETITE; easy satiety
MIND; SENSITIVE, oversensitive; pain, to

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Reply #1 on : Tue August 15, 2006, 13:55:32
Sally,

It's extremely rewarding to hear of your excellent work with this boy! Provings are a tremendous amount of work and it is a blessing to see them help form aspects of the materia medica necessary to be able to prescribe with curative results such as is seen in this case.

Thank you for sharing your clinical work, and keep up the excellent work!

Cynthia