Norman Natural Health

I am a married mother of 2 children ages 8 and 10. I am writing this to help anyone that is in the process of deciding on alternative Naturopathic Health care over the more traditional Medical care that this society is so accustomed to. Here is our story.

When my daughter was born, my husband and I thought were on top of the world. We already had a son who was so easy going and now we had this beautiful baby girl to complete our family. Well we didn’t know what we were in for with this little girl. She was not an easy baby, very colicky even while I was nursing her. We had many sleepless nights and I had to literally bounce her up and down to get her to fall asleep.

As my daughter hit 2 years of age we thought we were prepared for the “terrible two’s” as we already went though that stage with my son who was now 4. There were many tantrums but we also noticed that my daughter was much more defiant than our son ever was. Everything was an issue. Just driving in our car in the winter time was a struggle. My daughter would complain that she was hot and so not to have to listen to the screaming we would drive with no heat on and the windows rolled down.

So now my daughter was turning 3 and now she should be getting somewhat better because she should be somewhat out of the “terrible two” stage, well we called the next year the “horrible three’s”. Our daughter was in day care 3 days a week and picking her up everyday was filled with anxiety because we never knew what kind of mood she was in. We had many accident reports to fill out as our daughter was very aggressive towards other children. We even had reports to sign because our daughter would scratch the teachers so hard that she had drawn blood. Many times my husband or I depending on who would pick her up would leave the day care carrying her out kicking and screaming.

What was happening to our little girl? There was a rage that was growing inside her. She had no regard for safety or discipline. She was very impulsive and determined to do what she wanted to do. My sister being in the medical profession gave me the name of someone that could prescribe some medication along with some counseling. Well there was no way that you could counsel someone that was so impulsive and just wasn’t available to internalize what she was doing. So at the age of 4 we medicated her. We were told that she would be fine with medication. So with medication after medication after medication our life grew more and more grim and hopeless. As a family we didn’t want to leave the house or interact with others because we were so ashamed and embarrassed. We looked at other families and could only dream of having the kind of life that we were supposed to have.

Well as my daughter grew so did her rage. With medication were the side effects and you never knew what you were going to get. My daughter focused her rage at me because she knew she was safe with me. I had to take her to our bedroom closet where so wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone else or herself. She would go into such a rage, kicking me and screaming how much she hated me and throwing things at me. Then after the episode she really didn’t remember what had happened except that we would both be there crying and hugging each other. She would tell me that she didn’t feel real and that she hated herself and she didn’t know why God had made her this way. This went on until about age 6 when we decided to find some help though a Mass General provider. This provider was much more conservative with medication. She wanted to change my daughter’s medication again. Well panic set in and we thought if we hospitalized her that they could change her medication and that they could deal with the side effects. That was such a horrible experience but at the same time it gave our family a well needed mental break.

This new medication was the best yet but our daughter still had impulsive issues and was still very defiant. We had issues with our extended family trying to constantly give us advice and telling us that we were not disciplined enough with her. Holidays were dreadful and filled with anxiety. We were isolated even from our families that could never even comprehend what we were going through.

Our next step was to try another procedure called Neuro-biofeedback. We hooked our daughter up to some tiny electrodes on her head. She concentrated on playing a computer game with her mind. This help to make new brain connections and to calm down some of the brain waves. This did help a little but when she finished the protocol she went back to how she was before. Our hope was gone but we were not going to give up looking for something that could help us.

Then by chance we met our daughter’s soccer coach and their family. We looked at them as said wow why can’t our family be like that! We had no idea that they had been through some similar issues with their son. They gave me the name of Dr. Camp, a Naturopathic Doctor. At this point we had nothing to lose. I went to see her myself first for anxiety issues. She had helped me so I brought my daughter to see her. My daughter age 7 now told Dr. Camp that she didn’t think that anyone could help her. That was in February 2007. Today is my daughter’s 8th birthday and she is totally off her medication. She is happy, doesn’t have rages anymore, she is able to listen and can think before she acts, she now has friends, has joined the swim team and is able to ride the school bus like other kids. This has been a miracle for our family. We are finally able to see who our daughter really is and we enjoy her gifts that she brings to our family. For the first time we have found peace and can do the things that family’s are supposed to do together. I must confess that my husband and I are still waiting for her to go back to her old self and that this is a surreal experience. But as each day goes by and she wakes up, comes down stairs with a big smile on her face that feeling is slowly fading away to a distant memory.

The Ballard Family
New Hampshire