You’re tired. The remains of this morning’s oatmeal is still in your hair. Your tiniest human is teething, and the others need a nap or three.
We all love our children, but sometimes we could happily sell them to the nice elderly couple down the street for a shower and an hour of silence.
When the day is long and sanity is short, this gentle remedy to help turn even the crankiest kiddo into your favorite one.
Whether your kids are teething, tired, irritable, or dealing with emotional growth, they can put a strain on even the strongest parent.
And yes, it does work on teenagers.
Flower Essences for Emotional Balance
I use flower essences to deal with the more difficult emotional aspects of health that we often neglect both at home and in my practice. Their effectiveness is nothing short of amazing.
Click HERE for Flower Essences 101.
They truly keep us sane.
This gentle remedy comes with no side effects, no contraindications, and many of the essences are even recommended for pets.
7 Remedies for Problem Behaviors
[‘where to buy’ are Amazon affiliate links; full disclaimer]
Aspen (where to buy) – fear of unknown origin
Children who need Aspen suffer from a fearful personality. They can be clingy, unwilling to explore on their own, often feel a sense of doom, or suffer from nightmares or sleep walking.
Beech (where to buy) – intolerant of others
Those with a need for Beech usually suffer from allergies, are intolerant and impatient, have a ‘short fuse’, and are very particular about how things are done.
* This is my most reached for essence with my daughter and I. If we eat allergens, we’re both very short of temper and sensitive to noise. Within 30 minutes of taking it, those symptoms have calmed by 70%. Within 24-26 hours of regular use, the symptoms are gone.
Gentian (where to buy) – give up easily, pessimistic
This flower essence is for children who don’t believe in themselves and have trouble with obstacles due a lack of belief in themselves. This is an important one for children who have trouble learning and get frustrated with their limitations, perceived or real.
Holly (where to buy) – envy/jealousy, rage, hatred, insensitive
Holly is a wonderful essence for children who have trouble accepting a new sibling or those who have closed themselves off due to abuse, emotional, mental, and/or physical.
Mimulus (where to buy) – fear of specific things like dark, heights, strangers; shyness and timidity
Very sensitive and fearful children benefit greatly from mimulus. It is for those who are uncomfortable with confrontation, get nervous easily, have pronounced fears, and are hypersensitive to outside stimuli.
* This is my husband’s favorite remedy. Until recently, his fear of flying increased every year until it almost crippled him. I had to give him Xanax to get him on a plane, and he still flew white-knuckled.
He would dread trips year-round and panic just seeing a commercial with an airplane in it. Not cool when you have to travel for your job.
Since we started Mimulus, he gets nothing more than butterflies during takeoff and landing. Everything else has disappeared.
Vervain (where to buy) – overhyper, high-strung, strong-willed
Vervain can be helpful for those children who are very focused and enthusiastic about their interests and feel that you need to share their ideals.
They can be very particular about how things are done and will focus all of their energy on it until something else catches their attention. This can cause rebellion when their ideas don’t match your own.
Vine (where to buy) – dominating, inflexible, need to have their way at all costs
Vine children are always right. They can be very domineering without regard to the feelings of others and often show a distinct lack of respect for others who do not live up to their ideals.
Rescue Remedy (where to buy) – Rescue Remedy is the ultimate temper tantrum cure. It is a blend of flower essences specifically designed to deal with acute emotional distress.
Whether your child is dealing with an emotional meltdown or severe illness, Rescue Remedy can help. It’s also one of the top remedies for helping the body to cope with broken bones, concussions, or surgery.
Final Notes
> Anybody emotionally close to your child and/or with them on a daily basis can also benefit from taking the same remedy.
> Food and chemical sensitivities, a negative environment, and nutritional deficiencies will need to be corrected for the problem to disappear permanently, but the right remedy can provide much needed support.
In my experience, behavioral issues are most often related to food and ingested chemical reactions.
> Many people do best with a blend of essences. You can either learn to make your own or contact a holistic practitioner skilled in flower essences.
You can contact me at jennifer AT 20somethingallergies DOT com for assistance.
If you’d like an in-depth resource on making your own blends and learning how to use them at home, The Encyclopedia of Flower Essences by Mechthild Scheffer is my most reached for reference manual.
DETOXIFICATION
IMMUNE SUPPORT
IMMUNE SUPPORT
THYROID SUPPORT
ADRENAL SUPPORT
HEALING RESPONSES
6 Responses
How important is it that the remedy be an EXACT match for the symptoms, as it is with homeopathic remedies? Looking at the remedies above, I am uncertain which one (out of 2 or 3) to give my toddler (and a toddler doesn’t quite exhibit some of the attributes listed above, as he isn’t talking yet and so forth). If I chose the “wrong” one to begin with, would it not work at all? Or would any of the 2 or 3 I’m considering give us some benefits?
I find flower essences to be much easier to match. Since there are only 38 remedies, each one covers a range of symptoms. I highly recommend the book I referenced to help choose blends, but, if you would like to try the remedies out first before committing, choose one that seems like it would give the most benefit. There are 32 other single essences than what I mentioned here, so I would check them all out before making a decision if your gut instinct doesn’t draw you to one initially.
Children are also wonderfully intuitive and you munchkin may be able to pick the right one if they are all in from of him/her.
If the remedy isn’t the right one, it will act the same as a homeopathic remedy and not show any changes.
If you’re totally confused, leave me a comment with the behaviors you are trying to moderate and I’ll give you some direction. I can also create an individual blend after an interview and questionnaire to determine which essences are right.
Hi, I love your descriptions of the remedies. I have an almost 3 year old highly sensitive little girl. She is wonderful a times and very challenging as well. I have been searching the internet for months and months looking for some advice on parenting a highly sensitive toddler. Almost all the information is for children that are older. I have purchased Mimulus and The Resue Remedy for her. I use the Rescue Remedy often and have defiantly seen a drastic improvement in her. She would not leave the house because she was soo fearful of people with eyeglasses (not sun glasses). She is terrified of hospitals, casts, band aids, eye glasses, vets, etc. Anything to do with something or someone not being “well”. I gave her the Mimulus but really didn’t notice any difference with her. I am wondering if I need to continually give it to her four times a day two drops at a time to see a difference? Also, is it safe for a almost 3 year old. The lady at the health food store said it is safe for her, but I want to make sure before I give it to her that many times a day. I stay at home wit her and cannot get her to go to play groups, parks, play dates, etc. I really am hoping if you can give me some more clear instructions how to you mimulus to our advantage. Thanks!
Hey Laura! I’m sorry for the delay in my reply. I was on maternity leave. Flower essences are completely safe. You can read my 101 post for more info on how they work. Instead of giving her so many drops, try adding them to her water. She will get the benefits I find that they’re more effective, because our bodies respond to the remedies better when properly hydrated and she would be getting them more consistently throughout the day. If you are concerned about the alcohol it’s preserved in, you can add the drops to a large glass or pitcher of water and leave it uncovered overnight so the alcohol will dissipate.
An alternative to her taking them internally is to place them directly on her skin where it is thinnest like the inside of her elbow.
A couple more things to look into is The Child Whisperer (affiliate link). This book tells you the basics of energy profiling and can help you understand her nature and better honor how she thinks, acts, and feels. It was life changing for me and my family. The core essence of my daughter’s fears were a result of chronic gut inflammation brought on by allergens and chronic digestive dysfunction. The gut and brain are closely tied together, and the brain is often a large beacon of what’s happening in the gut.
Essential oils have been wonderful also. Young Living’s Valor blend was particularly helpful for calming fears at bedtime and while we were out in public.
ps I should prob mention that her diet is amazing and she is very healthy. She even takes moringa on a daily basis and we do not let her eat processed foods, or junk, sugar etc. She has an older brother who is allowed to eat treats and so she sometimes gets a hold of some. She loves her vegetables and I have don’t a lot of research on specific vitamins that she needs to help her highly sensitive self. I know diet is a HUGE cause for so many behavioural problems but I have ruled this out for her. Thanks again.