When Gail Gutierrez's 13-month-old son Daniel was found to have a double ear infection, the Santa Monica woman left her pediatrician's office with the requisite prescription for antibiotics.
But Gutierrez had no intention of filling it. The prescription was only meant as a backup in case Daniel didn't respond to this brew: pulsatilla, an oral homeopathic remedy; the herb echinacea, and Mullin oil, an herbal eardrop treatment.
Seven days later, when Gutierrez returned to the pediatrician for a follow-up exam, her son's infection had cleared up.
"I've always used homeopathic remedies," says Gutierrez, 27. "Daniel's never had antibiotics."
Homeopathy, a 200-year-old practice involving the use of minute doses of pharmaceutical agents, has long been big on the Westside, where some embrace alternative living as religion.
Chain drug stores here offer homeopathic remedies over-the-counter and several pharmacies specialize in homeopathic remedies and herbs.
Increasingly, however, the alternative healing method is being used on children--to treat maladies ranging from teething pain and colic to upper respiratory infections.
Though homeopathic remedies themselves are considered harmless--they are exempt from federal Food and Drug Administration regulations--the trend toward pediatric homeopathy makes some local physicians nervous.
Potentially, they warn, parents who use homeopathy might allow a child's cold or ear infection to steadily worsen, perhaps eventually leading to pneumonia or loss of hearing.
Another concern is that a small number of hard-core homeopathy adherents refuse to have their children vaccinated out of concern that vaccines might be harmful. That, experts say, could expose children to outbreaks of life-threatening diseases.
Despite such worries, however, the demand for homeopathic treatment is rising--and a growing number of physicians are taking steps to meet it. These doctors see at least some merit to homeopathy, and some of them credit patients for making them aware of it.
"Half of my practice turns to homeopathy," said Dr. Jay Gordon, a pediatrician with offices in Santa Monica and Malibu who describes himself as self-taught in homeopathy.
"I really started listening to my patients who felt antibiotics and tubes didn't always work (for ear infections) and who didn't like antibiotics' side effects. And bacteria have developed a resistance to antibiotics. It is frightening. We need to try different methods to treat children."
Homeopathy (from the Greek Homios, for similar, and pathos, for suffering) is based on the belief that a substance that causes certain symptoms can cure those symptoms when administered in microdoses.
For example, a tincture of belladonna, derived from a highly poisonous, fever-inducing plant called deadly nightshade, is used to fight fever.
The remedies are intended to act on the same principle that allergy shots do, selectively stimulating the immune system.
Homeopathy has become a booming business nationwide, experts say. According to U.S. homeopathic manufacturers, it generates $250 million in annual sales and is growing at a rate of 25% a year.
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Critics liken homeopathic remedies to placebos and faith healing. The compounds, they assert, are so diluted that virtually no molecules from the original substance are left in them, rendering them impotent.
But homeopathic practitioners contend that molecules from the compounds they use imprint a kind of permanent energy pattern on the surrounding water molecules. Those water molecules, they say, become activated and more powerful when shaken vigorously, producing a highly effective medicine.
And homeopathy appears to be gaining some legitimacy in the United States, as it already has in Europe. A report on the first clinical trial of homeopathy by a U.S. doctor was published this month in "Pediatrics," a respected medical journal.
Dr. Jennifer Jacobs, a physician who uses only homeopathy in her practice in Evergreen, Wash., reported on a study she conducted using homeopathy in conjunction with oral rehydration to treat diarrhea in children, the leading cause of death for children worldwide. The study showed a decrease in diarrhea of about 15%.
A repeat study is now under way in Nepal, said Jacobs, who also hopes to do a study on the use of homeopathy in the treatment of ear infections.
Meanwhile, the alternative medicines branch of the National Institutes of Health earlier this year gave the first federal grant to study the effectiveness of homeopathy. The recipient was Michael Goldstein, a UCLA researcher and professor of public health.
"Supposedly, there were more applications for this grant than ever in the history of NIH, which shows there is a lot of public interest in it," said Goldstein, who plans to track the treatment of 130 adult patients in the care of five Los Angeles homeopathic practitioners for six months.
"We found that people who've repeatedly (sought) mainstream medicine but have been dissatisfied, then turn to alternative medicine."
