Loves to play as if an animal: a case of Chocolate

The patient is a 9 year old girl who suffered in the past from atopic dermatitis, behind the right knee, which then moved to the left knee and then to the elbows. The eruption flared up again after a huge quarrel between her parents - and then disappeared again. At the moment, she has an eye infection. "Her eyes are extremely itchy – all red and itchy, with burning tears that cause irritation – so she rubs them and closes them."

Her mother says: “She is an incredible child, she is loved at home.”

Observation: She looks childish and appears spoiled. She came to the consultation with a big teddy bear.

The mother complains: "She is clingy; she wants me to help her with bathing. If I don’t, she screams. She would never dry herself off. She will not, however, come and hug."

She loves eating ice very much. She eats ice from the refrigerator and she runs barefoot all year long.

What is special about her? "She likes to play like an animal, play a dog or a cat or a tiger. She makes sounds like the animals. She would like to be a horse."

Observation: restless legs, peeling lips and biting the skin of the fingers. She bites her nails habitually.

Fears? “Spider webs. They are sticky and disgusting!”

Her parents are divorced and she lives at home with her mother and her mother's husband.

Observation: The mother appears quite self-centered; every other sentence turns back to herself and not to her daughter. She says: "I have no time for the child." There is a problem in the bond between mother and daughter here.

We can take three simple, clear symptoms and the remedy Chocolate will come up:

Generals: food - ice desire

Mind: Delusion, imagination, animal, he or she is

Eyes:  lachrymation

Lou Klein had said on the Malavales family that as children, they love to play as though they are animals (or fear of insects: Abelmoschus, which is from the same family, has a terrible fear of spiders).

He also noted that the Malavales fall in the spider’s web; maybe someone in the family is “a spider” who captures them in their web. She is repulsed by the spider’s web. Moreover, there is the element of alienation from the mother, which is part of the 4th nourishment column, present in the case.

Prescription: Chocolate 6C daily

Follow-up:

About four months later: the first night after taking the remedy, she slept until 11 am the next day, which is highly unusual for her. She coughed for a while and it passed. Since then, she is in a good state, happy. She has no more skin problems and no eye infections.

The mother says: "I am very busy with my life and I hardly see her but I am glad to see her happy. She is usually with her dad. There is, however, a change: she started to come and hug me and say ‘Mommy, I love you.’ Until now, there were no such expression. She is a sweetheart... "

She still loves ice.

There is a change in the girl’s behavior; the relationship between the mother and daughter is becoming closer. There is no need to change in the remedy, only to increase the potency.

Prescription: Chocolate 9C

Eight months later: she now takes Chocolate 30C, daily (the potency has been slowly raised).

The mother says: “I can see that she is just fine; at school, she has more friends, she is less anxious, she is able to be alone, and she showers by herself. She sleeps on a high bed without fear.”

Skin problems? Recently, she has a rash on the skin - (might had been suppressed in the past).

Eye infections? Disappeared. Clear eyes, the fungus disappeared as well and she stopped biting her nails.

There is no need to change anything.

Photos: Wikimedia Commons
Sunrise on dew laden web; Rich Murphy
Thorntonscat; Stratford490