Whooping Cough – Homeopathic Prevention and Treatment

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly contagious disease caused by theBordetella pertussis bacteria. Worldwide, it causes about 300,000 deaths a year and leaves many surviving children with brain damage. Serious complications such as bleeding into the nose, eyes or brain, pneumonia, and hernias also occur. Fortunately, with good homeopathic treatment, these complications can be avoided and the duration of the disease significantly shortened.

Australia is currently in the grip of a whooping cough epidemic. Homeopaths have seen increased numbers of people at their clinics seeking treatment for the unpleaseant and distressing symptoms of their cough. These have included: rattling respiration, hard to expectorate mucus, nausea and vomiting, paroxysms of cough, and of course, the characteristic ‘whoop’ sound as the sufferer gasps for breath. Mothers of young children and babies have been particularly anxious. Curiously, many of those affected by whooping cough have already been fully vaccinated.

To stop the spread of the current epidemic, health officials are calling for the vaccination of adults as well as children. But is large-scale vaccination the best solution? Not only is protection from the current vaccine short-lived and unreliable, but side-effects are common.

The homeopathic approach to this problem offers a safe and sensible solution. Homeopathy has a two hundred year history of treating and preventing whooping cough without the risk of dangerous side-effects. It is so safe it can even be used as a second line of defence should a vaccine for whooping cough already have been given.

Introduction to the Remedies

No two cases of whooping cough are exactly alike – the remedy needed by each sufferer will depend on their particular symptoms. Having said this, there are two remedies used more often than others for treatment of the early stage of whooping cough. For this reason, they are placed at the head of the list. They are Drosera and Pertussinum. These two remedies have also been used extensively by homeopaths over the past 200 years to also prevent whooping cough, and so can be used as part of a homeopathic immunization (homeoprophylaxis) program.

The remaining remedies are listed alphabetically and, though they form an incomplete list, are some of the more commonly prescribed remedies. General information on the expected course of whooping cough and its common symptoms can be found at the end of the article.

Many of the following remedies are found in home-use kits. Kits and individual remedies are also available from our online shop.

Remedies for Early Treatment or Prevention

Drosera Rotundifolia (Dros)

Key Symptoms: Long fits of coughing. Paroxysms follow each other rapidly. Persistent deep barking or choking cough. Retching and vomiting with cough. Chest pains from coughing. Must hold chest while coughing. Worse for: after midnight; lying down.

Supporting Symptoms: Spasmodic, dry, irritating cough. Chest bruised and sore from coughing. Sharp pains in chest. Choking respiration. Can scarcely breathe. Bleeding from nose and mouth. Anxious and easily angered. Worse for: warmth; becoming warm in bed; 2am; laughing, talking or singing.

Other Comments: Dros., along with Pert., is a major remedy for either the treatment or prevention of whooping cough. If used during the first stage of whooping cough, when indicated by the symptoms, it can either reduce the frequency of attacks or rapidly clear them.

Pertussinum (Pert)

Key Symptoms: Useful during the first stages of whooping cough. Paroxysms of cough. Cough caused by intense tickling in throat or trachea.

Supporting Symptoms: Hacking cough with reddened, watery eyes. Intense facial redness with cough. Vomiting or nausea at the end of the cough. Deep, croupy cough. Breathlessness with cough. Spasmodic choking with the cough. Strangling sensation on waking with the cough. Stinging pain in or on the chest during cough. Itching of the palate of the mouth on lying down at night.

Other Comments: Pert., along with Dros., is a major remedy for either the treatment or prevention of whooping cough. If used during the first stage of whooping cough, when indicated by the symptoms, it can either reduce the frequency of attacks or rapidly clear them.

Frequently Used Remedies for Treatment

Antimonium Tartaricum (Ant-t)

Key Symptoms: Suffocating cough. Rattling mucous that is difficult to cough up. Weakness and needing to be supported when sitting to cough. Gagging and vomiting of mucous or food with the cough. Worse for: warmth and warm room, lying down. Better for: expectoration.

Supporting Symptoms: Cough after eating or anger. The child stiffens and becomes blue. Wants to be fanned. Fear of being left alone. Not wanting to touched or looked at. Increasingly weak, drowsy, and sweaty. Worse for: night, after midnight, damp, cold weather, sour things, milk. Better for: sitting up, cool air, being fanned.

Belladonna (Bell)

Key Symptoms: Hard, barking cough. Suffocating cough with pain in the larynx, waking after midnight. Violent cough.

Supporting Symptoms: Whooping cough with the expectoration of blood. Pain in the stomach before the attack. Child cries immediately before the cough. Yawning causes cough. Eyes red and swollen. Bleeding from the nose. Fever with a red face, throbbing arteries, glassy eyes, dilated pupils. Delirium with fever. Worse for: 3pm; draft; lying down; touch, jarring. Better for: sitting semi-erect.

Carbo Vegetabilis (Carb-v)

Key Symptoms: Early stage of whooping cough. Cough triggered by itching in larynx. Racking cough. Spasmodic cough with bluish face. Gagging, retching and vomiting of mucous with cough. Burning in the chest with cough. Worse for: warmth. Better for: cool air; being fanned.

Supporting Symptoms: Cold sweat with cough. Vomiting of watery fluid. Lump of phlegm after each attack. Wheezing when breathing. Hoarseness. Wants to be fanned.

Coccus Cacti (Coc-c)

Key Symptoms: Whooping cough with vomiting of clear, ropy mucous, extending in thick, long strings even to the floor (Kali-bi. has yellow strings). Spasmodic cough on first waking in the morning. Prolonged cough following whooping cough.

Supporting Symptoms: Purple-red face on coughing. Short paroxysms followed by the easy expectoration of mucous. Cough that commences in autumn and continues to summer. Worse for: lying; during exercise; irritation of throat.

Cuprum metallicum (Cupr)

Key Symptoms: Violent and long-lasting paroxysms of cough that exhaust the patient. Rattling, choking cough. Spasms of muscles and cramps with the cough. Convulsive expectoration of tough, gelatinous mucous during the paroxysm. Rattling of mucous in the chest between attacks. Worse for: being touched; hot weather. Better for: cold drinks.

Supporting Symptoms: Cough when any part of the body is uncovered. Cough has a gurgling sound. Becomes rigid during the attack and turns purple-black in face as if dead (cf. Corr-r). Convulsions with the cough. Clenched thumbs during the cough. Vomiting after the paroxysm. Bluish face and lips. Anxiety before the attacks. Irritable. Worse for: breathing cold air.

Ipecacuanha (Ip)

Key Symptoms: Incessant, violent coughing with every breath. The child stiffens with each paroxysm of the cough. Violent gagging and vomiting from the cough, with or without nausea.

Supporting Symptoms: Suffocative cough in which the child becomes stiff and blue in the face, finally relaxes and then vomits phlegm. The cough causes gagging and vomiting of phlegm. Chest seems full of mucous which does not yield to coughing. Cough caused by tickling tightness from the larynx to the chest. Worse for: warmth; warm, moist weather; dampness.

Kali Bichromicum (Kali-bi)

Key Symptoms: Choking cough, with expectoration of sticky, yellow mucus which can be drawn out into strings (Coc-c. for clear strings.)

Supporting Symptoms: Violent, exhausting cough. Rattling cough. Rawness in trachea with cough. Pain in sternum extending to shoulders on cough. Wheezing at night after whooping cough.

Kali Sulphuricum (Kali-s)

Key Symptoms: Later stages if whooping cough. Cough with retching but no vomiting. Mucous rattles in chest. Yellow, slimy expectoration or profuse watery expectoration. Deep-yellow expectoration. Tongue coated with yellow.

Supporting Symptoms: Weeping with the cough. Feels hot and sweaty. Easily angered and irritable. Fair complexion and tendency to obesity. Worse for: evening; becoming warm; warm room or air. Better for: cool, open air.

Phosphorus (Phos)

Key Symptoms: Dry, hacking, exhausting cough. Tightness of chest with racking cough. Trembling of body with cough. Hoarseness and almost total loss of voice. Cough triggered by strong odours. Worse for: lying on left side; cold air; talking.

Supporting Symptoms: Useful in treatment of the end stages of whooping cough. Cough from tickling in throat or chest. Must sit up when coughing. Unable to talk from pain in larynx. Expectoration of transparent mucous on rising in the morning. During the day, expectoration of tough, whitish mucous. Expectoration of rust-colored, purulent or bright, red, frothy, bloody mucus. Deep sleep by day but restlessness with clammy sweat at night. Worse for: reading aloud; laughing; going into a warm room from the cold; lying on back.

Sanguinaria (Sang)

Key Symptoms: Spasmodic cough; Cough that remains after whooping cough infection. cough that returns with every cold. Flushing of the face.

Supporting Symptoms: Cough with chest pain, worse on the right side. Dry cough, waking from sleep and not eased until the patient sits up and passes flatus both ways. Chest pains also improved by belching or passing gas (flatus). Hacking cough from dryness in the larynx, worsened by lying down. Must sit up to cough. Cough from tickling in the throat or trachea. Metallic cough, as though coughing through a metal tube. Tough, offensive, rust-coloured expectorant.

Many of the following remedies are found in home-use kits. Kits and individual remedies are also available from our online shop.

General Whooping Cough Information

Whooping cough epidemics occur every three to four years. Early symptoms are similar to those of a cold and consist of sore watery red eyes, runny nose, low-grade fever and a general feeling of unwellness.

Within three to seven days a dry cough appears, and progresses to fits of prolonged coughing that can end with vomiting. A deep gasping breath that may make a characteristic ‘whoop’ sound, especially in infants and children, follows the paroxysms of cough.

The incubation period for pertussis (the time between infection and the onset of symptoms) is usually seven to ten days, but may be as long as six to twenty days. The infected person is contagious for the first three weeks of symptoms and the cough can last for several months. For this reason it is called the hundred day, or three-month cough.

Whooping Cough – Homeopathic Prevention and Treatment

Introduction to the Remedies

Remedies for Early Treatment or Prevention

Drosera Rotundifolia (Dros)

Antimonium Tartaricum (Ant-t)

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