Rheum
Sour-smelling children — everything smells sour. Colic and diarrhea in teething children. Sour stool, sour sweat, sour body. Restless, crying, screaming at night.
Source
Tincture from the root of Rheum palmatum (Polygonaceae), Chinese rhubarb.
Available Potencies
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Keynote Symptoms
['Whole child smells sour — intensely sour from every pore', 'Colicky diarrhea during dentition — sour, fermented stool', 'Screaming and restlessness at night — teething children', 'Sour sweat — especially on scalp and face', 'Straining at stool — desires stool but produces little']
Mind & Emotional Symptoms
['Screaming and crying — children demanding and impatient', 'Restless and fretful at night', 'Irritability and impatience']
General Symptoms
['Sourness of entire body — the most sour remedy', 'Teething complaints in children', 'Colic and diarrhea with sour stool', 'Profuse sour sweat — especially on head', 'Children want many things but reject them when offered']
Physical Symptoms
Abdomen
['Sour-smelling diarrhea', 'Colicky pains with teething', 'Thin, pasty, sour stool', 'Straining and urging with little result']
Head
['Profuse sour sweat on scalp', 'Hair wet from perspiration']
Mouth
['Difficult dentition', 'Salivation during teething']
Modalities
Better From
['Warmth', 'Bending double', 'Wrapping up warm']
Worse From
['Dentition', 'Uncovering', 'Eating', 'Movement', 'Night']
Constitutional Type
Sour-smelling infants and toddlers with teething diarrhea, colic, and restless screaming. Everything about the child is sour.
Clinical Indications
['Teething diarrhea', 'Infant colic', 'Sour stool', 'Sour perspiration']
Comparative Materia Medica
['Magnesia carbonica — sour vomiting and stool but less intense sourness; more neuralgic', 'Calcarea carbonica — sour head sweat but more sluggish; fat; cold', 'Chamomilla — teething colic but more angry; one cheek red']
Safety Information
['Chamomilla', 'Camphor', 'Nux vomica']
Rhubarb root in large doses is a strong cathartic. Contains oxalic acid which can cause kidney stones. Leaves contain lethal levels of oxalates.
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