Alex Houghton & Rosalie Bate Interview
In our family, my husband Alex is the “doctor.” While we have the same opinions about medicine, herbs and healing, Alex possesses a strong will to follow through with something that, for example, is supposed to be given or done every 4 hours. He just sees to it without fail. We quite strongly try to avoid drugs, but we are not extremists. At one point, when Chloe developed cellulitis in her hands and the infection was going into the bone, because it was life-threatening we had given her antibiotics. She spent a week in the hospital on I.V. antibiotics.
When Chloe was born with Down’s Syndrome, we immediately began searching for things we could do to improve her health. Little by little we found them. When she was a toddler, and she had frequent bouts of croup, we found out about lemon wraps. Like other special needs children, she also often developed very pronounced upper respiratory symptoms, and kept colds for long periods, even for months at a time. Because she took so long to recover, we worried about taking her out—afraid that she might get sick.
At one point she developed an extremely severe pneumonia-like case of croup. Sitting there with our feverish and congested child in the middle of the night, it was all we could do not to panic and rush her straight to the hospital for antibiotics. But because of our commitment to avoid them, we called our anthroposophical doctor, who told us to do three lemon wraps a day. Luckily Alex had used these wraps before, and was able to follow through. Within two days Chloe was back to normal. I had not known that it was possible to stop such an illness with natural measures. Even though she continued with the runny nose for months, the infection never went back into her lungs. It made a deep impression on me to see Alex’s tremendous commitment to these natural healing methods pull her back from such a severe illness.
A couple of months later, I watched Chloe opening up the drawer where we keep the materials for the wraps. She wrapped her baby doll and put the hot water bottle in between herself and the doll— exactly like she had seen her daddy do it. When I saw with how much pleasure and total love she did this, I realized how healing the experience must have been for her.
Alex’s take on this is: “It’s funny. It turns out that these natural ways are the most effective, simplest and cheapest way to go. It is not such a big deal to do lemon wraps. If people only knew how simple it really was, more would do it.”
Since then, none of Chloe’s colds have gone into her chest. It seems that she has really passed through and overcome this as a serious health issue. That fact has made a powerful impression on us.
(See Accompanying Lemon Chest Compress Article)
The following story is based on an interview with Alex Houghton and Rosalie Bate, conducted by Wellness Nurse Linde Farmer, R.N.
Alex Houghton and Rosalie Bate, both Waldorf teachers for many years, reside with their daughter Chloe in Granada Hills. They live a natural lifestyle, and support a local CSA farm, by distributing weekly farm vegetables to their community. Currently they are producing marionette shows for city schools, nurseries, and day-care centers.
(This article was reprinted with the kind permission of LILIPOH, from their "Wellness Guide, Self-Help Indications for Parents, Families and Care-givers, Special focus on Children’s Health". Published by LILIPOH Publishing, Inc and the Wellness Nurses of The Los Angeles Alliance for Childhood.
Photo of the Bate family- Rosalie, Alex and Chloe used with their kind permission and that of LILIPOH and LA Alliance for Childhood.)
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LILIPOH is a unique quarterly wellness magazine dedicated to The Spirit in Life. They specialize in Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophical approach to nutrition, health and the environment, Lilipoh offers information on the energetics of food, homeopathy, naturopathic medicine, and social health issues, health, homeopathy and naturopathic medicine, Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, nutrition, the arts, community life and more! Filled with lively articles by healthcare professionals, therapists, educators, farmers and progressive thinkers, Lilipoh adds a whole new dimension to healthier lifestyles and a healthy environment.