My patients very often ask the question: “Is it possible to starve children, will it not damage the children’s body?”.
I have not had many cases of starving children in my practice, but all of the children who have been starved have had remarkable results.
One case – the girl was fourteen years old, at which age she underwent fourteen days of wet fasting, and as a result was completely cured of bronchial asthma and other diseases. When I wrote this chapter, I wanted to dwell on this subject in more detail, and tried to collect interesting examples from practice and other sources.
And my main task is to make parents at least get information and know that with the help of therapeutic fasting, it is possible to help a child sometimes even with the most serious and seemingly incurable diseases.
The benefits of fasting for children
So why is fasting so beneficial and necessary for today’s children?
Starvation can be called an instinct. But we have lost that instinct over the centuries. Civilization has taken its toll. What does a child do when he has a fever? Stops eating. What do we adults do? We try to stuff him with anything, any food, medicine, and with any persuasion. And don’t even think that we help the disease, not the child. A child becomes an adult and remembers that if he is sick, you need to eat a lot of food. And this is our ignorance, stupidity, you can’t call it otherwise. When a cat, dog or horse is sick, will it eat? Of course not. The only thing the animal will eat is some laxative grass. And it’s done on instinct.
The main thing to remember is that fasting is a physiological process, so you should not be afraid to fast children. Children themselves often resort to the refusal of food in case of illness. Starvation is an instinct, which thanks to our ignorance disappears. If you practice fasting in your child from early childhood during illness, he will use it in adulthood.
There are many reasons for not eating, but the first thing that comes to mind for concerned relatives is illness. And this is indeed true. For decreased appetite is a typical manifestation of any acute illness and many chronic illnesses. This obvious fact requires clarification.
To begin with, let’s consider acute diseases, i.e. those that begin suddenly, which can include most childhood infections, trauma, poisoning, appendicitis, and many others. But it is in childhood we are most often talking about acute infectious diseases, usually viral infections, with which the child’s body in the vast majority of cases is quite capable of coping independently and without any outside help. If we take the above statement as an axiom, then the following becomes clear: any efforts of relatives should be made in the direction suggested by instinctive impulses.
And what is the most natural desire at the beginning of an illness? Not eating. Is this good or bad? It is normal, because the lack of desire to eat is due, above all, to biological expediency and this symptom is common to all mammals. Both a sick cat and a sick mouse do not want to eat.
At first glance, something doesn’t seem logical. You have to fight the disease, you need strength and energy, so how can you go without food at such a crucial moment? But that’s only at first glance.
The main manifestations of acute illnesses (pain, stress, increased body temperature, lack of oxygen) lead to a standard reaction – blood circulation in vital organs (brain, heart, lungs) is activated, while vessels in organs of less important organs are narrowed. Vasoconstriction and a significant decrease in blood flow activity is especially pronounced in the intestine. Its peristalsis decreases, less intestinal juices are produced, they become more dense. It is clear that the intestine, in such a situation, to put it mildly, not to eat. In acute forms of disease – fever or inflammation – the lack of desire to eat serves as a signal that you can not take any food. The digestive juices are absent, for perhaps mucus has formed on the walls of the gastro-intestinal tract, as in acute gastritis or typhoid fever; or mucus has been secreted on the membranes of the nose and throat, in the case of influenza; the normal movement of the muscles of the intestinal tract is suspended, and the power to digest food is lost. Inflammation, pain, or fever suspend the secretion of gastric juice and the work of the stomach.
Intestinal disorders (diarrhea, pain, flatulence) in children can arise and often occur in any disease – there is even a special term for it – “intestinal syndrome”. Paradoxical, but easily explained by the fact that the frequency and severity of intestinal syndrome is directly related not only to the severity of the disease, but also with the efforts of parents to feed a sick child. The liver is the most important organ of the digestive system, and at the same time the main fighter against infections. It is the liver – an active participant in the synthesis of immunoglobulins – the same well-known antibodies that neutralize viruses and bacterial toxins. Again, the liver – a powerful filter that stops and neutralizes poisons, tissue decay products. It is clear that in acute infection the load on the liver is high, and loss of appetite is an important defense mechanism with the obvious purpose of allowing the liver to focus on functions more necessary than digestion.
The following becomes clear: lack of or decreased appetite in a sick child is the absolute norm.
The more serious the load on the body, the more pronounced is the decrease in appetite. As the load decreases, appetite is restored, and this is one of the symptoms that clearly indicate the beginning of recovery. If, however, in acute illness the patient is fed, the pain and discomfort increase, the temperature rises, and the chances of recovery are reduced. In acute illness, the digestive system is as little equipped to digest food as the limbs are for movement. Both require rest. Why give food to a man, even the finest food, if he is unable to digest and assimilate it? Restlessness, nausea, lack of appetite, that is, active reluctance to eat, when one takes food into the mouth and it does not go away – under all these signs, of course, one should not eat. Forced eating under such circumstances not only fails to maintain strength, but exhausts it. The only rational plan of care for a patient with such symptoms is starvation.
The second, no less important point why fasting is useful for children is the undermining of immunity in modern children as a result of the predominance of viruses, which are intracellular microorganisms, in the reservoir of modern infection. The latter more confidently achieve a deliberately weakened human body, its immune barrier. Nowadays, if a patient of any age suffers from, for example, angina or inflammation of lungs, bronchi, etc., not to mention acute respiratory disease, then in the overwhelming majority of cases, one or more strains of active viral infection, usually in association with extracellular pathogenic microbes, are involved in the development of specific pathologies. Such cooperation (interaction) of the microcosm against the person more quickly and easily ensures the disruption of immune and other barriers of organs and systems in the child. This is because the means offered by modern medicine, often serve as a reason for the transfer of the acute phase of the disease into the chronic phase. Drugs that suppress coughing and painkillers to eliminate chest pain in pneumonia, it happens, often lead to complications. Nutrition in these diseases is also dangerous. If you feed patients suffering from inflammation of the lungs or pleurisy, then there is an oversaturation of toxins, because nutrition only prevents recovery, that is, the return to the normal state of inflamed lungs or pleura. And this can also lead to abscess or allergic disease. It is not surprising that nowadays every fifth to tenth child in the country suffers from obvious allergies, and no one has calculated how many hidden (potential) allergy sufferers there are among our children.
Drug therapy in such an association of viruses and bacteria achieves at best a half effect – suspends the activity of bacteria, but does not act destructively on the viral infection, that is, does not provide a quick, final, successful fight against this association of microorganisms. All this only aggravates the state of the child’s immune barrier, because in such a combination of infections, not one, but three real enemies of immunity act against the body’s defenses: virus, microbe and medicine (a chemical compound that aggravates allergies). And if we add to this various other negative factors: chemicalization of everyday life, food, clothes of a child, increased background radiation and others, then it becomes obvious in what danger is the modern immune barrier of a person in our time. The immune system of our children is undermined because of the pollution of the environment already in the mother’s body, in which they were carried, and therefore now, after 200 years of pollution of the human environment with chemicals and drugs, it is impossible to give children any drugs, especially antibiotics, in any case. Now they are not able to cure, and that is why hormonal drugs – very potent, very aggressive, suppressing the disease and destroying the body – are often used together with them.
What is the best way to restore health, barrier functions of the organism in chronic children? There is an unambiguous answer to this question – only natural ways to improve the body can do it. These are fasting, hardening, cleansing of the intestines and liver, physical training. Loss of appetite – one of the first symptoms of acute illness. It should be remembered that the suppression of the desire to eat – the first sign of the disease. Nature wisely kills this desire when food cannot be utilized. Starvation is the way to survive such illnesses. Starvation is a temporary measure by which the body accomplishes a much needed work; it is a technique used to help the body in many critical situations. It may be said that starvation and surgery are all that is of value in disease. Starvation is not a cure, but an essential and most significant part of the healing process.
Remember, if your child is sick, has a fever, refuses to eat – do not feed him at least a day. Give plenty of fluids. As you feel better, the appetite will recover on its own and the disease will not be so long and severe. Of course, fasting in children is associated with a number of difficulties: less disciplined child, difficulty in explaining the purpose of fasting, lack of independent thinking. Children often find it difficult to resist the temptation to break the regime. Therefore, many experts recommend that the timing of fasting in children should be considered very carefully, taking into account, in addition to age, the individual characteristics of the child.
The best fasting regimen for children is short 24-hour continuous “fast days” once a week or once every 10 days. Unlike long courses of treatment, progress is slower, but improvement is more steady. This method is gentle. And the children themselves spontaneously resort to this method in various toxicoses, acute diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and other severe conditions.
The method of 1-2-day fasting was very effective in renal patients, especially with a pronounced edema syndrome. Edema on the background of bed rest and lack of food came down in children intensely, sometimes without the use of drugs. The method of cascade fasting, short in duration, but with proper recovery nutrition, has proved itself well.
Sometimes children perfectly tolerate 3-4-day fasting with drinking decoctions of herbs with honey and juice of lemon, pomegranate, kalina, etc.
Of course, it is better not to conduct dry fasting for a child without training and preparation, because dry fasting is a very harsh impact on the psyche and body of the child. Although such fasts are more effective in inflammatory processes. But here it is necessary to look at the child’s well-being; if he wants to drink, he should drink, if he does not want to drink, let him be patient.
And such an old fact.
In 1985 in Mexico, with an epicenter in Mexico City, there was an earthquake of 11 points – 10 thousand people died at once. After 10 days, a destroyed hospital was excavated and 10 live babies – from newborns to a year old – were found under the rubble. The babies all had various injuries, but they all survived. They just didn’t know that without food and water they were dying.
