Rheum – The Homeopathic Remedy for Sour Diarrhea & Irritable Children

• Common Name: Rhubarb
• Family: Polygonaceae
• Preparation: Tincture from the root
• Type: Primarily a children’s remedy, acting on the digestive system

Sphere of Action

• Alimentary canal – especially the bowels
• Liver – sluggishness
• Nervous system of children – irritable, sensitive

Mind

• Irritability, peevishness, and restlessness, especially in children
• Cross, does not want to be touched or spoken to
• Cries and whines continuously
• Oversensitive to all impressions

Stomach & Abdomen

• Sour smell from the body, stool, and breath
• Desire for various things but refuses when offered
• Abdominal pain with colic, drawing legs up to abdomen
• Stool partially digested, slimy, sour-smelling, and mixed with food particles
• Before stool: cutting colic and straining
• During stool: colicky pain
• After stool: tenesmus and exhaustion
• Diarrhea alternating with constipation, especially during dentition

Modalities (Aggravation / Amelioration)

Worse From	Better From
Dentition	Motion, gentle rocking
Sour food, fruit	Lying on abdomen
Cold air, night	Warmth
After eating, uncovering	Wrapping up warmly

Key in Children

• Child is restless, cranky, and sour-smelling
• Pain before and during stool
• Frequent greenish, sour, and undigested stools
• Face pale, abdomen distended
• Sour vomiting with colic

Stool Characteristics

• Sour, frothy, pasty, yellow or greenish
• Unchanged food in stools
• Smell is strongly sour and offensive
• Diarrhea during dentition; child strains hard but passes little stool

Miasmatic Background

• Psoric and sycotic traits
• Especially in children with digestive derangements and sour stools

Keynotes

• Sour stools, sour vomiting, sour perspiration
• Irritable, colicky children during dentition
• Stools with griping pain, sour and offensive smell
• Uneasy before, during, and after stool

Relationship

Compare With	Complementary	Follows Well After
Chamomilla, Cina, Podophyllum	Calcarea carb, Sulphur	Aethusa, Belladonna

Potency & Dosage

• 6C to 30C commonly used in children’s diarrheas
• Repetition depends on the acuteness of symptoms

One-Line Summary

"Rheum suits irritable, colicky children with sour stools, sour vomiting, and peevish restlessness during dentition."