“ Pond Pond is having a chronic sore throat again.” his mother was talking to Doctor Lalita. “ He hasn’t caught a cold for more than half a year since he quitted eating junk foods as you suggested but this time I don’t know what happened. He has been coughing for 2 weeks.”

Pond Pond was another young allergenic patient who can be easily found in Thai children nowadays. He just turned 8 this year. His mother told me that he had been catching a cold since he was 4 years old and had to take drugs every week.

Switching from months to years, Pond Pond’s mother noticed that his nose was stuffy not only when he had a fever but also before he went to bed. His routine in the early evening was playing in his bedroom for a while. Then, when he yawned and his eyes were reddened, his nose would get stuffy. Normally, this symptom wouldn’t occur in the afternoon except when she took him out for a drive.

“ I don’t think this is a cold.” His father remarked. Meanwhile, his mother also felt the same. Later, the doctor told them that Pond Pond had had allergy and she started giving him drugs to reduce nasal mucus. The doctor suggested Pond Pond’s parents ways to avoid allergens as following: give him a time limit to play with the Dalmatian puppy, clean up old newspaper stack and bookshelves in the house, frequently wash the curtain and screen, pat the mattress after change it from kapok to hevea brasiliensis, use air filters in the bedroom and the car which was used to pick him up from school. However, after they followed these rules again and again, Pond Pond’s nose was still stuffy. Moreover, he even had asthma when he laughed too much.

From decongestant to steroid, Pond Pond was familiar with all kinds of PPA. Finally, the doctor had to give him a nasal spray. Yet, he couldn’t get away from allergy. Moreover, another big problem came up. Pond Pond extremely got bored with rice. He had an odd way to play with the rice in his mouth. First, he would refuse to eat by compressing his lips when he was a kid. Then, he would hold it in his jowls and suck it until dry. He would do like this until he forget the time and when he disgorged it, the rice was like a corncob. His mom was at her wit’s end. She couldn’t think of any other ways out except feeding him milk at least one box in the morning, another in the evening and one more before he went to bed. “He didn’t eat anything. maybe milk could help.” She thought.

Pond Pond favored snacks more than anything especially rice. Moreover, when he was in kindergarten, the cook was too lazy to wash the dishes , she made instant noodle for the kids as they would eat until nothing was left in the bowl. The monosodium glutamate in the noodle was their favorite.

The consequence from getting bored with food was Pond Pond stopped to grow up. He hadn’t gained his height for about half a year since he was 7. The doctor admitted that the decongestant often reduced the enzyme, thus, making Pond Pond tired of food. The PPA was usually added in weight control drugs. So, it was not surprising that Pond Pond loss his appetite because of the side effects from the drugs.

This was the reason why Pond Pond’s mother turned to naturopathy.

In naturopathy, the term allergy is used to describe a response of the immune system, within the body, to the free radicals, which come with the environment such as exhaust from a car.