Recognizing any other symptoms that your child has can also help you determine what might be causing your child's sore throat. For example, with strep throat, children will often have classic symptoms that can include:



• fever
• sore throat (pain on swallowing)
• red tonsils that might have a thick white exudate (pus) on them
• swollen lymph nodes (glands) that can be tender
• the sandpaper like rash of scarlet fever
• other associated symptoms, like a headache, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting
  
  

On the other hand, children who have a virus that is causing their sore throat will often have a cough, diarrhea, pink eye, mouth ulcers, hoarse voice or runny nose.

Besides strep, colds, and allergies, infectious mononucleosis -- or mono -- is the other condition that can have classic symptoms. These mono symptoms include:



• a sore throat*, which is often described as the worst sore throat the child has ever had
• a high fever*
• enlarged lymph nodes or glands in the neck*, armpit, or groin
• malaise and fatigue* (not feeling well and feeling tired)
• anorexia (loss of appetite)
• muscle aches
• a rash, especially if your child was taking antibiotics, like ampicillin or amoxicillin
• a headache
• nausea
• abdominal pain
  
  

(*classic symptoms of mono)

Irritation, reflux, and other infections can also less commonly cause children to have sore throats.

Understanding Sore Throats

It can help to uncover what might be causing your child's sore throat if you first understand some of the medical terms related to sore throats, including:

• Tonsillitis - an inflammation or infection of the tonsils, which can be caused by strep and many viral infections. So while strep throat is a form of tonsillitis, so is mono and other viral infections.
• Pharyngitis - an inflammation or infection of the pharynx, the area of the mouth near the tonsils. While most people use the terms tonsillitis and pharyngitis to mean the same thing, with pharyngitis, the inflammation isn't limited to the tonsils. Like tonsillitis, both strep and viruses can cause pharyngitis.
• Post-nasal drip - drainage down the back of your throat from a cold, sinus infection, or allergies and which can cause a sore throat without tonsillitis or pharyngitis.

Symptomatic Sore Throat Treatments

Medicines Two Choices for You

Recognizing what might be causing your child's sore throat can be difficult, even after a visit to your pediatrician. That is why your pediatrician will often do a strep test when your child complains of a sore throat. This is especially important when you consider that strep throat is one of the few causes of a sore throat that you can treat with antibiotics. It is equally important that your child be on a probiotic for the length of antibiotic treatment as well as for several months after the antibiotic therapy is over. This will help to offset the negative effects of the antibiotics that lead to further mucus and other immune system and digestive problems.

Most other infections will not be helped by antibiotics or need other types of treatments all together, such as seeing your Holistic Chiropractor. Sore throats may also respond to antihistamines for allergies or acid reducers for reflux.



Understanding that your throat corresponds to your ability to "express your truth," a sore throat signifies you or your child are not speaking your truth and the energetic suppression of that truth is creating the inflammation, and thus the sore throat. Dr. Huntoon has been helping address this trapped energy by locating the suppressed emotion and the reason for suppressing your feelings. And once this is addressed, the sore throat goes away.

I Thought Antibiotics Were Safe.

If So, What is the Harm in Prescribing Them?

All medicines may have side effects, including antibiotics. Because few antibiotics are highly specific, they not only destroy "bad" bacteria but also kill many of the beneficial bacteria that inhabit the body. These good bacteria play a critical role in maintaining general health and preventing disease-causing organisms from establishing a foothold. Serious, potentially fatal antibiotic-associated infections remain a major concern in hospitals, and thus antibiotic use is monitored carefully. IV antibiotics, such as those sometimes promoted for treating symptoms attributed to CLD, require lines and catheters that present an avenue for dangerous secondary infections to take hold.

Patients also risk negative and sometimes serious reactions to the antibiotics themselves. In the first studies described above, 25 percent of the patients in the treatment group experienced study-related adverse events (New Engl J Med 345:85-92, 2001). In the clinical trial looking at cognitive function, six patients experienced serious adverse events, four of whom required hospitalization (Neurology 60:1923-30, 2003). In the most recent trial for cognitive improvement, 26 percent of patients given IV therapy experienced adverse events compared with 7 percent for the IV placebo group (Neurology 70(13):992-1003, 2008).

In addition to personal safety concerns, unnecessary antibiotic use contributes to the serious, growing problem of antimicrobial resistance. Overuse of antibiotics has led to many bacteria developing resistance to the very drugs doctors once used to combat them.

Your Solution

Dr. Huntoon has 27 years of experience resolving this condition quite easily in as little as one visit. And NO MEDICATION is ever used. Consider this before resorting to medication,

Ideally, your Holistic Chiropractor will be able to treat the underlying cause of your or your child's sore throat, whether it is strep throat, sinusitis, or allergies. Unfortunately, especially when you or your child has a viral infection, such as mono, the sore throat will have to get better on its own. Treatment with your Holistic Chiropractor can help increase the speed of recovery by boosting your or your child’s immune system. There are often some things that you can do until then to help you or your child feel better though, including:

• encouraging drinking cool drinks, and avoid acidic drinks (orange juice, lemonade, etc.), which can irritate a sore throat
• offering hard candy, or throat lozenges for older kids (remember that these are a choking hazard for younger toddlers and preschool age children though)
• encourage gargling with 10 oz. of warm salt water (most kids don't like to do this though)
• using a sore throat spray, such as Chloraseptic Sore Throat Spray For Kids, which can be given to kids as young as age two years (most kids don't like to use throat sprays either)