Bach writes in his book “Heal yourself”: “The education of our children is above all about giving and only giving, gentle love, protection and guidance, until the soul can control its own personality! One should encourage the child to start as early as possible to think and act by itself!illnesses, especially the typical childhood diseases are not negative for the development of the child, but often enable the child to take a further step in its development. Important: Bach Flowers are not medicines with which one can fight diseases!
For all diseases a doctor should be consulted, Bach Flowers are a way to gently support the healing process, to bring relief for psychological problems and to steer the development in the right direction. They can help the child to overcome emotional states such as fear, insecurity, self-doubt or despondency. – In emergencies of injuries or mental shock experiences, emergency drops can be helpful in addition to medical treatment.
- In acute illnesses to support the healing process. – In chronic illnesses that also have psychological causes. – With difficult behaviour.
- To promote healthy psychological and physical development. By taking Bach Flowers, positive changes in the child’s psyche are initiated. Fundamental changes in the psychological condition cannot be achieved with Bach Flowers.
One cannot make a lively child into a calm and well-adjusted one, and an averagely gifted child into an Einstein. The flowers follow in alphabetical order. The descriptions are based on the child’s behaviour and stand for certain states of mind.
Usually one can recognize a predominant behavior pattern and several other behaviors at the same time. Accordingly one treats with one or more flowers. For example, people who don’t dare to do anything need first of all Larch, but also Mimulus to be laughed at for fear.
A flower can also fit, if the child’s behaviour does not correspond to all described behaviours. First of all the prevailing behaviour and the matching flower is important. Complementary flowers are also based on the state of mind, but they must basically match.
Children who are perceived by their environment as cheerful and easy-care. Their parents are therefore envied. Their shoots are extremely popular, all children want to play with them.
This sounds good at first, but it also has its dark sides. It is also part of the child’s nature to avoid spasmodic quarrels with other people, it is conflict-shy, an over-adapted and well-behaved child. He is reluctant to show his own worries and does not reveal his own feelings.
If the child comes to school, he or she becomes a “classmate”, wants to make other children laugh and disturbs the lessons. The child strives for popularity and recognition. It is always energetic, always active, because fears and sorrow can be pushed away more easily.
Being alone would bring these worries to light. The environment often sees no reason to change the child’s behaviour, so-called “easy going people” are popular and usually nobody is interested in what it looks like inside. On the outside, the children sometimes show nervous nail biting or wetting until school age at night.
The flower Agrimony helps the child to become more open, to share his or her worries and fears and not always have to hide behind a funny and cheerful facade. Honesty and the willingness to face conflicts are encouraged. The children are very sensitive and very receptive to signals from their surroundings, which others would usually not perceive.
They cannot understand or process these sensory impressions, which leads to inner tension and subliminal fears of imminent disaster without having a concrete reason for it. They are ashamed of this and do not talk about it. Often these children suffer from nightmares and tend to wander around at night, they tremble like leaves!
The child cannot fall asleep in the dark, it is anxious and rejects as soon as something new has to be dealt with, although the parents cannot see any reason for this. Aspen helps the child to overcome these subliminal fears better and to classify sensory impressions realistically. This makes the child feel more secure in dealing with other people and in new situations.
A combination with Mimulus and Rock Rose is often useful. The child is a know-it-all, precocious and nobody can fool him. He judges other children quickly and without pity, finds them stupid and does not want to play with them.
He is mocking and over-critical, nagging and rejects everything foreign. Unknown food is rejected, gifts and souvenirs are looked at critically. The child shows signs of intolerance, tends to judge other children hastily, grumbles and shows no understanding for weaknesses.
It isolates itself through its supercritical attitude. This pattern of behaviour is also reinforced by (sometimes thoughtless) statements in the family circle. Beech is supposed to help to push back the intolerant part in the child’s nature.
The child will recognize the weaknesses of others, but it should learn to react with tolerance and compassion. The child cannot say “no” for fear of losing sympathy or rejection. The children are good-natured, docile and accommodating, and allow themselves to be exploited and suppressed by others.
They also allow themselves to be persuaded to take part in dangerous and crazy undertakings and voluntarily submit to them. For fear of being deprived of love they are adapted and serve their environment. Therefore they do not want any change.
Treatment with Bach Flowers and changing behaviour therefore requires a lot of stamina, strength and support from parents. Such children become followers and henchmen of a stronger one in adulthood, overworking themselves. Centaury helps to prevent a development into an adapted, insecure “yes-man”.
The child should learn to say “no” or to disagree without expecting negative reactions or even withdrawal of love from his environment. Centaury strengthens the child’s ability to endure and resolve conflicts. The children suffer from weak decision-making and have too little trust in their own opinions.
Decisions that have been made are always questioned again (chocolate or vanilla ice-cream / playing with tractor or airplane). The children ask a thousand times a day: “What should I do now? Annoy the environment with questions and problems.
They seem insecure and dependent, do not want to take responsibility. They are easily persuaded by others and adopt behavioural patterns, attach exaggerated importance to the opinions of others. These children run the risk of being “under-chewed”.
As adults, they are easy to become followers and are kept small by dominant partners or family members. Cerato counteracts lifelong insecurity and fear. The children learn to trust their own decisions and to listen to their inner voice.
First and foremost, the child is often absent-minded and inattentive; at school, they are conspicuous by many careless mistakes. Others spread chaos, cannot keep order and are usually looking for misplaced utensils. Other children often lose something or come home with scraped knees.
What they all have in common is the inability to learn from mistakes made, they learn nothing, and make the same mistakes over and over again. Outwardly, they do not make any progress. They have many ideas and plans in their heads, but no course is set for their realisation.
As adults they also tend to make the same mistakes over and over again, for example to choose the same type of partner over and over again, although experience should teach us that failure is pre-programmed. Chestnut Bud supports the children to process what they have experienced and learned and to act accordingly. Chestnut Bud helps the bud, in which there is a lot of strength to blossom!
It is the children who demand unconditional attention from their environment, they always want to be the centre of attention! Some “cling” and do not want to stay alone and play alone. Already as babies they raise a loud cry of protest as soon as their parents want to take them off.
Later on, the children tend to feel sorry for themselves and are sensitive and offended when something doesn’t go their way. With other children they make themselves “indispensable”, lend toys or have them copied. As adults, these children become super-mothers who impose their good deeds on the family and demand gratitude (I love you, provided that …).
Others refuse therapy when they are ill because the illness can bind other people to them and put them under pressure. Chicory can help children to break down their fixation on themselves and to turn to other people. The flowers Chicory and Heather are similar, but Chicory stands for self-pity and the desire to control other people unnoticed.
Heather, on the other hand, is not very active with other people and is absolutely self-centered. The children are dreamy, seem absent, show little interest in what is going on around them. You could say a “Hans look in the air!”
and through his absence of mind and reverie he is at risk of getting involved in accidents. The children are calm and do not attract attention when they are small. The right state of mind comes to the fore when the children come to school and dream in class, build castles in the air, seem listless and unfocused.
They are then unable to answer questions that are often asked and suffer because they do not care what others think of them. The children like to be alone, the grades are not very good, motivation seems to be missing, but in reality these children are often creative and artistically talented. As adults they develop into “absent-minded professors”, forget a lot and are not very interested in the environment.
When they get sick they are sometimes not interested in getting well. The flower of Clematis is supposed to help the child to come into the present, so that he can perceive his environment, be awake and concentrated and build a healthy relationship with other people. The child is excessively tidy and clean.
This is usually noticed very positively by parents and other relationship persons. The children often want to wash their hands and develop an aversion to dirt. Parents should not encourage and reward exaggerated behaviour.
The child runs the risk of developing into a pedantic toddler and losing sight of the essentials. Often a personality is developed that pays attention to cleanliness in interpersonal relationships, one avoids conflicts and outwardly “sweeps problems under the carpet” to keep up appearances. The Crab Apple blossom helps to slow down the development to a cleanliness fanatic with over-correct and fussy behaviour that gets on the nerves of others.
The child is hard-working, performs well at school and completes tasks without difficulty, likes to take responsibility. It can happen that it takes on too many tasks and suddenly gets the feeling that it cannot manage it, it becomes discouraged, fights with fears of failure and self-doubt. This leads to a so-called “blackout” during exams, even though there is enough knowledge.
In the same way, sports injuries can occur due to overwork. Elm is usually a temporary bloom for a short time. The bloom is supposed to help to develop confidence in one’s own abilities again.
Elm is the smelling salt of the strong in the hour of weakness. The child is pessimist, has negative expectations for the future, is easily discouraged, if something does not work out at first go, is generally skeptical. At school, a “0-goat” attitude is evident, the child refuses to participate, does not approach tasks and this behaviour quickly causes school failures.
The child expects a bad grade for every job anyway, is then disappointed, withdraws even more, believes it is not worth the effort. The child has feelings of inferiority and doesn’t trust itself. The flower Gentian is indicated when the cause of this behaviour is not fear but a fundamental negative attitude towards life.
Gentian strengthens the confidence for a positive development in the future. It strengthens the will to fight and overcome difficulties, sometimes a combination with Larch is useful here. The child is quiet, depressed, introverted or, as the opposite, aggressive and loud, it attracts attention through lack of academic achievement and resistance to everything and everyone.
These children perceive their situation as hopeless. Reasons for this can be found in the parental home, through unjust, unloving treatment by the parents or physical abuse. The child becomes hopeless because it cannot escape the situation.
Reasons for this can also be conflicts, exclusion or oppression by siblings or schoolmates. The children develop into outsiders and whipping boys, have no hope and no strength to do anything about it. They wait for a miracle that something happens from outside and frees them from their oppressive situation.
The flower Gorse can help them to become more hopeful again and to find the courage to change their situation. The children are completely self-centred, always want to be the centre of attention and demand the undivided attention of their parents. They talk a lot, push themselves in between, do not stay alone.
In the course of the years they develop excessive vanity and need for recognition and can become very unpopular and therefore lonely characters as adults. Only their own aches and pains count, they talk about them all the time. Towards other people and animals they are not very compassionate, they do not listen.
The flower Heather helps the child to develop a certain sensitivity towards others. The importance of the own person is somewhat pushed into the background, helpfulness can develop. This increases the chances of finding friends and partners.
The children get into rage at the slightest provocation, screaming, kicking, hitting. They are irritable, aggressive, jealous and tend to gloat and envy. Sometimes the child is a fighter by nature and very temperamental, but it can also be that there is a learned behaviour.
Then the parents also have to work on their behaviour. As adults, these children will develop a negative attitude towards life, envy, jealousy and a lack of the ability to love will characterize these people. The feeling of being always short of something accompanies them throughout their lives.
In order to prevent this, the flower Holly can help children to reduce their negative feelings and to develop a more loving attitude towards other people. The children do not like changes and suffer from homesickness in many situations. They do not want to stay in kindergarten and the start of school is difficult because they prefer to stay at home in their familiar surroundings.
The development forward is prevented by constantly looking back and being frozen in the past. The Honeysuckle Blossom should help the child to let go of the past, to react positively to new impressions and to develop further more easily. If the child is fixated on always the same thought, White Chestnut may be necessary in addition.
If the child is homesick, Walnut (stamina) should also be included in the considerations. The children believe they are too weak to fulfil their daily duties. They feel listless as soon as they get up in the morning, they are tired and grumpy.
At school they seem tired and lacking in drive, they approach tasks hesitantly and need more time to finally find the beginning. This is mental exhaustion (not physical exhaustion as with the olive flower). The children have tired eyes, perhaps they watch too much television and there is no balance to the monotonous everyday life.
If they are torn out of their rut, the tiredness often disappears as well. The flower Hornbeam should help the children to find more mental freshness and resilience again, especially if they suffer from a monotonous everyday life. The children can thereby develop more enterprise again.
The children are impatient, temperamental, do not want to wait, otherwise they become angry and scream. As soon as they can walk they are always on the move, hyperactive, everything is not going fast enough for them. The older children speak quickly and hastily, stuttering can also develop.
Decisions are made impulsively and quickly, the children seem irritable to their surroundings, they have no patience with themselves and others. At school, because they do not take their time, they tend to make careless mistakes and often forget to take things they need in a hurry (for example, sports equipment when physical education is on the timetable). As adults, they become choleric, over-critical, tense inside, impatient, work fast.
They are ruthless towards those who work more slowly and do not tolerate criticism. The flower of Impatiens promotes the training of patience with oneself and with others, the children are set on the path to reduce the inner restlessness and hectic pace a little and replace it with calmness and composure. Impatiens does not replace therapy for hyperactive children, but can be used as a good support.
The children are shy and shy, they do not dare to do anything. They feel inferior to other children from the outset and do not doubt it. They consider their environment to be very reasonable.
At school they shirk from everything, are passive in class because they are afraid of embarrassment. They tend to push unpleasant things in front of them. The inner fear of failure blocks these children.
When playing with other children, they voluntarily subordinate themselves. Because of their lack of self-confidence, they miss out on many opportunities that life offers them. In adulthood, this lack of self-esteem can develop into a massive inferiority complex.
The Larch flower is intended to help children develop self-confidence. It supports the children to see things in a more relaxed way, without fear and self-doubt, to dare something and grow from it. Here the child needs the support of its parents.
Even the small child should be encouraged to tackle tasks that the parents know they can handle. The children need support and as little criticism as possible, but all the more praise for what has been achieved. Through the attention of the parents and their trust in them, the child can push back its inner fears and approach tasks with more courage and self-confidence.
The children are generally anxious and shy. As an infant they scream immediately after waking up, when they grow up they develop into little bunny feet, are afraid of other people, of new situations, of everyday and banal things, they are strangers and easily frightened. They are afraid of darkness, of thunderstorms, of going to the doctor.
The children cry, cling to their parents, hide their faces. Compared to other children they are too afraid to defend themselves. They can name the reason for fear (unlike Aspen).
Older children tend to blush and suffer from inhibitions. They are shy and very reserved. In a new environment they need a very long time until they thaw out.
As adults these people find existence a burden and retreat. Also phobias of snakes, spiders, fear of closed rooms and similar things can develop. The flower Mimulus should help the children to face the many little fears with more courage and to develop a little bravery.
The child is enabled to bear fears better, to assess them correctly and to recognize that fear is not appropriate in many situations. The children become freer, are not blocked by their fear, can develop better and are more relaxed in taking advantage of opportunities that arise. In any case, one should compare with the flowers Aspen (fear without a concrete reason, not knowing what they are afraid of, vague premonitions) and Rock Rose (panic fear).