Bach Flower Remedies for Children
by Barbara Mazzarella

Barbara Mazzarella’s conviction that joy is the birthright of every living child is idealized in her book, Bach Flower Remedies for Children . The entire focus of this book is on the treatment of children using the vibrational healing abilities of Bach flower remedies. The author has a strong belief in administering flower essences at an early age to create balance and harmony in a child, which ultimately ends with a happier adult.

Mazzarella has extensive experiential knowledge on the subject of flower essences and their application to the treatment of children. She has worked for more than twenty years in nursery and elementary schools of Milan, Italy and encourages the reader to administer flower essences to children with their own faith and intuition. No harm can come from administering the wrong remedy.

Mazarella’s book provides descriptions of remedies and typologies of behavior, advice and suggestions, games, guided meditations, stories and affirmations.

This book also addresses each of the 38 Bach flower remedies in alphabetical order, beginning with a short behavior typology. The typology provided for WALNUT is as follows: “I’m moving to a new house and changing schools, too. I’m not a little kid anymore; I’m turning into a young adult. All this change is so hard!” What follows is detailed examples of behavior and emotional issues that the flowers address. The author adds advice and suggestions, as well as a short children’s story that could be read as a bedtime story to help ease the child’s distress. Each chapter ends with an affirmation to provide nourishment for both parent and child.

Continuing with the above example, the author explains that the WALNUT child has a difficult time with transitions because of ambivalence and allowing others to convince them to let go of what they really want to do. Walnut is a helpful remedy to administer in the first days of school attendance or when a child is teething. There are many other circumstances in which one may use Walnut that are listed as well. The author adds that Walnut “is a protective agent in that it can form a sort of shield that reinforces the aura and repels negative energies.”

The short story for Walnut flower essence is entitled: “Richard and the Magic Scissors”. In this story, Richard is dissuaded by his mother from leaving on a life adventure to explore the world, but urged to stay near home. On one short venture close to home, he is captured by a wizard who ties him up with invisible cords to hold him in his powers. Then forced to work for the wizard, Richard could go no further than the wizard’s garden. He kept hope alive in his heart, but lost his sense of security and the cords were quite tiresome. Eventually, the story ends happily with the King of Fairies releasing Richard by cutting the wizard’s cords with magic scissors, allowing Richard to repay the fairies by trekking on a glorious adventure, as promised them, in search of the fairies’ purple stone.

Word of advice is given by the author to not directly place the child’s name or exact appearance in the story. The stories are metaphors only, and not meant to be critical or fault-finding for the sensitive child. The stories will need ad-libbing for a younger child of pre-school age, and are more likely geared towards children 8 – 10 years of age.

The affirmations that close each flower chapter are well phrased and direct. The Walnut chapter ends with the following affirmation: “I free myself from all negative influence. I follow my inner guide. I am ready for change. I allow the fulfillment of my potential.”

Three examples of guided meditation or visualization are provided in the last section of the book. These are guidelines that can be used with a group of children or individuals to help them relax, strengthen their energy or auras, and to create a “magic room,” where anything is possible and healing, and where joy and love abound. The child in you may want to follow along with these exercises to receive their beneficial affects.

The Quick-Reference Table of Remedies in the back of the book is useful for parents when first trying to narrow down the flowers that should be used for their child’s condition. For the Disturbance/Issue of “Bedwetting”, for example, four Causes/Conditions are listed along with the corresponding flower remedy. Bedwetting, “Due to daytime tension and withholding followed by nighttime loosening” – Cherry Plum is selected. “Due to severe anxiety masked by apparent serenity” – Agrimony is listed. “Due to regression or trauma” – Star of Bethlehem is indicated. “Due to birth of a sibling” – Holly is suggested as the choice. This Reference Table provides over sixty different disturbances or issues, and is very complete from the aspect of most children’s troubles.

This practical working manual, written for the lay person, is highly recommended for parents, grandparents, and any caretaker of children. It’s easy to recognize the child reflected in each flower chapter. This book would make a wonderful baby shower gift, along with a bottle of Five-Flower Formula. Barbara Mazzarella is right; each child should be happy, so why not explore using flower essences as a way to bring harmony and balance into a child’s life?