Your child is running a temperature which fluctuates between 102 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit. What do you do? Give her a paracetamol-based medication and wait for her temperature to subside? Or give her some homeopathic or herbal remedies, sponge her down and sit by her side - through the night if necessary - until her temperature goes down? If you choose the latter course, have you considered the risk of her developing a febrile fit? What would you do then? If you choose the former course of action, have you considered that you may, in fact, be suppressing her symptoms rather than allowing her body to attack the particular virus or bacteria, a process which strengthens her immune system? Without paracetamol, recovery from the fever may occur at a slower pace, but her body will be stronger for the experience. As the complementary healthcare sector gains ground in this country, more and more parents are considering the alternatives to conventional medicines when their children become ill - or, indeed, as a means of keeping them healthy. But do we know enough about therapies such as cranial osteopathy or acupuncture to subject our children to them? Are Irish parents adequately informed about the potential side-effects on the Western metabolism of, say, Chinese herbal remedies? Are we ready to take on the new approach to illness that a change from the allopathic model to the homeopathic one would require?

Canadian-born Karen Sullivan has just written Natural Healthcare for Children: How to Raise Happy, Healthy Children from Birth to 15 Years. Does she think we have the right to give our children "natural" medicines, some of which haven't been tested on children? "It is our responsibility as parents to offer our children an alternative to conventional medicines. There have been many more scares about conventional medicine than alternatives," she says. Sullivan cites research evidence which suggests that some conventional cold remedies and creams for head lice cause neurological damage. "I have checked out the research on all the therapies I mention in the book, and all the herbal and homeopathic remedies are natural ones which have been used for centuries," she says. The therapies covered in Natural Healthcare for Children include acupuncture, aromatherapy, the Buteyko method, cranial osteopathy, massage, herbalism, homeopathy and flower essences. Although working with children on a regular basis at the Little John Clinic in Walkinstown, Dublin, osteopath Chris Campbell is sometimes cautious about parents who bring their children to him for treatment. "People choose alternative treatments for all sorts of reasons, some of which are not always the best ones. Some people choose alternatives to place themselves on the fringes [of society]. Sometimes I will say that the child would be better off elsewhere," he says. The type of treatment you choose for your child will, of course, depend largely on your own experiences of medicine, both orthodox and alternative. Some parents have a strong belief in "what the doctor says", while others are increasingly sceptical. The now widely established view that antibiotics were overused for years, coupled with scares relating to vaccinations, has fuelled much disillusionment with the medical model.

The issue of whether to have your child vaccinated or not continues to worry Irish parents. In her book, Sullivan presents an interesting compromise position. "If you do decide to immunise your child, it is a good idea to get some homeopathic treatment following the jabs. Homeopathic nosodes will counter the echo pattern (swollen glands, frequent infections, low energy, chronic mucus, low-grade symptoms of the original infection) and restore your child's physical and emotional health and energy levels," she says. Sullivan also mentions recent epidemiological studies which show homeopathic remedies to be equally or more effective than standard vaccinations in preventing disease. According to many alternative practitioners, what are commonly considered to be illnesses are actually just symptoms. "Headaches, skin rashes, fever, runny nose, coughs - they are all symptoms that indicate our body is working to fight off disease," writes Sullivan in her book. "Diarrhoea indicates that the body is flushing unwanted substances from the body. The sneezing and runny nose that accompany a cold show that the inflammatory response is in action," she says. Making the transition from viewing headaches, skin rashes or even diarrhoea as illnesses to seeing them as symptoms of an underlying imbalance can, however, be difficult for many parents who grew up with the medical model of ill-health. Coupled with this are two parallel, but contradictory, developments: the trend enticing parents to try an alternative remedy to cure a child's sickness and the reality that many parents have less time, due to work commitments, to nurse children through an illness. Helen McCormack, a medical herbalist based in Dublin, believes lack of time is a primary factor which has led to the overuse of antibiotics in the treatment of childhood colds and chest infections. "Is there pressure on the child not to be sick?" she asks. "General practitioners also often complain that they too come under pressure to give a prescription because the parents want to feel something is being done." It is usually after repeated courses of antibiotics have been administered to their children that parents begin the search for alternatives. "Herbal medicine has always been used for children. These range from camomile tea for tummy upsets, restlessness and slight fevers to carrageen moss for coughs and chest infections. Compared to some of the conventional medicine prescribed, I think there can be few qualms about safety issues here," adds McCormack.

Another area on which the alternative healthcare sector places more emphasis is a child's emotional needs. "We often overlook the importance of emotional health in our children. We accept that temper tantrums or crying spells or periods of sleepiness or hyperactivity are normal. Instead, we should learn to read these as an indication that there is an imbalance on some level. In fact, this negative emotional state is very much a part of the impending illness and presents part of the picture of your child's overall health," writes Sullivan.

However, keeping an eye on your child's emotional wellbeing doesn't always detract from the need for a diagnosis of the illness which follows. There is a concern among many medical doctors that some alternative health practitioners aren't qualified to diagnose illnesses. Dr Liam Lacey is a Dublin-based GP who also uses acupuncture. "I have seen misdiagnoses by people who are not qualified to make a diagnosis in the first place. If a child is sick, the parent must first get a full diagnosis of the problem from a medically qualified doctor. After that, they can make their choices of treatment." Essentially, the most important factors in ensuring the health of children are good sleep, adequate exercise and a well-balanced, wholesome diet. Beyond this, learning how to treat minor childhood illnesses with the judicious use of alternative remedies can be an empowering experience for parents. However, identifying when a child needs medical attention for potentially more serious illnesses remains a crucial - if sometimes frightening -responsibility for parents.

Natural Healthcare for Children: How to Raise Happy, Healthy Children from Birth to 15 Years by Karen Sullivan is published by Piatkus, priced £19.99 in UK.