The diagnosis of mumps is primarily one of clinical acumen. Laboratory studies are generally done to support the clinical impression. The purpose of these laboratory studies is to exclude other viruses that may give a similar clinical presentation as well as to exclude very infrequently similarly presenting parotid gland enlargement (for example, salivary gland cancer, Sjögren’s syndrome, IgG-4 related disease, sarcoidosis, side effects of thiazide diuretics etc.).

The mainstay of allopathic treatment (regardless of age range) is to provide only comfort for this self-limited disease. Taking analgesics medication and applying warm packs to the swollen and inflamed salivary gland region may be helpful.

Homeopathic treatment for mumps

Homeopathy is ocean of knowledge having treatment for almost any disease; a good doctor should learn and study Materia medica to deal with. Here are very few medicines for mums:

Belladonna

Belladonna is one of the best medicines for mumps when accompanied by fever. Swelling of the parotid glands with severe shooting and/or stitching pain. Inflammation. Tearing pain in middle and external ear. Facial neuralgia with twitching muscles and flushed face. Throbbing headache and dryness of the throat. Hematoma auris. Acute and sub-acute conditions of Eustachian tube.

Aconitum

Tickling and sharp pain in the ears. Early stages of mumps, these children have a sudden onset of fever, restlessness, anxiety, and great thirst. Pain in the throat, with deep redness and difficult deglutition. Tingling in the esophagus. Scraping, tingling sensation of strangling, burning and pricking. Attacks of pain with thirst and redness of the cheeks. Dry burning temperature, with extreme thirst. Inflammatory fevers and inflammations, with much heat, dry, burning skin, violent thirst, red face, or alternate red and pale face, nervous excitability, groaning and agonized tossing about, shortness of breath, and congestion to the head.

Chamomilla

Sore throat, with swelling of the parotids, of the tonsils, and of the sub-maxillary glands. Inflammation of the soft palate and tonsils. Pains in the pharynx, shooting and burning, or a sensation as if there were a plug in the throat. Inability to swallow. Burning heat in the throat, from the mouth to the stomach.

Apis Mellifica

Dryness in the throat with heat, without thirst. Burning, stinging in throat. Erysipelatous. Mumps. Inflammation of the throat, with swelling, redness, and stinging pains. Ulcerated sore throat (in scarlet fever, when the eruption does not come out). Diphtheritic sore throat gets well as a scarlatina rash develops. Throat swollen, breathing and swallowing difficult. Ulcers on the tonsils, Palat. Uvula long and dropsical. Paralysis. Small, clear, watery blisters on the back part of the throat.

Phytolacca

Mumps. Stony hard throat glands. Uvula large, almost translucent. Fauces congested and of a dark red color. Sore throat (roughness and rawness), swelling of soft palate. Soreness of posterior fauces extending into Eustachian tube.

Lachesis

Lachesis is an effective medicine for mumps. Constant tickling in throat. Septic Parotiditis. Painful excoriation and inflammatory swelling of throat. Large and small tumors in throat. Convulsions and spasms in throat.

Pilocarpinum

Some homeopaths assert that this medicine is the best remedy for the mumps, although there are few known distinguishing symptoms that it offers, except excessive salivation and perspiration. This is also a good remedy for complications that some children get from the mumps.

Merc Sol

A highly effective medicine for mumps. Bluish-red swelling. Constant desire to swallow. Putrid sore throat; worse right side. Stitches into ear on swallowing; fluids return through nose. Quinsy, with difficult swallowing, after pus has formed. Sore, raw, smarting, burning throat. Complete loss of voice. Burning in throat, as from hot vapor ascending.

Pulsatilla Pratensis

Pain as from excoriation in throat, as if it were all raw, with scraping, burning sensation and smarting. Redness of throat, tonsils, and uvula. Shootings in throat, with pressure and tension during empty deglutition. Inflammation of throat, with varicose swelling of veins.

Rhus Toxicodendron

Sore, with swollen glands. Sticking pain on swallowing. Parotitis. Mumps. Pain in ears. Lobules swelling.

There are four serious health complications of mumps: meningitis (infection of the spinal fluid which surrounds the brain and spinal cord), encephalitis, deafness, and orchitis (infection of the testicle/testicles). All four complications may occur without the patient experiencing the classic involvement of the parotid gland.

Less frequent health complications of mumps infection include arthritis, infection of the pancreas, infection of the myocardium (heart muscle), and neurological conditions (for example, facial palsy, Guillain-Barré syndrome, etc.).