Catherine Masters looks at some of the remedies a missing child's parents may be seeking.
Chemotherapy is a stab-in-the-dark treatment which kills healthy cells along with cancerous ones, say alternative health practitioners.
As medical doctors urge the parents of Liam Williams-Holloway to return him to hospital to continue chemotherapy, some natural healthexponents say that treatment may well kill him.
Natural therapies, they say, are kinder - leaving behind the "cut, poison and burn" approach.
Sceptics and some in the medical profession question whether alternative healing treatments work, but many natural therapists say there is no proof that chemotherapy works, particularly with cancers such as neuroblastoma, which Liam has.
Instead, they recommend a range of therapies to boost the immune system and allow the body to heal itself.
Dr Ken McIver, the research director for the Charter of Health Practitioners, which registers natural health practitioners, said chemotherapy was renowned for its side-effects such as nausea and vomiting.
"Just imagine yourself looking at your 3-year-old going through that, coming to the realisation 'this isn't right, this is killing my child'."
He said Liam's parents should look at herbal, vitamin, dietary, electromagnetic and spiritual remedies. Herbal treatments aim to support the body and target areas where functions are impaired.
Electromagnetic therapy is used to re-establish the electrical functions of the body, which natural therapists say drive the body's chemical functions.
Vitamin, mineral and amino-acid deficiencies should be remedied to enhance the immune system.
Chris Wheeler is the co-author of The Self-Help Cancer Cure Book. Liam's parents contacted him and he recommended a mainly dietary cure by German Max Gerson. It involves juicing of vegetables, especially carrots and beetroots, which are high in beneficial enzymes, which again stimulate the immune system and help clear the liver of toxins.
Roger Booth is an Auckland Medical School researcher into pyschoneuro-immunology, which looks at the relationship between how people think and live and how this works with their nervous system and immune system.
He said medical doctors would advise chemotherapy based on experience of its helping, despite the drugs having "nasty" side-effects.
While alternative treatments might be helpful, they suffered from a lack of rigorous clinical trials to prove it.
