Hi Diane,

Hope I can help w./ the questions.

(1) I have done several footbaths without anybody in it. My primary reason was to check any smells coming off the water. I have NEVER had any odor other then what you might be able to pick up with tap water. When a person is in the bath, most of the time, we will smell either chlorine or a sweet smell of yeast. Both my wife and I had a reduction of smell as we did quite a few footbaths earlier on. Most new people will have a much stronger smell the first several times they go in.
As far as the water color is concerned, the water will turn the same color as when people are in it. Change of seasons and many other factors will affect the water color. But very rarely did I feel that people affect the color change.

(2) You can use the hands for a footbath, as both the hands and feet are major detox points of the body, but the bottoms of the feet have around 2000 pores each and are 8 times as large as any other pores in the body. As far as calluses and hardened soles, when you put your feet in warm water, the pores will open up. I read a report of a lab tech person who is involved in production of the Q2 footbath in Austrailia was bitten on the arm by a pretty bad spider. He immediatly put his arm into a footbath, and after the bath was over, the swelling had gone way down. I say that to illustrate that with an injury, it wouldn't hurt to directly put that part of your body right in the water.
But what else is happening is that every cell in your body is receiving a charge on the outer part of the cell. This enables the cell to work more efficiently. The sodium/potassium pump improves its funtion which is where the increase in energy comes from. The metabolism waste of each cell is discarded out of the cell and into the lymph much easier which is the detox part. The blood cells under live blood cell microscope improve markedly. I have heard several professionals speak very positively of the improvements. The most striking benefits occur over a 6 month time with regular treatments. That's why, if you are receiving benefit over several baths, you might look into purchasing one for yourself. Much cheaper in the long run.

(3) There is no real need to alternate between foot and hand baths. If I had an injury to my hand or arm, I would put that part into the bath, but after it's healed, I would just stay with the feet in the bath.

(4) This is from a chart from my company for usage times based on age.

4 to 7 years old 10 to 15 minutes
8 to 12 years old 15 to 20 minutes
13 to 17 years old 20 to 35 minutes
18 and older 20 to 35 minutes

Over the course of at least 200 baths for myself, only a few times did I feel restless while in the water. I just felt like I wanted to get out, which was my body telling me that I had had enough at that point. My point is listen to your body and it will tell you. After I had done many baths, I just felt like I didn't want a bath for a while. Again, my body was telling me to take a rest. After a while, I just wanted to take a bath again which my body was communicating to me as well.
As far as your 5 year old with swollen lymph glands, I think in my experience, that it would be well worth doing a few footbaths. Just don't overdo it with too long a time and I would wait at least a couple of days between baths. When you have a condition that you are hoping to change with the footbath, you need to hit the footbath a little more aggresive than if you were just on a maintence schedule.

Please feel free to email me if you wish at
[email]jerryiverson1@yahoo.com.[/email]
Hope this helps,
Jerry