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What were you treated with as a poorly child at home?

(229 Posts)
chicken Thu 12-Mar-20 15:33:33

When I wasn't well as a young child, many, many moons ago, my mother's first treatment for me was Langdale's Essence of Cinnamon in hot milk, followed by a bowl of bread and milk---crustless white bread, well buttered, cut in little cubes, boiling milk poured over it and liberally sprinkled with demerara sugar. I still like it today.

Fennel Fri 13-Mar-20 17:33:15

I haven't read the whole thread, so I don't know if anyone has written about the scarlet fever epidemic in the early 1940s.
It was a serious illness in those days. Many children died. I caught it at age ?9 and was isolated for 6 weeks. Most children who had it were sent to special hospitals and not allowed visitors etc.
I was lucky enough to be able to stay at my Granny's house in an isolated bedroom. There were disinfected curtains over the doors and people coming in and out had to be disinfected. I had books to read and they all had to be burnt afterwards. I'm not joking.
Thank God I survived, but it reminds me now of the coronavirus scare.

vampirequeen Fri 13-Mar-20 15:47:57

I only remember being in bed with the measles and that was because I was so ill that I couldn't stand light or noise. Usually mam tucked us up on the settee in the living room which was the only warm room in the house. I remember listening in to the adults talking when they thought I was asleep. I used to have terrible attacks of ear ache. Mam used to warm towels in front of the fire and hold the hot cloth over my ear. Sometimes she'd give me an Aspirin to crunch because I couldn't swallow due to my tonsils being so swollen.

DH says that they didn't have the Linctus in Bradford but had St Luke's Linctus instead. I assume all chemists had their own secret recipes grin

winterwhite Fri 13-Mar-20 15:37:45

Radio Malt (yum), Lucozade (yum) milk of magnesia (yuk) Parrishes food (yuk). Bradosol. Ucal ointment (?) for graazes
Fire lit in the bedroom. Mother changing library books and letting whoever was ill have books on sibs' tickets.
After something serious, getting up for tea on day 1 of recovery, after breakfast on day 2, going out on day 3 back to school on day 4.

GrannySomerset Fri 13-Mar-20 15:11:17

Lots of memories here, and mothers who assumed home nursing was normal. I do wonder about today’s young mothers, torn between the need to work and no experience of what used to be routine childhood illnesses because they haven’t had to endure them, and hence know little about such things. Certainly I think we and our mothers took much more in our stride because there was always someone who had seen it all before.

For me, the joy of being ill meant that my mother had to stay at home with me, and as she was a brilliant nurse I don’t recall being ill with anything but pleasure! I was always back at school at the earliest opportunity, of course.

knickas63 Fri 13-Mar-20 14:59:07

Oh - and Vicks vaporub!

knickas63 Fri 13-Mar-20 14:58:33

Lucozade, Milk of Magnesia, flat coke, warm olive oil in the ear.

SueDonim Fri 13-Mar-20 14:57:14

Tyrozets for a bad throat. I think they made your mouth/throat numb.

monk08 Fri 13-Mar-20 14:53:07

Remember the bread and milk when returning from the dentist after having extraction. Lucozade was another go to still like the taste of it now.

Pudding123 Fri 13-Mar-20 14:49:29

I had forgotten the names of some of the medications on here but yes I had Bradasol for sore throat and Menthalatum which was like Vick rubbed on my chest Beechams powders and Virol malt which was lovely.My dad looked after me if I was ill as he worked night's so was home during the day.he was very gentle and would make me tomatoes sandwiches and boiled eggs and soldiers but I was not allowed out of bed if I was off school.

lizzypopbottle Fri 13-Mar-20 14:31:27

Heinz tomato soup.
Toast

SueDonim Fri 13-Mar-20 14:22:49

All the talk of pobbies, has brought back memories of the ?whooping cough I had. Nothing was helping me get better so one evening my mum made me drink a cup of hot milk, honey and brandy. I was as sick as a dog afterwards, everything you could possibly imagine came up. I was then tucked up into bed for the night. Next morning, my temperature was normal, I began improving and was back at school two weeks later!

It’s not a remedy I’d recommend but sometimes you do wonder if there was wisdom in the old-fashioned ways.

Carenza123 Fri 13-Mar-20 12:21:52

I remember Lucozade when I was ill and Germolene for cuts and bruises. A fire was lit in my bedroom if I was ill. My father’s mother used to stay with us sometimes and she HAD to have a largish bottle of white liquid (which she said apparently) kept her regular. She also liked sherry. When I met my future husband’s family they had specific potions - I often got tonsillitis so father in law got out a little pot and I HAD to stand still while he painted the back of my throat with this liquid on a small brush??? I met my husband when I was 19. Needless to say, I gagged when the brush hit my throat. My husband remembers being given copious amounts of Virol to build him up.

NfkDumpling Fri 13-Mar-20 07:17:50

I wish we could still get proper pink, greasy Germolene. It formed a nice antiseptic seal and smelled wonderful.

Calendargirl Fri 13-Mar-20 07:15:07

You knew you were ill if you had to stay in bed in the winter and mum lit a fire in the bedroom, such a treat, as usually the windows were completely frosted up.

Roswell Fri 13-Mar-20 06:39:25

Bread and milk, Bovril, Lucozade, Virol (loved this!) and my gran used to make onion porridge ( don't ask!) It wasn't porridge.

BradfordLass73 Fri 13-Mar-20 06:04:14

Beef tea. Mum scraped a knife across uncooked beef and when she had enough fibres, boiled that up with a little water.

Thermogene and Camphorated oil for chests.

Benger's Food if we were really peaky, otherwise Pobs and
an egg beaten up in milk and sieved to get the nasty thick bit of the albumen out. Mum once forgot that and I was sick all over the eiderdown. sad

Senna pods or Syrup of Figs if we were constipated and as we got older, Petrolagar.

Germolene for cuts and grazed knees (permanent with me, a tree and wall climber). TCP - hated that smell.

Golden Eye Ointment but also, 'If you pick your nose and then touch your eye, you'll get a sty.'
Something I didn't believe until much later when my doctor auntie told me it was true.

Lucozade was too expensive but Mum made lemonade whenever the fruit was in season and added citric acid, which made it into a dilutable cordial. Yum.

At other times it was Elderberry Cordial, not considered a sovereign remedy.
Elderflower Chanpagne in summer whe the flowers were out but that wasn't medication, it was pure pleasure.
As was Virol which we had every day as a preventative.
Sometimes spread on buttered bread or toast.

Callistemon Thu 12-Mar-20 23:43:50

I like Minadex but didn't have it when I was a child, I bought some when I was pregnant.

annodomini Thu 12-Mar-20 23:40:57

Syrup Minadex - an iron tonic with orange flavour. It was very sweet and tasted much nicer than most other children's medicines. I'm sure it rotted my teeth. Virol was given to 'build me up' after a nasty bout of pneumonia and I loathed it.

lemongrove Thu 12-Mar-20 23:11:12

Two nice things about being home ill, one, a fire made up in the bedroom and two, Lucozade, a rare treat.

lemongrove Thu 12-Mar-20 23:08:55

I remember most of the mentioned medications ( a lot with horror!)
Loved pobs though.
One thing not mentioned up to now is Bile Beans....nasty little black objects, shudder.
Snow Fire for chilblains, and I had such painful chilblains (Yorkshire Winters, say no more.)
Fennings Fever Cure, in it’s Victorian looking bottle, yuk.
Indian Brandy, given when on a period ( it did help).

vampirequeen Thu 12-Mar-20 22:52:00

Every year I used to get bronchitis and mam used to ask the chemist to mix a Linctus. I lived on the stuff from Oct to Mar throughout my childhood.

NfkDumpling Thu 12-Mar-20 22:51:18

Oh, this is a lovely thread. I remember so many. Did anyone else have Collin's Elixir for coughs? I never knew if it was a local chemists mixture. It worked brilliantly, but I have a feeling it contained morphine!

vampirequeen Thu 12-Mar-20 22:49:00

My grandma resorted to one of three 'medicines'. If you had a sniffle she gave you a Beecham's Powder. If you had an upset stomach she gave you bicarbonate of soda (a real kill or cure method lol) . Ff you had a cough she gave you a drag of a cigarette to 'clear your chest' and by goodness it did because you would cough and cough thereby proving that it was doing it's job grin.

Mam would buy us Lucozade if we were ill or lemonade mixed with boiled water.

boho43 Thu 12-Mar-20 22:48:33

I vividly remember Milk of Magnesia - Yuk !

Calves Foot Jelly which l used to love.

Cod Liver Oil which l still love.

ElaineI Thu 12-Mar-20 22:39:59

Chicken soup, cod liver oil - disgusting stuff, Vick rubbed on chest!