getting childhood illnesses in the fifties

I had whooping cough when I was about five, measles at 6, chicken pox shortly afterwards and remember being sent home from school with measles in the charge of an older child who was about 8! It was a walk of about two miles through snow!!!

I had meningitus at 11 the B strain and was desperately ill but by some miracle survived unscathed.

I've been told that if you had bad chicken pox as a child, which I did, it's unlikely you will have shingles in later life. If it was a mild case the virus remains dormant and can resurface.

I got the lot too. I was a weakling. Scarlettina, measles, whooping cough, mumps, scarlet fever, chicken pox, but the worst ones were polio and rheumatic fever. polio when I was 5 in my legs...which thank God got better, I remember going back to school and the teacher saying I should still be in bed because I was so white. When I had rheumatic fever I remember reading comics beano and dandy, and brownie. There was a fire in the grate in the bedroom and the windows were closed. A delivery boy who brought our groceries was allowed to come up and read to me. He was only about 14 and I just loved that boy. He got under my bed to sing me a song because he was shy I remember that like it was yesterday. THANK YOU whoever and wherever you are now. Your visits made it worthwihile being ill.

I had measles about age 6 quite badly and remember the room I was in had loads of bluebottles coming down the chimney. It had to be swept and there were dead birds in it and I refused to sleep there. My brother was a baby so it was difficult because it was a tenement flat. I had 5 spots when I had chickenpox then when I was about 9 my Mum had to have a hysterectomy and my granny could not manage us. My brother was put in a nursery and then I gave him mumps and the nursery had an epidemic and closed for a few weeks!
We have just had a work email alerting us to an outbreak of measles - increased cases in Scotland and especially my health board and given instructions about what to do.

I also remember my uncle's sister saying, " Mother never allowed us to catch these nasty diseases".

She had more than a touch of the Hyacinth Buckets about her!

I had the lot, plus many bouts of tonsillitis. I had completely forgotten about the curtains being drawn when I had measles! We were kept in bed, and, as the bedroom was next to the living room, my father placed the ( detachable) dressing table mirror in the doorway so the invalid could watch telly!
Invalid diet was Heinz tomato soup and Ambrosia creamed rice.

When my own children were small, ( 1980s) there was an outbreak of chickenpox in the village. None of the children were feeling poorly, but one family seemed to have escaped the bug, so the afflicted ones were kept inside. When these children caught it too, the children were liberated, and the village was full of scabby weans!

I had all the usual childhood illnesses and recovered well.
I also contracted scarlet tina. I was fond of stroking
furry caterpillars apparently the fluid given off is
poisonous. I stopped stroking caterpillars after that!

My twin and I were born in 1946 after our mother had been in hospital for 6 weeks with kidney problems. No one had noticed that she was having twins! We both weighed under 5 pounds and in my first year I developed pneumonia which can't have been helped by the smoke from my Grampy's pipe and Dad's Woodbines. My big sister told me that the neighbours all came in to have a look at me because they thought I was going to die, however thanks to being dosed with 'M and B' I lived to tell the tale.
We both had measles and chicken pox but I don't remember having anything else including scarlatina which affected a lot of our friends.You never hear of that now, do you?
When we were 9 we both had our tonsils and adenoids removed because we were deaf. We were in Southmead hospital at the same time, for about 6 days-no visitors were allowed in those days. Our older sisters had their tonsils removed in the local cottage hospital and there were two children to a bed, one at each end. It sounds as though most people had their tonsils out in those days.
When the TB vaccination became available we all had the Heaf ? test to find out who had immunity. Quite a few of us did, presumably from drinking untreated milk, so we had to be X-rayed to check whether we actually had the disease. Consequently we didn't have to have the vaccination -I was always scared of needles.

Also remember lots of "septic throats" the doctor would visit and I would be given a revolting pink penicillin and red strepsils to suck I used to read my Rupert annuals tucked up in bed

Never had German measles as a child and caught it twice as an adult,first time at 25 unfortunately I was 14 weeks pregnant at the time and then again at 36,I then had a post viral arthritis which left me in severe pain as it attacked every joint in my body,four months later I took my driving test I was still having difficulty with neck stiffness.

I had horrendous whooping cough aged 3 (coughing so violently I was sick). I don't remember feeling ill otherwise. Measles aged 5 and also kept in a darkened room. Mumps at 12 and felt really bad - hugely swollen glands, so sore I was hardly able to open my mouth which meant eating and talking were almost impossible (found these extremely difficult as they are my favourite hobbies!).

My brother and I had most of these illnesses. I'm not sure which it was, but I rember us both being off of school together at one time and the two girls next door ill as well. We thought it a treat as we were allowed to play together. We can't have been too ill but probably contagious.

I never had mumps or scarlet fever. I did have whooping cough (but I was a baby so can't remember) measles (curtains closed all day and they were red curtains so every day was red from morning to night) and chicken pox.

No one knew I had chicken pox until my sister got them. She was quite ill with spots everywhere, including in her mouth. When the doctor examined me he said, 'Here's the culprit!' I had half a dozen spots round my middle and wasn't ill at all. Back then (correct me if I'm wrong) daily baths were unheard of. We washed our face, neck and knees before bed and had a bath on Sunday evening! So no one had spotted the spots because they appeared between bath days! I still had to stay off school and was very happy because I could play out all day on my big sister's state of the art scooter. It was a two wheeler with a go faster pedal whereas mine was a triang three wheeler. She was too ill to object! ?

Sorry "both" not "birth" !!

I had scarlet fever in the forties. As it was mild And I was an only child, I was allowed to stay at home. But a damp blanket was hung outside the bedroom door (? To catch germs?) and a bowl of water outside the door for my mother to wash her hands after bringing me things! Weird! My father caught birth chicken pox and later mumps from me and was very ill with them.

My father kept a note of illnesses, complete with dates, on the back of a small,brown envelope which I still have.
I had measles - and the curtains drawn - and was nursed with lucozade, soft boiled eggs and soldiers, and ice cream. Made it worth being ill!
I also had chicken pox and, at a different time, German Measles. Again I was nursed with the lucozade etc, but was also treated to Judy and Bunty comics seeing as I wasn't kept in the dark those times.
I was in bed with mumps when mother burst in to the room in complete shock to tell me that President Kennedy had been killed.
Funny what you remember.

I only had measles and was ammuned from TB as I never needed to have the vaccination .

I had all the aforementioned illnesses, almost one after the other. I had just started school aged 5 and took polio and spent weeks in isolation in hospital then took mumps, measles and chickenpox. I ended up missing almost one year of school so was almost 6 before I eventually started back, with the five year olds again! I now suffer post polio syndrome even though I had the vaccine afterwards. Unfortunately, my mother tended to wrap me in cotton wool afterwards which caused much resentment among my siblings. I was the 'spoiled brat'!

Yes we were always getting stomach bugs. Fortunately my grandmother, who grew up in the country, tended not to get them and had a cast iron stomach when it came to holding your head when you were throwing up and clearing up afterwards.

Campaspe yes! Though it was called gastric flu back then. At least, I assume it was norovirus or similar. It went through our house a few times.

I had all of them, except German measles. Whooping cough at 9 months apparently. Unfortunately I didn't seem to get an immunity - had measles twice and chicken pox 3 times. My elder daughter has also had measles twice. No idea what DH had, neither him nor his mother had a clue. Consequently he got chicken pox when our children did so he was off ill with them and I went back to work.

My two boys had measles when they were 8 months and 18 months, they both caught it at the same time. It just happened to be bonfire night when we realised that was why they were both screaming as the bright lights hurt their eyes, then the spots became visible, awful time .....

Did people get stomach bugs and norovirus back in the 40s, 50s and 60s?

I loved the history programmes on the radio. The schools don't have anything like that now.
I had mumps when I was about 5. I didn't really notice anything wrong, but my poor mother caught it from me and was very ill. I never knowingly had Chicken Pox but I caught Measles when I was 13 and had four weeks off school when it turned to Bronchitis.
Such fun being ill when I was little. A fire in the bedroom, lots of comics to read and tinned peaches to eat, Real luxury!

My mum tells the story of my older sister, who caught Scarlet Fever, before I was born. She was diagnosed on the queen's coronation day and my dad had to drive her to an isolation hospital outside London. The traffic was streaming into London and it was pretty much only my parents car going in the other direction!

Apparently she was there for some weeks and when she came home, the teddies etc that she'd had in hospital were all incinerated.

I never did get mumps but was really ill with measles and chickenpox. I didn't get German measles until I was a teenager when we were encouraged to pass it around if we could.

Living in the Middle East during most of the fifties I also suffered the delights of impetigo and Asian 'flu'.

Funnily enough we didn't give a second thought to polio which was the most feared childhood disease in the UK at the time. Hygiene left a lot to be desired in some places but maybe we were safe because we only swam in salt water.