Being poorly when young.

Auntyflo I discovered NAWCH after my 3 year old daughter spent a week in hospital and I refused to leave her. There was absolutely nothing for the children to do and I spent much of my time there carrying a toddler who cried her heart out in her cot and no nurse ever went to comfort him. When we came home I got together with two other mothers and formed an area NAWCH group. I went into our local hospital with simple activities and books (and my one year old in his pushchair) once a week, and we went fundraising to buy toys, mostly from having collecting jars in pubs. Seven years later my son had an operation and we were with him before and after and I slept beside him and toys were available; NAWCH's greatest success was not needing to exist any more.

As for my own experience 65 years ago as a ten year old I had two operations on my eyes and my parents were only allowed to visit on Sundays. Both my eyes were covered, the rubber mask and the smell of the gas were terrifying, no-one ever told me what was going to happen and I woke up in a bed in an adult ward with bandaged eyes. I needed a wee and tried to get out of bed and the nurses told me off roundly and tied my hands to the rails. The worst thing was then being fed with no idea what was coming. It all still gives me the shivers.

That same year my little sister had her tonsils out in the children's hospital and I spent my pocket money on a dolly for her. I located her by her crying but the nurse stopped me at the door and wouldn't let me in or take the dolly to her. I don't know how they can have been so heartless and I cried all the way home.

A couple of things, I had a cleft palate repair at 18 months, as far as I'm aware my mother was not allowed to stay with me, but she did comment that the ward sister complained that I was not potty trained! My mother told her that I was (really?) but was NOT trained to perform on demand in a line up with others.

Obviously I don't remember that, but as someone who had migraines every 4 to 6 weeks from the age of two, I remember my tablets being crushed up, mixed with jam, then followed by a glass of milk and a square of Cadburys chocolate.

The tablets were white on the outside, pink in the middle, tasted vile!

Katek - your story sounds like my brother's. Whilst he had a different condition, he was in hospital for about one year. We visited at the weekend and my mother visited on Wednesdays whilst a neighbour looked after me. Treatment for his condition had changed completely when I came across it again in the 80s - children weren't kept in hospital.

chicklette so sorry you have sad childhood memories of being ill.
It just goes to show how important the early years of children are.

You however have the satisfaction of being a caring Mum and grandmother

The only time we stayed home was when we had spots or mumps. There were four of us and I can remember us all having chickenpox at the same time and mum had us all in bed. The rest of the time if we said we felt ill she would still send us to school saying if you are really that bad or get worse they will send your home! Never mind it was a seven mile bus journey and we would have to wait for the school bus!

I've just thought, when we were young my mam used to give us Vicks vapour rub on a spoon, with sugar on it. It's a wonder she didn't poison us, as it clearly tells you on the label that it shouldn't be eaten.

I had my tonsils out when I was 9 at the local cottage hospital. I thought I was being suffocated when I was given chloroform, and can remember screaming at the top of my voice. When I woke up I was in the same bed my little brother had been in the week before, in the men's ward. I remember being very sick, and it was all blood. I got a severe infection in my throat, and was in for 3 weeks, and I couldn't eat anything at all. When I got home I still couldn't eat, and my mam asked if there was anything at all that I fancied. I said I would like some tomatoes cut into very small pieces, and fried with water to make them soft. She was amazed because I would never eat tomatoes. Anyway she gave me what I wanted, and even now 70 years later, I still love them cooked that way.

What memories reading these stir up! I was 8 in 1959 and went into hospital with appendicitis. Parents were allowed one hour visiting time. Sweets were taken away by the nurses and brought out once a day for all to share - only 1 or 2. I was terrified of the staff and don't remember anyone being kind. Think the nurses were too scared of Sister. The memory of the thick rubber mask has never left me. 2 years ago I had my gall bladder removed. I was asked if I had any worries before going down to theatre. Yes I said. Don't put a mask over my face. Clearly traumatised me! Being ill at home meant the bed downstairs in the "best" room with a lovely fire burning. Locozade and chopped egg in a cup! Not together

Sunlover, I can't begin to imagine how scared and lonely you must have felt. At least JoyBloggs and I were spared that. I guess visiting was severely limited in those days too. It's much more humane nowadays, thank goodness.

I have the same awful hospital memories
No parents and having a horrible gas mask over my nose & mouth.

Illness at home meant the smell of Dettol the smell makes feel sick even now.
For children's rashes & hives out came the calamine lotion which dried hard and made the itch worse!

When feeling better would have chicken soup.
Also boiled egg in a cup mashed up with butter and brown bread. And of course lucazade.

I also had swirls of butter & sugar left by my bedside if I had a cough
Only problem was they made me feel sick!

Then came the great big spoon of malt 'yuck' and a halaborange (sp?) tablet
Both deemed to keep away future illness

I remember being on the settee wrapped in blankets with a new comic and watching with mother on the TV.

Yes, I'm another one with memories of scarlet fever... I was about 9 and fortunately didn't have to go into hospital, but I was at home for ages and once I had recovered 'a man' came from somewhere to fumigate my room. I can still remember the smell, it lingered for ages.

Rapunzal100, I was unlucky as my dad was a teacher and he was told he wouldn't be allowed to work if I stayed at home. I can still remember how scared and lonely I was in a large ward with no one to talk to.

My most vivid memory is of having Scarlet Fever at the age of 9 and, luckily for me, they had just stopped sending children away to isolation hospitals. My mum would allow me in my parents' big bed during the day and would bring a shovel full of fire up to put in the grate. As dusk descended, I loved watching the dancing flames or dying embers....and looking out for the arrival of the lamplighters for the street lights. I do remember feeling incredibly lonely though and I too produced yards of French knitting! No television or other entertainment and all books and comiics had to be burned. The good old days, eh?

Morgana lucozade and boiled egg together in a bowl???
I remember lucozade and soup when poorly, and strawberry yogs! Separately!
I had glandular fever around 10, I reacted badly to antibiotics and came out in tiny pin prick itchy spots everywhere! I was then given a drug to make me sleep to stop me itching so I lost about 3 weeks!
No hospital stays for me but my daughter had her tonsils out at 7, terrible experience. She had to be stitched as she didn't stop bleeding. I did get to stay though ?

When I was a child we lived in a big, cold, draughty house (a 'tied' cottage that went with my father's job). It had a huge kitchen and two other big downstairs rooms that were seldom used. When I had mumps my parents moved my bed downstairs to one of these spare rooms. I clearly remember being in that bed when my shocked and ashen faced mother burst into the room to tell me that President Kennedy had been shot!

Like Bijou and Lupin, my memories are of being really ill at home, and having the bedroom specially kept warm.
I had scarlet fever at age ?8 and stayed at home, in a bedroom for 6 weeks. Some children with S.F. had to go into a special isolation hospital, I was lucky.
There was a disinfected sheet over the bedroom door. Everything I had used, books etc, had to be burned. I remember getting letters from my classmates, they were burned too.
This was in the days before antibiotics.

We lived in a cold old Victorian house and I remember being allowed to have a fire in the bedroom if we were ill. It was comforting even though it probably sent the temperature up a notch.
I had my tonsils and adenoids out when I was 7, and don't remember getting visitors either. Perhaps it was the custom then. I was put in what seemed like a cot despite my age, and was so ashamed. I wanted to go to the toilet but a nurse wouldn't let me out so I wet myself and got a horrible telling off. I, too, vomited blood and was told I couldn't go home so I wept and wept and the doctor changed his mind. Hospitals are far more enlightened now thank goodness.

If I was ill I was banished to my room - it was warmer to go to school!!

I remember our family GP would come for home visits at the drop of a hat. One time dad was ill and said he was really exhausted. Our GP said "so am I" and reclined on our sofa!

I had M&B when I had Osteomyalitis as a two month old baby. No penicillin in 1943. That and an operation from a retired visiting surgeon (most of the young ones had gone to the war) saved my life. His name was Mr Whiteliff and I've always been grateful to him.

I too remember having my tonsils and adenoids out aged six! (1949) Not a happy experience! I remember having mask put over my face and thinking that I was about to suffocate. I remember not being able to eat jelly having it snatched away and the Nurse being cross! I remember vomiting blood, and most of all being taken home in an ambulance without my parents being notified!! Luckily my stepfather was at home and I remember sitting on his lap howling till presumably my mother appeared from shopping or whatever! Imagine any of that happened today?! ThInk God it doesn't

In the days when the doctor called to the house my mum would get me out of bed to sit in a chair with an eiderdown round me to keep warm then change the sheets 'before the doctor comes'!! As if he'd notice - they were changed every week anyway.
When I had tonsillitis he produced some huge M&B tablets from his bag - they were something new and they worked really well once mum had crushed them up so that I could swallow them.

How awful for you Katek I was only in hospital for a few days ( maybe a week?) but I still have horrible flashbacks about it. I remember taking my grandma to a routine appointment at the same hospital. The buildings have changed very little and walking through the main entrance door I could physically smell the gas and air and felt sick and shaky . How powerful an emotion fear can be . I can't imagine what it would have been like for you to spend so long in hospital . So glad things have changed for the better.

Remember being ill with whooping cough. No antibiotics just linctus. Dad would carry me downstairs in the morning and we had a chair that could be made into a bed. Dad would light the fire and I would stay in the chair bed until my bedtime We couldn't afford a nine inch TV although that's all there was in those days. So it was childrens hour on the radio and my books.How times have changed.

Just like sheilasue we spent the day in mum and dads room with the coal fire lìt when ill.I was very ill with pneumonia when about six Apparently I screamed when my grandmother visited as she had on a suit (!)like the district nurse who gave me injections in my bottom .I slept downstairs then with my oarents taking it in turns to spend the night watching me
Did anyone else have sugar mashed into butter with vinegar when they had a cough?
And M and B mixture which tasted disgusting