Home remedies your mum, grandma believed

[justasking111]

My mother every weekend gave us kids senokots to move our bowels. Well they'd worked all week so why did her three offspring have to suffer gripes and frequent dashes to the loo?

Andrews liver salts or Beecham's powders during the week

Cold spoon to relieve a stye.

Lucozade when I was ill, at least until I vomited it up. I couldn't face it after that.

Bicarbonate of soda in water for a bad stomach. I hated it because it just made me vomit more quickly.

Washed our hair with vinegar to get rid of headlice

My grandma gave me a bottle of vodka to take to university because "a shot of this will cure most things". Drinking age was 21 where I went to university so I was terrified of it getting spotted and getting kicked out before classes even started! (I soon realised it was a good way to make friends...)

My mother is convinced Desitin (American version of Sudocrem) will cure anything on the skin, eczema, acne, sunburn, the list goes on.

She also thinks going to bed with a wet head gives you a cold, and my dad thinks going out without socks will give you a cold.

@Winterfellismyhome

Washed our hair with vinegar to get rid of headlice

My Mum told us that was to get the knots out of our hair! Now I know 😧

Tea tree oil for EVERYTHING

My Great Grandma would buy warts which would supposedly get rid of them.

Onion water for a cough or a sore throat.

Flat tonic water for an upset stomach.

Not a remedy but children simply weren't allowed to have a headache because they didn't have a mortgage and a family.

@mafted

My Great Grandma would buy warts which would supposedly get rid of them.

Onion water for a cough or a sore throat.

Flat tonic water for an upset stomach.

Not a remedy but children simply weren't allowed to have a headache because they didn't have a mortgage and a family.

My grandma had little brown bottles hand-labelled "camphor and amber" (ambergris?) which was strong-smelling and to be applied to your chest at night if you had a cold.

It had to be washed off in the morning before you went out or you would get a chest infection and DIE.

I had whooping cough, which left me with recurrent coughs, if this happened at night mum would melt sugar in a spoon and give it to me to suck.
They had this vile smelling black ointment that went on spots, cuts or bites that were looking a bit dodgy. They’d go all gooey and nasty.

Butter! On bumped heads my DM would always say put butter on it
I actually caught her rubbing some on my 4 year old DS head the other week when he had a little bump, she swears by it!

Flat 7 up was the thing here, my son and I laugh about it. Sudocrem for every spot, pimple, cut, burn but it does work. Nettle soup was one a neighbour had when we were kids many many a moon ago. Hot toddies when a cold coming on, whiskey, cloves in the slice of lemon, brown sugar and boiling water...Milk of Magnesia I remember from when I was very small, a watery type of white powdery liquid in a blue bottle. Interesting reading all the answers on this, great thread.

To the poster who said bicarbonate of soda, that does help me when have indigestion but tastes vile so down it. Also my mum used to put a few drops of vinegar in our hair after washing, could not smell it and we never got nits. So it did work after all.

Cold tea bag on the eye if had infection or stye, it worked.

Friends daughter came off her bike aged ten. One side of her face was a mess of scabbing an old lady in the village said vitamin E oil should be applied daily. The hospital said she would be scarred. So friend put the oil on. It worked.

The gold ring on the eye worked every time

Savlon. My Nan would use it if you're head was falling off. My Mum is the same.

Ditto brandy for period pains

Bag of frozen peas on a stiff neck

DS as a baby, maybe 9 months, had terrible tummy ache. DM put half a spoon of brown sugar in his bottle. Sorted.

Wedding ring rubbed on a stye
Get-on-with-it for everything else

You knew death was present when DM bought Lucozade.

I used to get really bad chapped lips in winter when I was a child and they were really sore. My grandma used to put germalene on them and it stung like heck for several seconds but cleared the chapped lips up in no time!! I swear by it now!!

Beechams powders
Fennings Fever Cure...loved it

Vicks vaporub With a layer of red thermogene on your chest to keep,out the cold
Fish boiled in milk to eat
Sore throat...a hot boiled onion put inside a nylon stocking & tied round your nec
Wedding ring rubbed on a stye
A lump of yellow sulphur in the dog’s water bowl
Every morning we had to line up to have a spoonful of malt & cod liver oil, same spoon.....me...the dog...the cat. I used to try to be sure I was at the front of the line.

@thelegohooverer lots of these work.
Vinegar on a wasp sting (sting is alkaline)
Bread soda on a bee sting (sting is acidic)
Oatmeal in bath for itchy rash (works for eczema)
Cornflour for nappy rash ( not come across this)
Hot bath for sunburn (just wrong!)

@thelegohooverer

Thought of some more:

Vinegar on a wasp sting
Bread soda on a bee sting
Oatmeal in bath for itchy rash
Cornflour for nappy rash
Hot bath for sunburn

I must be very suggestible because these all worked on me!

I always have a hot bath or shower when I'm sunburned. Stings like mad at first but once the sting has gone it totally soothes the whole thing. Then I just slap on some after sun

Granny gave us a dose of syrup of figs every weekend.
Andrews liver salts were for an upset stomach.
No fancy bubble bath, we got a glug of Dettol in our bath.
Askit powder for a headache.
Germolene for cuts and scrapes.

We didn’t get Lucozade, that was only for dad when he was hungover, it was too dear for wasting on kids.

Sore throat...a hot boiled onion put inside a nylon stocking & tied round your neck

@Darklane Were your parents from the middle ages?!

Personally I swear by sudacrem for most skin stuff but my parents used the old egg white trick (does work!) , also the brandy for period pain