Why does Calpol seem so much more comforting than paracetamol?

[User280905]

Ds and I both have a sore throat. He's gone to bed with calpol and a hot water bottle. Me going to bed with 2 paracetamol tablets and a hot water bottle somehow doesn't sound nearly so comforting. Is it the bright pink that makes the difference? The massive price tag compared to asda own brand paracetamol? I think I'll take calpol instead.

It's the nostalgia of the smell for me I think. It takes me back to when someone would tuck me up and look after me as a kid! Not quite the same as an adult.

It is delicious. Also? it really does seem to make it all better.

I think it absorbs more quickly. I took it when I had mastitis and it was sooo nice

This feels like the old days.

Sugary syrup will feel comforting - much more than two hard tablets and some water.

It is magic stuff though.

Having spent all evening trying to force one bloody teaspoon intoDD I think I want some myself!

Both my kids dispise calpol, which has completely killed the nostalgia for me.
Lemsip with a spoon of honey in is what you need.

I remember it being delicious, sticky, sugary, orange stuff. Now I think it tastes vile on occasions I have run out of tablets and have to swallow half a bottle of calpol instead. Only 1 child left in the house that has it now, the others are all big and take tablets.

I wasn’t allowed it as a kid, I sometimes feel very jealous of my own for its strawberry deliciousness

I still take it (I struggle to take tablets🙄)

I had calpol. I can still feel it sticking to my teeth. But hopefully it makes me feel better by morning

Someone needs to tell my kids because they've all hated medicine! There was a really cheap supermarket version that smelt and tasted like cherry bakewell about a decade ago. I bought that one for me, the kids loathed it

We use shop's own brand lemsip. Cuddling and sipping a mug of warm lemon 'tea' helps everything!

If you have a sore throat and use the syringe to squirt the Calpol as close to the back of your throat as possible, it gives blissful relief for a little while.

I've just given my little boy a kiss on his sticky Calpol cheek before putting him down again in his cot. Mmm strawberry baby.

(Hope the teeth come through soon)

A spoonful of calpol wont make u feel better by morning

The sugar
It is comforting

🤢 calpol makes me heave.
When I was a teenager I had an operation at a childrens hospital, I was given calpol and spewed everywhere.

I am so old there was no calpol when I was lttle, just junior disparin.

I think I'm too old for Calpol (Disprin was our drug of choice...)

But we had Tixylix syrup for coughs (once we'd run out of Auntie Liz's Special Mixture ) and having it poured out into a spoon for you and given it is a little comforting ritual which is possibly what you're getting from the Calpol association. (Vodka and black reminded me of Tixylix, which was a bit odd.)

@mizzo - I used to deliberately use the Disprin as an emetic (migraines started to get better once I threw up).

I loved it as a child. The baby one, not the nasty 6+ one though. My dc hate it and insist that their aches and pains aren’t too bad. Odd creatures - must be dh’s genes.

My go to comfort now is a honey and lemon drink - not nasty lemsip. Proper manuka honey and a real lemon. Pips optional.

Hope you feel better soon.

I used to love a disprin. The fizzy taste and the little bit of grit in the bottom of the glass. It’s a definite comfort association!

See also: Benylin (the old-style proper one that knocks you out)

I can’t stand lemsip, the smell, the taste, the ill memories it invokes 🤮

Give me calpol anyday, it’s so lovely and comforting

Disprin in warm ribena - the best sore throat/cold cure

I’d still rather take tablet amoxicillin than the vile banana liquid