When did Calpol get invented?

[AcidTest]

I was just reminiscing about being ill as a child and my mum giving me a dissolvable aspirin in a glass of orange squash. It tasted vile!

I don't remember taking paracetamol for pain relief until I started my periods at 13, and even then I had to ask my mum to get some in and then learn to swallow them whole! Initially she gave me a small glass of brandy and hot water- odd choice for a teenager, but we had no painkillers in the house!

I'm just wondering a what point did calpol become so ubiquitous, and aspirin stopped being used as pain relief in children?

I guessing it might have been the 80s at some point?

Definitely had Calpol in the eighties when I was a child, but I used to get recurrent tonsillitis so would be made to gargle with soluble aspirin or worse warm salt water.. all kept with bandages , germolene and plasters in an old quality street tin

@GellerYeller I know! Maybe it’s time for a tidy out 😂.

It happened in the mid 70's in the US. I was in nursing school when it became associated with Reye's Syndrome. It wasn't until the mid 80's that it was banned in the UK for under 16 year olds.

60s baby here. I had dissolvable aspirin as a child, although I do remember having lemsip as a teenager. I didn't know Calpol existed until I had my kids in the 1990s.
The awful banana granules would definitely be an antibiotic, they all taste awful & the pharma companies have gone to huge lengths over the years to try & mask the taste (mostly unsuccessfully!)

1960s baby here, no calpol but junior disprin dissolved in a glass of water.

Rinstead pastilles were pretty horrible, but better than a bit of alum powder being spooned onto a mouth ulcer (although it was effective). God knows how old the stuff was.

Although I was always happy to get Gee’s Linctus for a cough - probably because, as I later found out, it was opium based and tasted wonderful and gave you a warm glow.

I remember having calpol as a kid and I’m 35 this year.

Used to love it. It was very sweet. But I also remember my mother crushing up paracetamol and mixing it with a drink to get me to take that and I vomited the mixture up

I’m a 1985 baby and I once got hold of a bottle of calpol, aged about 4, and downed the lot. I still remember the ambulance ride and the blood test and the medicine that made me oh so sick.

I can remember the orange flavoured disprin, but the others passed me by completely, as I was so enraged by the disgusting taste of medicines for children that I informed my mother, the GP and subsequently the Pharmacist at Boots that I would only ever take medicine if it came in tablet form. I would have been four when I decided this - as I was frequently ill, over the next 2-4 years, I was frequently wheeled out to explain my position on this when a new pharmacist saw my date of birth on the prescription

As an adult, the swallowing of tablets and gastro effects for so many years has taken its toll (now allergic to most things and puke up with the few I'm not - probably due to gluten being used as the filler in a lot of them), so I'm now that patient who asks very politely if there's an injectable, transdermal or suppository form of medication. And I still get doctors saying 'You want an injection?'. Yeah, why not - I don't taste it, it gets properly absorbed, requires a lower dosage and it only takes a couple of seconds?

That makes sense about the injection though!
live remembered another. Might be grandma rather than mum that gave me it. Indian Brandee… yes brandy. From the chemist. For nausea.

I remember it being called Panadol when I was a child in the 80s, or an I imagining things?

I also used to have an aspirin disolved in a shot glass with orange squash when I was a child.

My nephew had calpol and he was born 1988.

I’m 40 and remember “baby” calpol tasting better than the 6+

All I remember was banana flavour antibiotics and buttercup syrup. I went a bit loopy if I had too much of the latter.

Wait, what??? I remember that warm glow and being one of the few cough medicines that actally worked and I've been wondering if it was still around. Never knew it was opium based 😮

We had the dissolvable aspirin in orange squash too. Along with rosehip syrup, salt gargles and strepsils . TCP and Dettol ruled with a little help from salvon and germaline. Vaguely recall something for teething that was ummm, very drinkable (Dentoxx?) but never knew about oil of cloves until I met my DHs family.

I also vaguely recall those pastilles with sugar around them, they came in a small hinged tin.

Calpol, Medised, Karvol and Olbas oil only arrived in my house when I had DCs. Why did they get rid of Medised, it was brilliant stuff.

Unfortunately not @DanceMumTaxi - I ran out a year ago and couldn't get them anymore - two different Boots chemists told me they had been discontinued. Such a pity - best thing ever for sore throats!

Why did they get rid of Medised, it was brilliant stuff.

Allegedly (and I did know somebody who did it) people were using it to keep their small children sedated/quiet/compliant.

Oh just seen someone already said they were banned! Sorry!

We had calpol in the 90’s but there was just one magical bottle in the cupboard that lasted about 10 years. It was very rare we got given it!

I had Panadol, in the early seventies.

Medised and other similar medicines were discontinued due to unwanted side effects such as hallucinations and sleep disturbances.

I liked the karvol plug in and loved the smell. As a child I remember they also had the wee silicone capsules that you cut the top off and sprinkled on your pillow.

With hindsight I think Gee’s Linctus did nothing for your cough but you were so off your tits you felt great.

Same!

Plenty of people did that with whiskey and dummies, or the odd bit of brandy in their bottle. They aren't banned. Not condoning the medised abuse btw, just seems an odd reason.

We had calpol. I can still remember the taste.

Has anyone mentioned Beechams Powder yet? My dad, who was in the medical field, swore by them.