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?

Me and my siblings were born between 83-86 and definitely had the pink baby calpol before moving in to nasty orange(?) flavoured 6+ stuff 😏

I had Gerber orange as a child - it was like a thick orange flavoured syrup, probably with lots of vitamins. I think I remember DM getting it from the GP?

@BertieBotts aspirin is not really the norm In Scotland. I wonder if the Nurofen or paracetamol was behind the counter 🤔

I say not norm but obviously it's always available but i think most folk usually buy the other stuff

Born '76. Never heard of calpol until I had my own kids in the '00's! It was crushed paracetamol (between 2 spoons!) put into squash for us.

I remember having it in 1984. I loooved the sugary pink version and was so mad when I got old enough for the yuk orange version.

Straight to the doctors for banana flavoured medicine, at any sign of illness or junior blackcurrant lemsip, never had calpol in the 80s, started hearing of it in the 90s. Maybe it was expensive or my parents were not aware.

Ah I did wonder - perhaps they'd just sold out of the rest. I did ask so not over the counter. It was just a small petrol station.

Junior Disprin for me as a sixties/seventies child. Vicks rubbed over my chest for a cold. Yes to the Germolene, TCP, Gripe Water and Andrews Liver Salts in the bathroom cabinet - l think all medicine cabinets had the same distinctive smell. Oh, and Olive Oil for earache. My children were born in the nineties and Calpol was definitely the go-to medicine by then. I bought the sugar free version. I also used gripe water for colic once they were old enough. I remember Medised too.

Yes, 70's medicine cabinet included Germolene, which was smeared on any sort of cut, graze, or mild burn, Andrews liver Salts, which I can only ever recall the adults using for 'the morning after', Dettol, commonly bunged in a hot bath for random reasons, Milk of Magnesia, administered if you were going at either end, Calamine Lotion, applied nightly with cotton wool for what felt like weeks on end when there was a Chickenpox outbreak, and some sort of Rosehip concoction which I'm assuming was for the purpose of stupefying discordant babies, because I don't recall ever being on the receiving end of it, but my gurning siblings certainly were.

I remember Sudocreme being discovered some time in the 80's, and from that point on it was the wonderous cure-all for anything up to and including partially detached limbs.

Whoever mentioned Haliborange I’d forgotten those!
And then as a teen some sort of liquid vitamin and iron tonic. Topex and Biactol for spots. Or Oxy 10.
Never heard of Medised but at the other end of the scale, everyone having Pro Plus tablets (caffeine?) around exam time!

That is quite a perfect summary of the 70s/80s family medicine cabinet.

Don't forget the vaseline, for nappy rash or any sort of eczema or chapped skin.

Olive oil, for blocked ears/ear ache. Also randomly rubbed on my eczema when the vaseline didn't work 🙄

TCP, a bit like dettol, but even smellier. Applied neat to grazes would make you scream.

Vicks vapour rub for every time you had a cold.

The nit comb. For when the nit nurse came round at school and announced an outbreak.

Also - and this is the worse for me - the worming powder that you added to water or milk to make the most disgusting "milkshake" known to humankind. That your mum would make you hold your nose and drink every last drop off, because your little brother had worms. Again 🤮

Calpol made me vomit which makes me feel so sorry for my poor old mum, that would really stress me out if I couldn’t get fever relief into my kid! I liked Tixylix though. My SIL had her kids about 20 years ago and fondly reminisces about something called “Doze-All” which apparently knocked your kid out entirely!

Oh and I loved the camphor oil (?) lamp I had when I had a cold. Switch to a electric one when I was about 8 but I remember having a tea light one with strict instructions not to touch it before that!

I still recommend Andrew’s Liver Salts for a slightly upset stomach or if you’ve overeaten! I also used to get what looked like charcoal tablets for “acidosis”. I have no idea if that’s even a thing.

Yes I remember all these and also Beacham’s Powders being a popular adult remedy

I remember this as well.

I can still remember the smell of germolene.
I used to get given do do tablets when my chest was bad. They were strong and have now been banned, but they did work.

Early 80s baby and I remember being given Calpol. I also remember amoxil being like banana as I had rather a lot of that and some horrible vitamin liquid called Minadex which used to make me vomit. Not good when it was given for failure to thrive.
I had several surgeries and ENT problems as a child and I assume everything was given on script as at other times it was half a paracetamol and a disapproving look. We were encouraged to be at school unless incapacitated. "I've got a headache."
"No you've not."
Was the usual cure.
We were quite poor and I assume OTC medicines were still relatively expensive unless it was generic paracetamol.

OHHH I do remember. It was definitely a thing in our house by the early 90s, as my mother managed to overdose my baby brother. She got an absolute strip torn off her at the hospital.

and some sort of Rosehip concoction which I'm assuming was for the purpose of stupefying discordant babies, because I don't recall ever being on the receiving end of it, but my gurning siblings certainly were.

Rosehip syrup was for Vitamin C . During the war, government scientists realised that, weight for weight, rosehips have over 20 times the vitamin C of oranges. So the Ministry of Food recommended rosehip syrup and a generation of children began receiving a daily dose.

I had forgotten about Andrews Liver Salts but I believe you can still buy it. I used to love taking a secret spoonful for that fizzy mouth, like a sherbet.

I had Disprin as a child. Milk of magnesia for tummy aches. Haliborange as a bit c tablet.

@GellerYeller yes, we had the Sanatogen chalk ball tablets. In a glass bottle with cotton wool on top.

60s child - Disprin - Germolene (the proper pink stuff) Andrews - Milk of Magnesia - Kaolin & Morphine for stomach upsets (eeek) & Famel Cough Syrup were in our medicine cupboard also malt stuff for appetite and syrup of figs to keep you regular (yuk)

Generations of Glasgow women were addicted to Askit powders which were a painkiller. They were made not far from where I live

you could buy them from the ice cream
van they were that prevalent

Perhaps there were other brands that we had?

I remember syrupy stuff on a spoon in the 80s but it was never referred to as calpol