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?

I'm 45. Had disorin as a young child but then after all the issues raised with giving it to kids I believe Calpol became a lot more popular. I definitely remember having it as an older child. It was very sweet back then!

i remember having calpol and tixylix in the 80s too but I don’t think we had the 6+ version of calpol. Either it wasn’t invented or it was too expensive.
my mum used to crush a paracetamol tablet up with jam. It still tasted revolting. I was so happy when I learned to swallow tablets whole when I was about 10

My eldest was born in 1976 and Calpol was around then. Used to be able to get huge bottles of it on prescription!

Born in the 50s. We had Topsy children’s aspirin . They were pink.

Mid 40s here and my mum did the same!

Was milk of magnesia the horrible chalky stuff in a blue bottle? I hated it!

Indeed.

You had to shake the bejeezus out of it because it used to settle on the bottle something awful

I was born late 60's and I remember tiny bottles of Aspirins. I used to beg my mum for them as u liked the taste, yes I was weird! Mum had to lock them away🤣

Milk of Magnesia was the worst 😂

@LadyGaGasPokerFace youve just unlocked a memory there! Cotton wool in the top of the bottle of tablets, wow!
My grandma used to use smelling salts. What was that about?!

I’m 41 and remember having calpol as a child, but also the vile dissolvable tablets on a spoon.

My great nan swore by this stuff

I had calpol as a child. Loved the stuff.

@GellerYeller my parents used to bring back medication from their home country and the glass bottles had the cotton wool on top. My mum used to swear by the medications, I’m still alive 😂

Just remembered idodized throat tablets from Boots - loved them - and yes to calamine lotion - the proper thick stuff not the runny one you get now

Talking of smelling salts - at Primary School we went on a school trip to see the Tutankhamen exhibition in London - early '70s.

Queued for hours to get in & managed to faint - woke up behind a screen having been administered smelling salts presumably by St John's Ambulance or some such - never did get to see the exhibition 😬

I wasn't given calpol as a child didn't really know it existed until I had my baby in 2000 my parents didn't seem to believe in pain relief except a hot water bottle

My mother didn't believe other people got ill so the only medicine we got was Benadryl because it sent us to sleep. Until about 1983 when I had a huge asthma attack at school and the secretary guilted my dad into taking me to a doctor, who prescribed inhalers, hooray. Still no painkillers though

Venos cough medicine for us (80s & 90s)

Not a painkiller, but Minidex (possibly Minadex) orange flavour liquid that burned the back of your throat (I was born in the early 90s). I think it was for building up weaker children and had vitamins in.

I never had Calpol a child.(Born in 1984).We had paracetamol mashed up and mixed with jam on a spoon 😂

I was born in 81 and had calpol in my childhood. The purple for babies and the orange for kids. I remember distinctly because I threw it up one day all over my bed