1980s school ailments

[Lorelielee]

Sorry for boring title. For context I'm 48 and I live in a city in the north of England. Just thinking...from about this time of year does anyone my kind of age remember most kids battling chapped lips, red nostrils and a permanent line of snot that could get sore from nose to mouth. Made it worse from licking your lips. My grandma used to slaver me in vaseline.

Loads of kids had it. It doesn't happen anymore. Does anyone know why?

Make sure she’s getting enough zinc, iron, omega 3 and b12. These can affect skin barrier. Also ensure she’s moisturising within 90 seconds of washing her face. Moisturisers lock in water they don’t add water.

Infant school teacher here-there are still plenty of chapped lips and streams of snot!

I’d say more parents send their kids in with lip balm though as they are always getting lost…!

Thanks. She is an incredibly fussy eater (like starves herself fussy, were under a dietician), so likely not getting what she needs. I'll make sure we get a supplement in the meantime.

Not so much an ailment ,the red rings round our legs where wellies had rubbed.
70s kid Ne Scotland

Chilblains were a bitch, child of the 70’s. My cousin always had a blocked nose and always carried giant cotton hankies. At home my mum and auntie would hem squares cut from old cotton sheets. I used to think what the world needed was tissues with Vaseline embedded in them. 20 years later out came Kleenex Balm.

Side topic, as a traveller in the 80’s I also used tho think how wonderful a suitcase with a long handle and wheels would be whilst dragging a case with a small strap and wheels on its small end.

on the other hand, back then there seemed to be almost none of the cycle of norovirus outbreaks that we have now

Did the virus mutate or were we living in less anit-bac'd surroundings so had better resistance.

It seems constant. I can rarely seem to get through a day without logging a lethargic grey-faced teenager saying that they feel like they're going to be sick.

So many things on this thread were part of my 1970s WC Yorkshire childhood, I remember having a week off school with impetigo.

Are they no longer a thing anymore, is Nitty Nora, the jungle explorer, aka the nit nurse no more?

Childfree so no idea, although a colleague with 2 primary school age DCs gives the impression that threadworms are the 21st century equivalent, although I expect there are no in school examinations for those.

This thread has reminded me that at the time US set books and TV series always had teens off school with Mono, and I've always wondered what that is and what is the UK equivalent.

I remember the chapped lips really well, mine weren’t terrible but still enough to sting. I remember being so excited when my DM bought some Lipsyl to try to help.

Also the NHS glasses; I was quietly envious of the girls with the pink frames. I didn’t need glasses until I was about 13, which was in the early 90s, so things had moved on from the frames I remembered from my primary school days.

I’m sure I used to see children with a cotton wool ball in each ear, possibly with Vaseline, because they had an ear infection. Different children at different times during the winter months, not the same two throughout the winter!

@CoffeeAndCakeBringMeJoy oh earache..😥😢

Mononucleosis! Glandular fever here.

I was an earache regular right up until I finally lived with non-smokers in my 20s...

Also had lots of earache - like, really painful, extended infections. I was left at home in bed on my own and cried for what felt like hours once. No calpol or anything to help. Don't think either of my kids have had earache.

Skiverlitis 😁 Now it's boringly referred to as truancy.

Glandular fever.
It was known as the kissing disease.
I was SO ill with it but I don't remember the kissing 😬

This thread has reminded me that at the time US set books and TV series always had teens off school with Mono, and I've always wondered what that is and what is the UK equivalent.
Edited

Glandular fever. Very common in teens. It's known as kissing disease.

Apologies. I see I am third to post the same message.

I remember mouth ulcers being extremely common amongst primary school children in the 1980s too, but not so much now. Maybe that was also a symptom of being slightly run down/cold/dehydrated?

That's a good point. I certainly had earache on multiple occasions when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, as did my brother. I don't think that either of my DCs have ever had earache.