Born in the 70’s, did you have paracetamol etc?

[PersephoneParlormaid]

As a child I don’t remember being given any medicine if I was ill, only if I went to the doctors and was given antibiotics. If I was unwell I was wrapped in a blanket and put in bed with a hot water bottle. Were you given any painkillers like we give today?

Same. Still remember the taste of it.

Born in the 60s, the only medicine I remember was a bottle of Kaolin and Morph, with a cork stopper.

It was to the go-to for diarrhoea, anything else you just had to put up with the pain.

Born in 1961. Any pain bad enough to report to my Mum was treated with Disprin dissolved in milk (disgusting) usually. I think I'd heard of Panadol but we didn't usually have it. Benylin for coughs (useless but not unpleasant). My Dad took Beecham's powders if he got a cold. Eno's fruit salts were always in the house. I loved a glass of Eno's. I've no idea what they were supposed to be for - stomach ache? I never had it until I started getting period pains and then I took painkillers. Germolene for cuts and scrapes. Some kind of travel sickness remedy before any long car or boat journey. (I was glad of this.) Calomine lotion for any itchy rash or sunburn. I am very fair-skinned and there was no concept whatsoever that sunburn was dangerous, just unpleasant, so sun tan lotion was used more in the vain hope that I might for once end up brown instead of red and sore.

I used to get disprin when I was unwell wasn’t even a child’s strength . I remember getting it off a teaspoon

DISPRIN. God, I hated it. I still can't drink sparkling water because of it.

Oooo forgot about the benylin. Actifed medicine as well a weird cherry flavour.

Disprin, kaolin & morphine, Vicks vapour rub, Wrights vapour lamp, lucozade ( original with the cellophane wrapper), TCP, germoline were the medicine cabinet staples. For any other infection the GP prescribed pink medicine which tasted horrible.

No. And Drs weren't free, so you were only taken to them if you were literally dying and sometimes, not even then. It did mean people knew a lot more about home remedies.

Not pain killers. We were told we were in pain because we hadn't slept enough / had done to much when we were ill and to go and sleep it off. But do remember cough medicine and milk of magnesia for any tummy upset.

I might have memory failure but I’m sure I remember fighting over a chocolate flavoured medicine my sister got given from the GP. What on earth was that, maybe it was a different flavour but I’m sure it was chocolate.

I also have a core memory of coughing at a friend's house and being asked by their mum which cough syrup I usually had and being offered a choice of buttercup syrup and something else I can't remember. I had never to my knowledge had any kind of cough syrup but assured her the buttercup syrup was our go to as I wanted to try this luxury item. Immediately outed by my mother upon collection as a lying toad.

On a teaspoon what?
No wonder it was disgusting.

My mum would dissolve them in a mug of hot water with diluting juice.

I'd regularly get sore ears with the cold.

I was born in the 60s and we didn’t have any painkillers in the house. Other people of my generation clearly did though. I remember once a friend was at my house (which would have been when we were teenagers in the early-mid 70s). She said she had a headache and asked for an aspirin. I said we didn’t have any and she couldn’t believe it.

Milk of Magnesia! I'd forgotten that. We had that too. I may have found a bottle of that in my parents' medicine cabinet when we were clearing their house. There was all sorts in there. Vick is still what I take when I have a blocked nose. Love the stuff. I don't think we ever had Lucozade. Was it expensive?

Also galloways cough medicine, there was bright yellow savlon liquid for any cuts, witch hazel for bruises, olive oil from the pharmacy (always known as the chemist then) for earache - and you couldn’t buy it in grocery stores which were tiny, not much bigger than Tesco express now, Vicks vapourrub of course for colds which i still use… I don’t remember having antibiotics though, they were very mean with them then, it was go to bed with a hot water bottle and some lucozade and hope for the best

They were free in the 70s.

I was born in 1973
I remember getting calpol but im sure the bottle was a lot bigger in those days ?
And it was much sweeter
There was always a tin of germolene under the sink for cuts and scrapes
And i used to get tonsillitus quite a lot so got the obligatory strawberry / bananna flavoured antibiotic
Also remember getting pink medicine on a sugar cube at the Drs for polio?

Just saw Witch Hazel mentioned & we had this for bruises too.

It was vile dissolved in water, I used to gag.

Born 1978, I think I had Panadol (soluable paracetamol). Definitely remember lemon and honey being the main thing for colds though.

Sixties baby here. I don't remember actual painkillers I til I was a teen but regular treatments included Vicks rub and inhalers, clove oil or whisky to rub on toothache sites, and warmed olive oil dripped into ears and plugged with cotton wool for ear pain. Also useless cough syrups. Otherwise hot water bottle and stay in bed.

Karvol capsules i think. Thats all we had!

We had yellow cough syrup in a flat faced bottle. Was disgusting, used to call it pee in a bottle. That was for anything cold related.
Stomach was kaolin and morphine. Though ours (with an alcoholic/drug addicted dad) was a lot more kaolin and kaolin - unless you got it fresh from the pharmacy as they used to shake it up before passing it over!

Yep, that taste!!!

I still have lemon and honey when I have a cold - it feels a like a warm hug!