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?

Yes - we had it for ‘travel sickness’ on long journeys!
We had aspirin or paracetamol crushed between a spoon and swallowed with water. Also TCP and Germoline - I remember being sent to boots with a note to buy pripsin 🤮

We were also given Txilix for coughs

worst I had was liquid vallium to help me sleep- gave me awful nightmares, I was about 3!

I wasn't born in the 1970s

but I remember aspirin, banana medicine, cough medicine and milk of magnesia, which hazel and tcp

the banana medicine wasn't antibiotic as I didn't have antibiotics until I was 24y

Born late 70s. Junior disprin was the norm for fevers and pain until the mid 80s when they realised it was dangerous for children.

I have an allergy to aspirin (swelled up everywhere) and it was discovered the second time I had it at about age 4. First time I had it was age 3 and I had mumps so the swelling was thought to be part of that.

So we also had calpol in the house and I was under strict instructions to never get painkillers at anyone else’s house as disprin would be the norm. I remember going in the school office and the huge bottles of medicine had stickers on saying not to be given to me.

Colds were always hot lemon and honey and Olbas oil on a hankie. Sore throats were gargle tcp and if you refused you clearly weren’t that ill. Earache was a hot water bottle on the sore ear and a drop of olive oil in the ear.

Anything worse was often a visit to the doctor and back then they would make house calls for emergencies.

There do seem to be some people who think it's somehow character-forming to take no pain relief or other medication. Possibly they think inability to tolerate pain is a sign of weakness. Well, maybe I am a weakling, but I strongly disagree. I can see no reason whatsoever to suffer pain when you could do something about it. The only point to bear in mind is that pain is a sign that something is wrong in the body and if you block it out and then try to carry on as normal you might be storing up trouble. My husband is a runner and they are terrible for this.

Aspro clear (much nicer / less vile than disprin) for headaches, Benalyn for coughs and calamine lotion for chicken pox! Not much else, and I'm beginning to think we were pampered after reading other replies.

Disprin I remember, I actuslly liked the taste! I liked the way water tasted sweet afterwards as it was so sour. Never calpol, my mother disapproved of it and thought people who gave it to their babies were drugging them to make them sleep. But otoh every time I had a cough she used to take me to the GP and Inwoikd get given codeine linctus...

I was born in the 60s and paracetemol and aspirin were both available as was calpol according to AI but I dont recall being given any. My mum has always been suspicious of drugs which is just as well as she had been prescribed thalidomide when she was pregnant with me but never took it. It just sat in the bathroom cabinet.

Soluble aspirin for headaches or chills, Vicks vapour rub and Otrivine decongestant for colds, Davenol or Orthoxicol for coughs, Minnadex for poor appetite, malt and cod liver oil every morning with a Haliborange tablet to take the taste away! My father was a doctor!!

Born in 77.

I remember my mum crushing paracetamol in orange juice and making me drink it 🤮 having to neck the bits at the bottom, I can still taste the bitterness 😭.

then disprin, think I was about six before she discovered calpol or was that later, can’t remember

I hated disprins so that made us recover quickly

Orange flavoured junior aspirin.

And the Dr visiting at home.

born in 1975. I remember disprin

Were they really tiny blue pills?

And gripe water with alcohol. Bloody gorgeous it was too.

Junior Disprin! I'd forgotten about those! I used to crunch them up and enjoy the taste.

Where was paracetamol though? Surely it existed. Not sure ibuprofen did.

It's a wonder we didn't succumb to our fevers and die of febrile convulsions isn't it! My kids used to run 40 degree temperatures sometimes.. I can't imagine not having Calpol and junior ibuprofen to alternate to manage them.

I was asthmatic as a child and don't remember getting inhalers until well into my childhood. Also, we were pretty poor and the doctors was right across town. We had no car and I remember feeling like death and walking there very very slowly with my mum, feeling breathless and scared. Looking back, I think my dad, who held the purse strings (!) could have paid for a taxi on those occasions, but that never happened. I do remember being so poorly that sometimes the doctor did house calls and him telling my dad he absolutely was not to smoke (his pipe!) around his child. So dad than used to stand long sufferingly at the back door to smoke for a few days before going back to doing it around me as soon as I was a little better.

Unthinkable really! Despite this I know my dad loved me

Born 1974, crushed paracetamol on a spoon with jam, whoever invented calpol deserves a medal. It was disgusting!!

Junior Disprin for us for tonsillitis, which I got all the time, as a gargle if it was really bad. Owbridges cough medicine, which you put in a glass and added a bit of hot water to. Vick’s for stuffy noses or chesty coughs. Calamine for rashes.

Correct me if im wrong but wasnt paracetamol and ibuprofen prescription only in the past?

Born late 60s and the only painkiller I remember is dispirin. I have fond memories of karvol capsules on a pillow for colds, and kaolin and morphine for upset stomachs.

The cure all medicine in my house was being allowed to lay on the settee with a blanket and a couple of cats curled up next to me.

In my teens I had dreadful period pain until ibuprofen became available.

Phenergan nowadays is tiny blue pills.

The travel sickness tablets we had were a really bright pink colour, no idea what was in them but they tasted horrible, I felt sick just taking them let alone feeling sick in the car!

By the 80s my mother was buying bottles of 100 in Boots. She'd usually talk them into selling her 2 or 3 bottles too.

80s child but we didn’t really, my mum was against it. She even threw away antibiotics that I got myself as a teen. I do remember a disgusting thick brown cough medicine and we got given lucazade for any other illness.

Born 1974 and we had junior disprol and aspirin - often the soluble ones. I remember lots of TV ads for painkillers (Anadin) from the late 70s. My mum had a well stocked bathroom cabinet. When I was very small (3 or 4) I ate all her contraceptive pills and had to be taken to the doctor for an emetic.

Calpol, Disprin, Benylin were the medicines of my 70s childhood

Born in 65. My mum used to crush up aspirin and put it on a spoon with a tiny bit of water. Drink of Ribena to wash it down with.