To think it a a bit shit that pregnant women can't buy Castor Oil?

[BlueButTrue]

Yes, I’m aware some people use it to induce labour. But some people also seriously abuse alcohol or whatever have you and are still sold it You wouldn’t even know they’re an alcoholic half the time!

Castor Oil is brilliant for the hair and eyebrows.

Boots won’t sell me anyway.

Holland and Barrett won’t sell me any.

Local chemist say they don’t think it suitable so won’t sell it.

Superdrug won’t sell me anyway.

Apparently they cannot sell to those who’re pregnant. And I’m very clearly about to drop.

AIBU to say this is a bit shitty towards pregnant customers?

I know it gets misused but so does a lot of things sold in chemists etc... And yet those are on shelves!

Mind you I’ve also had a barista at a clearly hipster American place (in London) refuse to serve me a double shot coffee because that would take me over my daily caffeine limit (according to him). I didn’t want a double shot anyway, but felt annoyed at him deciding for me iykwim

Argh, I cannot stand that this sort of thing takes place today.

Bloody outrageous to infantalise women like this

Exactly!

Just to add to this thread, the customer service assistant in H&B doesn’t have pharmacy training...

Their staff are trained in what some vitamins etc are for, for you health wise, but not medically trained.

I just don’t get this whole “better safe than sorry” approach. It makes no sense and has no legal stance when it comes to ‘getting into trouble’.

Just because I’m pregnant, I can no longer make informed decisions, apparently.

And since when wasn’t it perfectly fine to make an informed choice?

Yeah, I hear you Op. I don’t have a problem with a medically trained pharmacist asking me questions or wanting to ensure I was following guidelines. If the guidelines are wrong in some cases it’s not their fault.

But find the general infantalising of pregnant women quite irksome. Like I’ve lost the ability to think or make decisions for myself simply because I am pregnant.

As a complete aside my mum would make us ingest castor oil to cure insect bites. It would work, but was so vile! I much prefer coconut oil for my hair and skin.

trimestertalk.com/can-cause-abortion-castor-oil/
The reason you were refused is as it's dangerous to pregnant mums and their babies and many people try to use for unauthorised abortion. Try searching mumsnet and you will see a lot of people talking about it.

The reason you were refused is as it's dangerous to pregnant mums and their babies

Only if it is ingested. Not if you put it on your eyebrows. Which is what the OP wanted it for.

Tillybilly - like all drugs used to induce labour it’s going to be a very bad idea to take it in the first trimester.

But that’s not what this thread is really about is it?

“And since when wasn’t it perfectly fine to make an informed choice?“

Well quite.

They also wouldn’t refuse to sell you fags, alcohol, Brie or sashimi on these grounds!

@crashbangwhatausername "I had to shuffle to the next pharmacy and lie only to be told about the benefits of bf after I claimed to be ff so I could get my bloody pain relief." It's that sort of thing that I find particularly upsetting. Yes, there does seem to be some sort of broad public health role assigned to pharmacists, but how rude and intrusive of someone (whether behind a pharmacy counter or not) to comment on your feeding choices. That could have been extremely upsetting to someone who was ff (perhaps not by choice) and felt they were being judged when all they wanted to do was access some pain relief. And it is infantilising. It's not as if you can get through a pregnancy without some exposure to breast feeding public health messages.... Grrr. That makes me really cross.

On a similar theme my local chip shop won’t put salt on customers chips for Health reasons.

On a similar theme my local chip shop won’t put salt on customers chips for Health reasons. 

Omg!! But can you at least put it on yourself?

If not, that is an absolute shambles

They ask if you want salt and/or vinegar at the chip shops here, they don't put it on otherwise. Not for health reasons, just that some people don't like it (I personally don't much like salt on chips).

If they're refusing to put it on then that's ridiculous!

A Pret shop assistant once refused to sell me a smoked salmon sandwich. In her opinion it was dangerous to pregnant women and I was being irresponsible. I had to make a huge fuss and got the bloody sandwich. My son turns 12 next month and I am still fuming!

BigDipper I would still be fuming too!

The chip shop server has no embarrassment about glaring at customers as he’ll tells them he’ll put vinegar on but not salt for health reasons.

Blue Every chippy I’ve been in before it was standard to put your own
salt and vinegar on if you were having them ‘open’ and if you wanted them wrapped you could ask for salt and vinegar on them and the assistant would do it.
But my chippy has decided to combine their chippy role with the the health police.

Right, because salt it the most harmful thing in a bag of chips! What utter nonsense(from him, not you!).
I used to work in a chippy though and it is the type of job to turn the most cheerful person into a bad tempered bastard.

I like to do my own salt, chip shop never do it salty enough