More old wives tales - causes of illness

Don't diet or you will get a headache. This from my slim parents who produced a large daughter!
Don't wash your hair during your period but use dry shampoo instead - which was like talcum powder so turned your hair white.

Don't sit with your back to the fire ,never did know why?

Remember Dr Collis Browne's mixture great favourite of mums, goodness knows what was in it. Vests a definite must nowadays glad they are so pretty now, what about liberty bodices?

Don't sit with your back to the fire,never did know why?

Everything had to be 'aired' before it could be worn - especially vests.

Something would cause chilblains but I can't remember what - or indeed what they were?

Even now if I go out with damp hair I feel that my mum is watching me and tutting and sadly she's not even around anymore!

Gangstagran - I think sitting with your back to the fire would make you feel sick?? Not sure, but I know I was told not to do it.

Sitting on a cold wall,step or ground you will get piles.

Reading gives you a headache?

Yes DanniRae sitting with your back to the fire was said to make you feel sick.

Reading in bed would make you need glasses was another of my Mum's.

Gangstagran and DanniRae - yes I was told it would make me feel sick if I sat with my back to the fire and if I tried to warm up cold toes in front of the fire I would apparently get chilblains

I'm another who thinks that a gold ring rubbed on a stye works. The thing is though no-one gets styes any more. I wonder why not ?
We were told that sitting with your back to the fire would 'melt your marrow'.

My mother would say never wash your hair when you had a period but the funny thing was when I gave birth to my eldest the midwives said not to wash my hair and then you were in hospital for 10 days. Got.a good wash when I went home

Another one of my mums sayings was always air of you clothes, otherwise you will get TB

The worst one was you won't get pregnant when you are breastfeeding.
Incidentally, Collis Browne is available to some chemists; very good for upset stomachs.

Beammeup, I was told that by a family Planning doctor! Guess what, I became pregnant!!!
I used to be told if I ate green fruit I'd get the collywobbles. It sounded very interesting, but being an obedient child I never tested the theory! BTW I always tell the GCs that, they think it is hilarious.

Griselda I assume poor nutrition and hygiene played a part in the development of styes. My mother always rubbed them with her wedding ring and squeezed Golden Eye Ointment on them. I don't think you can get that now. I'm sure I remember her using a couple of matchsticks to squeeze pus out of the stye too. Probably why I had a cyst develop on the inside of my eyelid, which had to be surgically removed. The cyst, not the eyelid

A few times when I'd had a nose bleed, my mother would tell me it was instead of a period that month. ???????

Apparently, it turns out that covering your nose and face up against colds has some scientific 'traction' as a cold is a rhinovirus and develops in the back of the nose, especially when chilled. Who knew?

When I was 3 months old I somehow got pyaemia, (pus in the bloodstream). This was before antibiotics and the doctor prescribed M & B tablets, whatever they were, but told my mother that I was probably going to die. When her MIL visited she told my mam that I wouldn't get better as long as she had birds in the house. She was referring to two chalk plaques with birds on that were hanging on the wall. My mam pulled them down and put them into the dustbin. Next day my fever had broken, and I'm still here and nearly 80.

Take your curlers out during a thunderstorm! Must only have applied to those metal spring type curlers my mum had

Does anyone remember a cough mixture called Famel? It only took I teaspoon to cure a bad cough because it tasted so foul (it had creosote in it) that you were scared stiff to cough in case you were given another spoonful!

either Cod liver oil or Friars Balsam

As chelseababy has already mentioned, my grandmother thought you should immediately wash any egg white off your hands because it caused warts.

And as a child I remember being given Chlorodyne for various ailments. Wonderful stuff, but later banned due to its opium content.

Also, how about being made to drink gin while lying in a hot bath? (Fortunately it didn't work!)

I was told never to eat an apple core because the pips would grow into a tree inside me!

not going out with your hair wet - remember it well, still don't go out until hair is dry.

vest is compulsary in winter but mine are all pretty, silky ones or camisoles not like the awful one we wore as children

I also was told that my 'marrow would melt' if I sat with my back to the fire. I may be of a suspicious nature, but I suspect that it was to discourage anyone from trying to get near the open fire, which was the only heating in the house.