What were you treated with as a poorly child at home?

I don't remember any specific treatment or home remedies - just lots of warnings about airing clothes, not going out with damp hair, etc. Quite sensible really but at the time it was irritating and I didn't take much notice.

Some of the things that were prevalent when I was a child don't seem so common now. People don't seem to have colds so often, and I remember having horrible chilblains. On the other hand, many, many more people have asthma and allergies.

Poached egg on toast- Cod liver oil- Crushed ice and coke syrup, and they wondered why .. Oh nevermind- Milk of magnesia- Hot tea with lemon and honey- Chicken soup- Orange flavored chewable aspirin- Raw onion- Hot foot soaks with epsom salt- Salt gargle- Vicks rub- Mustard plasters ..

Confined to bed with absolutely no heating - except perhaps a little from the fire downstairs when the door was opened briefly.

If well enough to ask to get up - it was off to school. I vividly remember the effort of walking there on wobbly legs that felt like soft sticks of licorice.

Children were always kept in bed when ill. My mother had a rule that, when you were better, you got one more day at home before returning to school. Now schools are dictating when children can miss school and saying sick children are to be sent in and sending threatening letters if they miss more than a few days school in a year.
My mother had been a nurse and was so in awe of doctors that I nearly died of peritonitis because she didn’t like to call him when I had appendicitis.

What was that Grannypiper?

Yes we called it Pobs as well Chewbacca I hated it, so slimy. To this day I can't stand the smell of hot milk.

We had Fergusade instead of lucozade

Scott’s emulsion - yuk yuk yuk.
Also Parrishes Food tonic, which I think had arsenic or cyanide or some other poison in it!
Milk of Mag for a sore tummy.
I’m not sure I was ever given a painkiller for anything. It was grin-and-bear-it.

I remember having penicillin mixture for a very bad chest, probably whooping cough. My mum slept with me, in my sister’s bed, because I was so ill. She put a brown paper bag around the lampshade so there was just enough light for her to be able to see as she tended to me during the night.

I’m very pleased to see others mention pobbies. I never had them but my friend from Yorkshire used to talk about them and no one else has ever heard the term. Gransnet is the place to be!

Bread hot milk with salt n pepper, melted cheese and onion with milk, haliborange tablets, Ribena, rose hip syrup. Comics from the newsagents over the road . And lots of love .

Constant colds and earache as a child living in a house with no damp proof course. For colds it was a towel over the head and endless hours spent breathing in Friars Balsam, I have vivid memories of watching the yellow scummy stuff swirling around on the surface. For earache a spoon of oil was perched on the top of the Parkray stove until it was warm and then poured into each ear one at a time and stoppered up with cotton wool. To console anyone sick they were allowed to sit nearest to the fire and the clothes horse, draped more or less permanently with wet washing, was moved a bit further away. No other heating so your face and front were scorching hot and dry, whilst your back was freezing cold and wet. I do remember being put to bed once and having a fire lit in the bedroom. I must have been really ill. I lay and watched all the pretty fern patterns on the inside of the iced up windows as they gently melted.

Bread, hot milk and sugarvwas known as Pobs when I was a child. Funny how such a simple dish had so many names!

I’m another child of the 50’s with liberty bodice and wool vests. My mum had a cupboard full of the usual disgusting stuff as described in other posts. She always gave me Carter’s Little Liver pills, Fenning’s Fever Cure, cod liver oil and malt, some yellow tablets which were lovely and meant to cool your blood in spring (?). There was also Slippery Elm food which was dried herbs, completely disgusting. I wouldn’t eat at one time so I was force fed on Benger’s instead. I wish they’d left that out, I might have been slim now!

Golden Eye Ointment, Milk of Magnesia, Lucozade (if I was really ill). I remember the doc coming to see me when I had chicken pox and he advised castor oil - I went right off him for that!

The bread, milk and sugar. We called it panada.

When I was poorly as a child my mum would bring me small squares of bread chopped up covered in hot milk and Demerara sugar it was known as milk sop, remember it well, and later on I can rember being given lucozade

Definitely proper old-fashioned Lucozade with that crinkly wrapping. I knew I wasn't well when my mum bought that - from the chemist, if I remember rightly. Oh, and although she always made her own soup, if I was ill, it was Heinz Tomato soup. And I got Virol malt extract, which I loved - and Haliborange

No junior aspirin when I was a child, father used to crush aspirin between two spoons and sprinkle on a spoonful of jam. Aspirin should not be given to children under twelve but I was given them because I used to get a lot of earache. I have had digestive problems ever since.

Freshly made Lemonade, sweetened with Honey for a cold or sore throat, Malt and Cod liver Oil by the spoonful, and lots of Co!d Milk that always made me cough! Indian Brandee for stomach upsets, and Senna Pod tea for constipation. A raw egg beaten with milk and sugar into a kind of milkshake to Give extra strength for fighting an infection.

For aches and pains in my legs, my dad used to slather goose grease over them and massage it in.
For coughs, colds and croup, he made cinder tea. This was made by putting the embers of red hot coal into a metal jug of boiling water and then sending it through a cloth to remove any bits. The cooled liquid was drunk to relieve any ailment to do with the chest.
For boils and my infamous carbunkle on my knee, he made a bread poultice.

On reading this back, I think my dad might have been a witch doctor!

I remember the bread and milk (just granulated sugar and no butter) and being made to stay in bed. Then there was Lucozade. Mum would wear a mask and leave things outside the door. She had OCD and germ phobia. I was so lonely and miserable!

For coughs it was Owbridges Lung Tonic and it tasted lovely. For constipation my mother used to soak senna pods in water overnight and make us drink the liquid, which was horrible. For colds or flu type illness it was Beechams powders, for general illness it was stay in bed with a hot water bottle until we felt better, every morning Mum used to wash my face and hands, watch me clean my teeth, brush and plait my hair, smooth the sheets and blankets and plump up the pillows which always made me feel better, so did clean sheets. I realise now I was very well looked after as a child.

milk butter and honey, loved it was excellent for a cold

we stood in a row to get cod liver oil

calamine lotion for chicken pox

vicks vapour rub

junior asprin

It was all basic simple stuff, not like today when people cannot do without calpol. Almost every mum used to know how to nurse a poorly child. I remember 4 siblings with measles, all lying in one room with the curtains closed to protect their eyes

Lucozade, expensive but soooo good.

Bradosol tablets for a sore throat.

Angiers Junior Aspirin, tasted orangey and delicious.

Prescription tonic which tasted nice.

Virol, cod liver oil & malt, Milk of Magnesia, Calamine lotion if I'd caught the sun, warmed olive oil on cotton wool for earache, goose fat for a chesty cough and a liberty bodice on top, a warming pan in the bed whilst unwell, and a trip to the bridge over our railway station to inhale the steam from the trains when I had Whooping cough. Most amazing, Turmeric for inflammation when I had a "liver problem" prescribed by a well-respected Doctor from India who was practising in a village near our home. As a small child I found it disgusting, but having since grown used to it in curries, I'm happy to take it every day now. Reading these posts, it's a credit to our fortitude that we survived

Junior aspirin tasted of oranges and my nan used to have them in her drawer. I used to eat them like sweeties when no one was looking. Also had a Nelson's inhaler with Tincure of Benzoin in it and in the 70s all post operative patients were given one to help with their chests after surgery. effective but stinks

Junior Dispirin. It clearly had sedative qualities because I remember being given one when I couldn't sleep and it knocked me out!