What home or OTC remedies did you grow up with?

[snappy]

I picked up a bottle of this when I saw it in the store the other day seeing it has so many uses.

I remember that stuff. What a great product name!

Anyone remember a product called Dr. Tischenors mouthwash? The bottles look different now. Used to look like snake oil I think.

 

[ronandannette]

Share link?

Sorry, I can't find the one I originally read but here's a screen shot from when I googled it again just now.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Sorry, I can't find the one I originally read but here's a screen shot from when I googled it again just now.
View attachment 385913

Thank you. Another one I was unfamiliar with. These are great!

 

[arminnie]

Pepto bismal (liquid), aspirin, alka seltzer, Vick's vapor rub, merthiolate - although I rarely used any of those.

I never used it but I remember advertisements for Lydia Pinkham's compound for "female" issues.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Styptic Pencils for cuts. My Mom used them sometimes and they burnt like fire. I could've jumped and hung from the ceiling.

 

[snappy]

My mom said she took castor oil to get labor started. It is hard to get down but apparently worked.

 

[EMom]

My mom said she took castor oil to get labor started. It is hard to get down but apparently worked.

A relative of mine was determined to have her baby on a certain day. She woke up, drank a load of castor oil, and stomach cramped her way into labor.

 

[EMom]

My older siblings acted in such a way (looks of fear and dread) when our grandmother asked if they were sick, that I learned to follow their lead and always denied I was ill. It was only years later that we discussed why you never, ever wanted our grandmother to give you medicine. She apparently swore by Paregoric and administered it for almost any ailment. I think it may have still contained opium even when my siblings took it. They said it was the most foul thing on earth and are amazed to this day that I avoided it.

I also swore to my mother that I didn't have colds, because she was a believer in Vicks Vaporub, and I hated that stuff. She swore by salt gargling, and I still do that. My father used black pepper to stop bleeding, and it worked. My mother forced warm olive oil in our ears if they hurt, but that felt good, so I didn't argue.

My mother's cough syrup was very popular. Whiskey, lemon, honey and/or peppermint. Yes, it worked. Whiskey or an aspirin on sore gums was another favorite of hers.

It wasn't a home remedy. but my father swore by BC power for headache. That was foul, mainly because of how you had to take it.

 

[leebee]

Merthiolate at our house, never mercurochrome
We didn't use it at home, but the camp nurse used to give coke syrup for upset stomachs. Lots of homesickness cured by coke syrup, too, is my guess!
There was always a bottle of paregoric in the fridge, mostly for toothache/teething babies
Vicks Vapo-rub. I still use it on my chest when I have a cold, or sometimes just sniff it.
Peroxide on cuts, as a mouth rinse, in our ears to dislodge wax
Butter on burns
My nana used to tape a coin onto us for something but I can't for the life of me remember why.
Epsom salts. My mom used to swear by Epsom salts as either a drink or a soak. She was bitten by her cat and soaked that wrist for a week until the day my sister dropped by. That wrist had red streaks right up to mom's armpit. She was in the hospital for 4 days on IV antibiotics, then had to go daily, then weekly, over the course of a month for more infusions, then onto oral antibiotics. That Old Wives Tale almost cost her her arm and her life.
Baking soda plasters for cuts, scrapes, burns (after the butter!)

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Merthiolate at our house, never mercurochrome
We didn't use it at home, but the camp nurse used to give coke syrup for upset stomachs. Lots of homesickness cured by coke syrup, too, is my guess!
There was always a bottle of paregoric in the fridge, mostly for toothache/teething babies
Vicks Vapo-rub. I still use it on my chest when I have a cold, or sometimes just sniff it.
Peroxide on cuts, as a mouth rinse, in our ears to dislodge wax
Butter on burns
My nana used to tape a coin onto us for something but I can't for the life of me remember why.
Epsom salts. My mom used to swear by Epsom salts as either a drink or a soak. She was bitten by her cat and soaked that wrist for a week until the day my sister dropped by. That wrist had red streaks right up to mom's armpit. She was in the hospital for 4 days on IV antibiotics, then had to go daily, then weekly, over the course of a month for more infusions, then onto oral antibiotics. That Old Wives Tale almost cost her her arm and her life.
Baking soda plasters for cuts, scrapes, burns (after the butter!)

Lots of good ones!

My nana used to tape a coin onto us for something but I can't for the life of me remember why.

DH was saying an old teacher at his school used to tape a key between the eyes for bloody noses. I bet the coin was along the same idea!

 

[snappy]

Did y’all ever hear of putting a bar of soap st the foot of the bed for leg cramps? Lots of the female residents at mom’s retirement community use that trick.

 

[luvavacation]

Unicum. It is an awful, disgusting liqueur that my parents swore would cure any sore throat, cough, stomach ache, whatever contributed to "I am too sick to go to school today" ailment. If you didn't drink the Unicum, then you weren't sick enough to stay home.

It can be hard to believe that there was a time in the past when giving alcohol to children was not viewed as bad parenting, or at least not for my parents and their friends from Europe!

Also, the act of "sweating it out". My Father would put a cold washcloth on my forehead and then many covers on top of me, after which he would tuck me into the covers super tight. I very much disliked the sweating part, but I really loved my Dad tucking me in! My Mother was the one that would take care of us when we were sick, and the only thing my Father did was the tucking, but the way he bounced the bed and told jokes as you succumbed to the cocoon of blankets that would become your sauna, well, it just made for good memories. It was the only good part of being sick!

 

[mousefan73]

Mine is not a traditional family one but one that I have recently discovered. And that is drinking diluted apple cider vinegar when you have a sore throat. It stings a bit but I swear it kills everything in there. And it really seems to help. The other thing is Ginger, for the past two years I drink water with ginger in it daily and really has helped my immune system

 

[J'aime Paris]

My mom said she took castor oil to get labor started. It is hard to get down but apparently worked.

A relative of mine was determined to have her baby on a certain day. She woke up, drank a load of castor oil, and stomach cramped her way into labor.

The castor oil works!
My midwife had me take it after striping my membranes.
Took the castor oil late afternoon. Labor started that evening. Had my daughter the next day.

 

[Simba's Mom]

When I got chicken pox (1984) the neighbors all sent their kids to play at our house. The idea of it going through our neighborhood all at one time was apparently appealing.

Yup, I remember when my sons got chicken pox in the 80s, we had friends who wanted their kids to play with them.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Growing up we were given Triaminic syrup when sick.

Is Triaminic the same as Triaminicin? That's what I always took. I even remember way back when it was sold over the counter with Codeine in it. Then, they made you sign for it (still no prescription) before discontinuing it totally. Kinda too bad, I thought back then-it really helped stop coughing and made my cold better!

 

[Kae]

Bactine for cuts & scrapes, Alka Seltzer, One a day vitamin, Flintstone Vitamins, Alka Plus, Bayer Aspirin.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

Another Vicks Vapor rub. That was the bomb, is it still the same.

Oh and apparently my mom used to give me gin to get me to sleep I think when I was teething. But she seemed to get suspicious when it seemed to take me longer and longer to get to sleep and I started requisition a slice of lime with my medicine.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Yup, I remember when my sons got chicken pox in the 80s, we had friends who wanted their kids to play with them.

When my sisters both got mumps, and measles, I didn't. The doctor told my mom "let her sleep in the same room, and eat off their plates" so that I would get them also. She replied "Do you really think I'm trying to stop her from getting them?" We were a military family, only had 2 bedrooms, us kids all slept in the same bed, never mind the same room.

BTW, I've never had measles or mumps.

Thought of one from my grandfather - rub a gold ring on an stye to heal it faster.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I remember my great grandmother had some gosh awful cough medicine made with whiskey and honey. I think there was more to it. That had to be worst tasting thing in the world.