Vick's Formula 44 (damn, damn you to hell-but it did work) and steri-strips (yeah, you could use a couple sutures but let's try this first ). Dont get me started on merthiolate on skinned knees.

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
Mercurochrome, too, for skin breakages.

Not to be confused with the Merthiolate which also colored your skin a weird color but burned like a mofo.

I was just searching around for some original formula merthiolate. Apparently, the government determined that since it contained mercury, it was too dangerous and banned it. Clearly it was dangerous as millions of us had it used on us as kids and somehow we all managed to make it.

Anywho...the original formula, made with thimerisol (mercury), can be found on eBay. Made in Thailand.

I bought a few bottles for when the SHTF after the EMP. Hey, you never know. Try finding antibiotics when that happens.

Since my parents came from simple hill folk, taking your kid to the ER was not necessary. Most of the previous posters remedies were used on me. The cure all for me for any wound was.... Iodine. And lots of it.
Iodine related war story:
My friends often resolved disputes by throwing rocks at each other. On one occasion, one of my friend took a serious hit to his noggin. It opened a large gash in his head that bled like a stuck hog. My Mother happened to see this and drug my friend into our garage, sat him down and poured about half a bottle of iodine into the wound! My friend began to scream, broke loose and fled. When I saw him the next day, he had 10 stitches. His parents actually used the ER.
Can you imagine doing that to a neighborhood kid nowadays?
Remember, it takes a village to maim a child!

Whiskey, honey, and lemon juice for a bad cough. Not a home remedy, though. Actually recommended by my pediatrician.

Lol, Dave.

Eagle Brand Medicated oil. My parents used to do some voodoo with that stuff if you had a cold. Would rub it on your back then take a spoon and scrape patterns on your skin. Would look like you got your back whipped.

Mentholatum
Vicks
granny's Mustard plaster
Merthiolate

variations of the invective 'pain is weakness leaving your tarnished body don't do it again'

Salt and syrup poultice. Pronounced POLE-iss by my folks. We grew up in a football house, starting at 6 years old, through 4 of us played college ball, (and one college baseball).

If anyone sprained an ankle or a knee, took a helmet to the ribs, separated shoulder etc, my dad and grandad would make a slurry of table salt and maple syrup, put a glob of it in an old cloth diaper, and wrap it around the hurt area with an ace bandage. We would have to sleep with it on.

My dad and grandad swore it was a miracle healing process to “pull” the swelling out.

It never did anything!!! And we kept doing it. It was the craziest thing in the world.

My grandad would hear we were hurt and he acted like a trauma surgeon getting ready for an emergency.

As stupid as it was, it was some of the best days of my life.

man The memories, I can still taste castor oil and Vick’s 44. I can remember being told you will just have to tough it out. That’s probably child abuse today.

quote:

Originally posted by jezsuiz:
I can remember being told you will just have to tough it out. That’s probably child abuse today.

My dad: "Is it bleeding?"
Me: "Nope."
My dad: "You'll live."

My grandmothers had memorized a chart in their youth from oldwivestales.com or something, which had precise time delays between eating and going swimming, depending on what you ate.

Tuna sandwich, 2 hours
Vienna sausage sandwhich 1 hour 38 minutes
With medium potato chips add 15 minutes
Jello with fruit 45 minutes
And so forth.

Ignoring these by even 2 minutes meant upon entry into the water you would get terminal cramps and plunge to a watery hideous grave.

The most embarrassing was calamine lotion. Running around wearing pink poka dots on your bites was terrible. I don't even think it worked.

If you were going swimming/wanted to "work on your tan" you applied baby oil, which supposedly encouraged tanning. There was no such thing as sunscreen.

Absorbine Jr rubbed over any sore areas

Mentholatum or vicks vapor rub in the nose and all over the chest with a cold or congestion
-at times a heating pad was placed on over the tshirt at night

with a very high fever literally placed into cold water bath with ice in it

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
My grandmothers had memorized a chart in their youth from oldwivestales.com or something, which had precise time delays between eating and going swimming, depending on what you ate.

Tuna sandwich, 2 hours
Vienna sausage sandwhich 1 hour 38 minutes
With medium potato chips add 15 minutes
Jello with fruit 45 minutes
And so forth.

Ignoring these by even 2 minutes meant upon entry into the water you would get terminal cramps and plunge to a watery hideous grave.

LMAO! My mom wasnt nearly as precise but definitely had a safety time to go by after eating.

Which of any of these has stood the test of time?

Never complain about a stomach ache around my grandmother or you were getting a glass of that 3$ gallon box wine. Before box wine was hip or good!

One thing that we all can take from this thread is that our parents/grandparents CARED about us, and they tried their best to make us well again. It also proves that the human body is one tough organism, and can survive many an assault!!

Ah, memories. Remember mercurochrome and methiolate. I've had the mustard plaster treatment as well as the hot vaporizer with Vicks in it. It worked great. It sucked when they said the hot treatment was too dangerous for burns and switched to cold water - it never seemed to work as well.

I also remember Aureomycin. It actually tasted pretty good (it was given orally and the stuff I had tasted like a chocolate drink). In checking I see it was the first of the tetracyclines.

And finally, I had a card in my wallet (I think it actually came with the wallet) to let medical folks know that I was allergic to horse serum. Whatever that was. I carried that card into my teens, until I was told by a doctor that they hadn't used horse serum in years.

quote:

Originally posted by safespot:
Whiskey, honey, and lemon juice for a bad cough. Not a home remedy, though. Actually recommended by my pediatrician.

Had a lot of bad coughing spells when young. Tried lots of home remedies, one I remember was a teaspoon of sugar with a drop of coal oil or kerosine in it. And once, somebody gave my folks a large bottle of the whiskey plus something, plus something, etc. My folks drank the whole bottle and I don't remember getting any, ha.
Another medicine was Black Draught, used for constipation and/or any other thing that was wrong with you from neck to knees. That stuff would "set you free".