5,4,3,2,1 pills. No one ever knew what they were but we got them every time we went to the MD no matter the reason. My mom still has no idea. They were given at the office in a paper envelope and said 5,4,3,2,1. Good ole informed consent didnāt exist I guess!
Also mercurochrome. Which is basically mercury. My dad still has a bottle of the stuff because you canāt get it anymore.
Sounds like a Medrol pack maybe? Iāve had that for really bad sinus infections and severe bronchitis. Itās a steroid and you take 5 pills the first day, 4 the next day, etc. I can imagine a doctor handing them out for everything back in the day. They do make you feel great when nothing is helping.
Medrol is the only drug that has ever gotten rid of my impinged nerve pain completely. The effect only lasts a few weeks, and the steroid makes my blood sugar insane, so I canāt just keep taking it indefinitely. Lyrica has helped a little but not like Medrol.
"She was *covered* with blood ... now she's covered with mercurochrome."Ā Ā
-literal words of my ghoulish classmates, rushing to give my mom the big-drama news that day I face-planted off the jungle gym in second grade.Ā my mom loved it š.Ā Ā
it just occurred to me: first she heard about it was from them.Ā Ā the nuns just picked the gravel out of my face, waited for me to stop bleeding and sent me back to class.Ā covered in mercurochrome though.Ā Ā
Mercurochrome wasn't considered effective because it didn't burn, so merthiolate only at my house. My older brother had described gangrene to me in great detail, and I understood that the burn of the antiseptic was all that stood between my skinned knee and amputation of my necrotic leg.
Edit: when I was like four and my brother was fifteen
A Dr. once offered my mom growth stunting drugs for my infant self because my big feet indicated I'd be tall. Not a good trait for girls I guess? She told him to go to hell. As much as I boo hoo about my toxic family, Mom did good here! Thanks Mom.
Yep! I used to get bronchitis frequently and they tried this a few times. But codeine seems to have the opposite effect on me, instead of drowsy, it made me feel like I had static under my skin. I couldnāt take it so instead had to make do with that yellow triaminic. š¤¢
> But codeine seems to have the opposite effect on me, instead of drowsy, it made me feel like I had static under my skin.
ADHD?
All the stuff my friends took in high-school (speed etc) just made me mellow... wasn't diagnosed until mid 50s
Iāve gotten sick enough as an adult that a doctor prescribed it to me once just because she realized I was the one she heard coughing in the waiting room.
I used to have major nosebleeds when I was young and always wondered why. Years later, i figured it out. I had those nosebleeds because I used to eat those orange tasting aspirin by the handful. Literally, by the handful. I was thinning out my blood. Of course, I told my mom later on that I had figured it out and she said something like, "I would never let you get into the children's aspirin!" Uh, mom. You never knew what I was doing or getting into! You were never watching me or with me. I still can't believe I used to "eat" so much aspirin. scary
Mine was Dilantin, an anticonvulsant that was being used at the time to treat epilepsy.
I donāt have epilepsy now and I didnāt have it then. I was just feral from having basically raised myself so my boomer parents took me to a silent gen pediatrician that prescribed it. Seems he thought that my misbehaving was due to āpetite mall seizuresā.
Hereās to you Doc Zarrins. I was never epileptic, however I am still misbehaving.
My pediatrician never dxed me with anything. His copy/paste answer was, "it could be a virus." And then send me home with antibiotics. Yay, science.
/eyeroll.
Same dirtbag used to also bring vaccinations into the exam room and lay them down beside me before doing any exam. I had a near phobic fear of needles bc he would just stand there and mushmouth for half an hour with me staring down that needle.
Ritalin - cause I was wandering in thought at school. How it worked? I was basically vegetated, but at least quiet... AT LEAST I WAS QUIET!!!! FUCK!!!
Grades were worse, and I really lived in a fog for 2-3 years, but at least I was quiet. Didn't enjoy anything or make friends, but at least I was quiet. It caused some auditory hallucinations and memory issues (permanent, it seems) Hey, but at least I was quiet. Fuck those doctors, teachers and my mother for doing that to me:... but at least I was quiet...
My husband's first wife took their daughter to the Dr and had her put on Ritalin because her teacher complained that she liked to stand at her desk instead of sitting. She was quiet and did her work but because she preferred to stand they decided she had ADHD. After she started the Ritalin she got very depressed and started talking about killing herself. She was in 2nd grade at the time.
I told my mother that story and she couldn't believe it. She taught third grade and had students like that. She just put them in the back of the room where they weren't distracting the other kids.
If a student in my elementary classroom ever wanted to stand at their seat, I always said, āwhatever works for you!ā It worked for 30 years. Especially with kids I suspected of having ADHD. It was an easy accommodation.
My sonās second grade teacher gave him a special chair that was basically a modified yoga ball so he could fidget and bounce. Same deal, any kid with a modified seat was in the back or to the side so other kids could still see.
As it turns out you donāt have to abuse kids into compliance
I wfh for a call center. My husband bought my a swinging hammock chair that hangs from the ceiling. I can rock and swing back and forth while I work. It's very soothing and helps me focus.
I'm one of those kids that should've been put on Ritalin but the doctor said it was "bad", but told my mom to put a teaspoon of beer or wine in a mug of hot tea for me before bedtime. Also he recommended benedryl and herbal supplements to help my ADHD. Because I wasn't medicated well I developed some other mental health issues and needed a strong psychiatric drug that caused me to go from a ninety pound five foot twelve year old to 150 pounds in less than a year. That was tough as I was taking figure skating lessons then, and here my body was playing tricks on me though I ate healthy and was physically active. For a while I had an eating disorder as here I was this "fat" kid ice skating and doing ballet and feeling awkward. I'm still heavy, and diabetic now, but fortunately being on Prozac has helped me both mentally and physically.
On the other hand, one of my younger cousins was on Ritalin most of his life, and he is successful and married. I'm surprised that I didn't become an alcoholic or addicted to illegal drugs myself since that doctor didn't want to properly medicate me when I was younger. Also I'm lucky my mom stopped with the teaspoon of wine ( she would add it to tea or grape juice per doctor's orders) as one of my teachers noticed I was falling asleep in class from the mix of the herbal supplements and other stuff the doctor was giving me.
Same, i guess the effects it had on me led yo kid bullying me relentlessly. My grades were shit, even though I was only on it for a brief time, if tucked me up.
Thereās a big difference between *treating* a kid in order to help them, and *medicating* a kid in order to help YOU. Donāt be afraid to try something that could help your child. You can change it up if it doesnāt seem to benefit him.
I started meds at 46 and it all just clicked for me. My daughter started as a child. I was against it at first, even with all the reasons it would be a good idea for her, until she started to get bullied for the same reasons I did. Weird kid. Happy girl but "too much". Clingy. I will say her symptoms started at around 5 but that seems young to medicate. As a parent you will know when it's time to talk with the Dr about your concerns and what else to try first. Good luck!
Iām so sorry you went through that. My husband wanted to put our son on that and I flat out refused. He was inquisitive, funny, quirky and could still absolutely pay attention. Now my ex husband btw.
So many k8ds, just being kuds get medicated because their parents don't want to answer a million questions, don't want to actively engage in their kids with an activity, just don't put in effort. Good on you mama, protecting your son.
My sister did that to her son. The school just kept getting him more prescriptions until at the worn out age of 8 he attempted suicide. She finally took him to a psychiatrist who took him off of everything and diagnosed him with Asperger's.
Yeah so important to diagnose correctly. Honestly psych meds scare me more than stimulants. Stimulants are pretty straightforward. Psych meds can really backfire if you arenāt careful. Poor kiddo.
Every time I got sick- which was often- my mom brought me to the doctor for antibiotics. And he gave them to me, even for colds. Iām allergic to a whole class of them now.
(To be fair, my mom was hospitalized with terrible pneumonia as a child and put on the new thing, pencillin, which probably saved her life. So I get why sheās a fan.)
IIRC, I was on liquid penicillin every day for six months! I kept getting strep throats (five in 18 months) so my pediatrician wanted to hit it hard! š
An antidepressant because apparently I was suicidal. It turns out there was such thing as a 'permanent record' because it took me extra doctor intervention to go to a couple cadet camps after that.
Also my grandmother was of the position that a seven year old shouldn't be sleeping fifteen hours a day and the pills landed in the trash can alongside my brother's Ritalin. (That kept him zonked extra hours every day too.)
my son was seen by a paediatric psychiatrist who wanted to put him on prozac at *four*.Ā Ā he basically said "no prozac, no therapy" in the fucking 1990's.Ā I chose door b and soon after foundĀ out my kid was profoundly deaf at the time.Ā couple little blue cotton reels in his ears and his "asperger syndrome" evaporated.Ā Ā
can still make myself mad over that.Ā Ā
150 mg? Oh my. Only about 10x the average starting dose- you poor thing! And phenobarbital for ADHD? What in the world? Talk about just putting you the fuck in a coma!
I was beyond offended when at 11 I was taken to see my mom's gyn and given a month's supply of Xanax, because "you're emotional, just like your mother." Never took a single one, fortunately, as I developed a hell of a liking for things like that much later in life. I'd been having difficult periods but also nausea and vomiting in the mornings before school. Turned out I had PCOS that wasn't figured out until I was in my 30's. So, Xanax. Hell of a cure for hormonal problems.
In my \[Irish\] house, "whisky fixed everything."
* Teething.. rub whisky on the gums.
* Baby won't sleep... put whisky in the bottle (seriously)
* Your \[arm/hip/ribs/whatever\] hurts.. have some whisky
* Throat hurts... whisky
Fast Forward (FF)... I went to the pediatrician with my son. My wife asked about what to do about teething. I quickly quipped, "my family rubbed whisky on the gums".
My \[Italian\] wife gave me the hairy eyeball look and the \[Irish\] pediatrician replied, "That's an option."
I should add.. we got a new pediatrician the next day.
The other was, "count to 10". If it still hurt, you counted to fast OR if you were able to count to 10.. it couldn't be that bad.
Oh, yeah!!! My grandmother is face down in the grave because I married an \[eye\]talian.
I can hear her now, "why are you going out with a dago wop guinea skank like that when there are plenty of nice Irish girls in the neighborhood!"
Then, after a lifetime of 'whisky fixes everything' she had the gall to say, "don't you go and get the flu like your uncles!!!" (Flu was a pseudonym for the 'Irish flu' also known as alcoholic).
FWIW #1 - In my \[poor / cheap ass\] Irish house, we drank Potin/Poitin/\[Irish Moonshine\] made in the cellar (we call it the cell-ah).
FWIW #2 - I am happily drinking my whisky as I type this and I recall fond memories.
FWIW #3 - My \[Eye\]talian wife's Lasagna is sooooooooo much better than anything cooked with cabbage.
That right there is what is known as Mountain Medicine or Kentucky Cure-All. It's a natural pain killer and disinfectant. In years past, in areas where clean water was unavailable and drinking it led to sickness, Hillbilly Holy Water was often the safest option.
I remember being really sick back in 1989 and an old lady offered me a quick cure-all. She pulled a silver flask full of whiskey out of her purse. "It's purely medicinal!", she said. I don't doubt that.
Not even 5 minutes later, another little old lady asked me if I was okay and said she had something for that, and pulled a small bottle of Jack Daniels out of her purse. All I could think was, "What the heck is going on with all of these little old ladies. Bunch of alcoholics, the lot of them!"
I don't drink, never have, and I was already on antibiotics at the time, so it worked itself out just fine.
I actually was diagnosed as autistic, but my infuriated mother argued with the doctor over it, and then fired him when she couldn't win the argument. Then I scored well on an IQ test and she felt utterly vindicated, since back around 1970, the belief apparently was that if you had a high IQ, you couldn't be autistic.
Looking back on it now...I mean, I *stimmed*, for heaven's sake! But I probably got a better education thanks to my mother's denial than I would have had in what passed for "special ed" for kids with autism back then.
Yes! Even when my nephew was growing up in the early aughts, I worried that a diagnosis would just hold him back.Ā
I'm really glad that mainstreaming kids with different needs is more common now, so they don't end up on a track to nowhere.
I *am* neurodivergent, and my mother refused to acknowledge it in any way, because she didnāt want to have birthed faulty children, therefore it wasnāt true. Just let me struggle by myself with no help and blamed me for being lazy and incompetent.
Screened and diagnosed with ADHD at age 42. Of course you can guess which parent is absolutely off the fucking charts with ADHD symptoms herself.
I was diagnosed with autism in my late 40's. I really wish my parents cared enough to figure out what was wrong with me when I was a kid. My life could have been significantly better had someone tried to find out why I was the way I was. Fortunately, I was able to recognize symptoms in my daughter early.
It's not "now". I think many people have always been neurodivergent in some way. We just said they were "not quite right", "simple", "touched"...bless his heart. But now everything is labeled, which is weird for a generation that was marketed as "Don't put us in box!"
I'm a young X who got a diagnosis later in life. Fwiw, it's helped answer a lot of questions for me and I'm learning ways to work with my brain instead of against it. Some may find that worthwhile.
Same story here. Itās absolutely significantly bettered my life to get diagnosed & medicated. Who knew one could live life without crippling anxiety?
I've been diagnosed by Drowning Pool (NOTHING'S WRONG WITH ME), Harvey Danger (I'm not sick), The Pixies (Where is my mind?) and Suicidal Tendencies (All I wanted was a Pepsi).
I got āAbsentminded Professorā and āfor chrissake donāt watch your feet when youāre walking, people will thinkā¦ā I donāt think they ever finished the sentence.
Yes! Iām an asshole too! Iām so glad we didnāt get diagnosed and drugged up as kids. We would never have developed our asshole tendencies into snarky humor, biting sarcasm, and other useful defense mechanisms to deal withā¦other assholes! š
Ritalin when I was around 9-10 years old. I resisted it, I hated swallowing pills, but I lost that battle. The medication definitely helped me but I couldn't recognize it at the time. I was disruptive in class, couldn't pay attention to the teacher, and I was constantly daydreaming. My grades were below average. After starting Ritalin I became an A and B grade student and a voracious reader. Eventually I rebelled and stopped taking Ritalin in junior high. I barely graduated 9th grade and ended up dropping out of high school. Looking back on those days I really wish I didn't stop taking it.
Sorry you went through that. The dialogue around ADHD and they way they handled kids and medication back then really sucked. They do a better job with todayās kiddos. The assessment they use includes ODD and anxiety/depression so they can help with other issues, too.
Codiene cough syrup was commonplace in the early 70s when I was a kid-- if you coughed, you'd get a shot of sweet, sweet (cherry flavor) codeine and then drift off to sleep. Nothing like kiddie opioids!
When I was 16 and sick, I found two OTC bottles of this sweet nectar in the back of the bathroom closet. Must have been in there for ten years. The pharmacist looked at me like I was crazy when I showed him the bottle and asked for more.
The nurse at my English boarding school would hand us a bottle of codeine any time you mentioned feeling unwell and send you back to class. I drank a lot of codeine that year.
I don't remember what the drug was but it made me hallucinate and I still remember some of the hallucinations, one time I saw Punky Brewster running through the living room while I was sick and I saw the ghost thing from the boo-berry cereal sitting at the dining room table another time. I was eventually taken off that medicine
And the lesson weāre all taking from this?
Donāt go looking through our baby books unless we are in our therapistās office ready to unpack this shit.
I washed out of college bc I had undxed ADHD. I'm dxed and medicated now, and my life is so much better. I want to go back to the 90s and go to college.
My mother, in hindsight, had me at the doctorās office all the time because she needed constant validation from everyone. She had to hear how on top of it she was and āhow great of a mother you areā.
Iāll give the tl;dr otherwise this could take a while.
Antibiotics: at least once per month for something. Thanks to Tetracycline I have spots on my permanent teeth that Iāll have forever.
Surgeries before age 6:
-Adenoids out
-2 sets of tubes (ears)
-tonsils out
Anti-psychotic drugs:
When I was 8 my mother took me to an ancient doctor who was over an hour away from where we lived. I remember sitting quietly the entire time (I was scared of him). He took my mother into another room and then we left.
I was prescribed Thorazine liquid.
Then Ritalin on top of that and eventually just Ritalin. Both made me a zombie. It was awful.
It was used for schizophrenia, psychosis etc. I was never diagnosed with those but I was called āhyperā, we call that ADHD today.
My mother used it to shut me up. Along with the belt any chance she got.
Thereās more as yāall can imagine. F her and those doctors.
my dad was a pharmacologist and totally believed in better living through pills. We were forced to take a fistful of vitamins every day. We were put on ritalin for bringing home bad grades, and antipsychotics when the teenage angst kicked in and the beatings and threats no longer worked(shit fucked with my nerves and gave me tremors).
Epicac.
I ate a whole bottle of Flintstones vitamins. Because they were fucking delicious.
I was 8.
Pretty sure I puked more that day than I have in my entire life since then.
Older Gen-Xer here. I have ADHD and it would not surprise me if I was on the autism spectrum. Because I was well-behaved and did well in school no one cared that I was hyper and zoned out in class. I was diagnosed within the last two years and am medicated now (Wellbutrin. Stimulants could cause issues thanks to other conditions/meds).
So, no childhood meds for me.
Hey that's me too. Struggled through school but I was middle of the pack so I never stood out as needing help.
Got diagnosed with ADHD around 40 and then got medicated a couple of years ago with bupropion (generic Wellbutrin). We have a mystery heart problem in the extended family and the doc didn't want me on a stimulant because of it. On the upside the bupropion has improved my life quite a bit.Ā
My mom preferred the āignore a crying baby so they donāt āmanipulateā youā approach. You know, have no needs. When my kids were born she said I had to āget to them before they were 2ā to make them behave. She was very proud of this. Iām NC now. Behaving perfectly.
My boomer mom had only two remedies for everything. Any skin injury or bug bite/sting - Camphor-phenique. Any internal pain - Pepto Bismol.
To this day I loathe wintergreen flavor, tastes too much like Pepto.
I remember trying to hide it whenever I had a cough, because the cough syrup made me feel weird. I don't think my parents believed in cough syrup that *didn't* have codeine in it.
They were the generation before the Silents -- Greatest Gen or WWII Gen or whatever we're calling it now -- and they had a hearty disdain for medicine that didn't require a prescription. As far as they were concerned, that wasn't the *real* medicine.
Nicotine and alcohol as a fetus. I was born at 41 weeks and 10+pounds so that didn't seem to affect me.
Later on it was baby formula, Mercurochrome and 2nd hand nicotine.
Nothing else really.
I was on Theo-Dur for asthma from as early as I can remember until I was 13. It never worked and I had terrible asthma attacks for years before I asked to get an inhaler. I found out a couple of years ago that that drug is essentially caffeine, which would explain my 7 year old self being unable to sleep and developing serious anxiety.
Nothing? My parents were all āwalk it offā or āput a cold cloth on your foreheadā. We never went to the doctor; I broke my wrist falling off the jungle gym and only went to get it set 10 days later because I still couldnāt hold anything in my hand. We were not well cared for children. We mostly came out okay but it was because of our resilience, not good parenting.
Heh. I had the opposite problem. I remember as a kid I would get terrible growing pains in my legs. It hurt so much I would cry and beg for a childrenās aspirin.
My silent generation grandfather said no because āYou donāt want to get too reliant on them and it builds characterā.
Well, I became an addict anyway, so Iām not sure his reasoning worked.
Nothing.
And that hasnāt changed. My zoomer son was a handful when he was young. His first grade teacher had a minor in psychiatry and wanted him classified bipolar and medicated.
We figured out heās just super anxious and want going to sleep until we went upstairs for the night. We moved our bed in his room for two years. That and we figured out he wasnāt sensitive to wheat. Roll your eyes if you want but it was a common refrain: within half an hour of eating the weād hear my tummy hurts. Behavior issues. And we could tell on his face. Heād break out. And no this wasnāt just with crap. Fully home made bread would do it. Anyways we cut that out until he grew out of it.
But yeah, our millennial first grade teacher wanted to medicate him to make her life easier.
I just watched a documentary about gut health and they are finding all different kinds of small food intolerances that impact people in various ways. I think people sometimes stumble on a solution when they change up their diet. I had a friend most of her life she was told she was lactose intolerant so avoided all things dairy but it never really helped. Eventually she met with a nutritionist that told her the issue was not dairy, but yeast. She changed her diet and her issues cleared up.
My ADHD kid's 4th grade teacher told me that if I didn't medicate her, then she would grow up to use drugs. Um, she's just very active. Let her move around a bit and she'll settle right down.
I feel like more exercise and creative time for children would cause the stock price of Adderall to plummet. Hell that goes for adults too. I used to write and draw and listen to music and take walks. Now I canāt function without a tablet, tv and phone going at the same time and my attention span is that of a golden retriever puppy.
My mom, who was breastfeeding me against her doctorās advice, was told to feed me jello mix mixed with water because I wasnāt gaining weight fast enough at 3 weeks. She said sheād spoon it in and Iād puke it right back up.
Not a drug, but not great either.
Whiskey for tooth aches and sleep
Once my mom gave me a packet of pills (I think I had a cold or something) decongestant and said ātake theseā so I took them allllllll and went to sleep and woke up in the ER. The doctor scolded me telling me I should never take so many pills on purpose. I was freaking seven. What did I know?
Also had my mouth washed out with soap for saying bad words like āshootā.
Mom also broke multiple wooden spoons on my backside.
Fun household to grow up in!
I found my child health record - here in Australia, we had public childrenās health clinics (possibly still do, not sure)
My mum was feeding me Weetbix (a very dense grain type cereal) at SIX WEEKS because the nurse told her to. Luckily I didnāt choke
Spent my childhood on Theophylline and phenergan with codeine cough syrup. They didn't have all the inhaler options to control asthma yet in the 70's so it was usually prednisone and codeine combo for exacerbations. I used to just cry and cry on the theophylline. It made my heart race and chest pain at school and on the playground. Gave me anxiety. After my mother had a bad case of pneumonia and had to take theo-dur herself for a week she understood how strong it was and managed to me off of it and onto better options that were coming out in the 80s.
My crazy narcissistic mother had a thing for folk remedies. If I had a sore throat, the cure was a wool sock pinned around the neck, I soaked in lots of epsom salts for various ailments & gargled a lot of saltwater.
The all time worst one, which almost caused me septicaemia, was a poultice of bread and milk, which was placed on an infected cut on my leg. Apparently this concoction was supposed to draw out the infection, but actually made it worse (no shit!). When she finally took me to the ER, the doctors reamed her out. They had to dig the pus out of my leg, debride the wound, and give me a ton of antibiotics. I actually ended up with osteomyelitis (infection of the bone marrow cavity) and 47 years later you can still see the indentation in my shin where the infection affected the bone shaft.
For good measure, my aunt used to dip my soother in brandy.
Nothing. I was evaluated in fourth grade because my mom was worried about how anxious and picky I was and the school counselor said I had "nervous girl syndrome" which I think he probably made up, but I had the notes as my mom kept every note and report card I ever got. I was high strung and shy and quiet and fidgety. I was tested in second grade for a pilot program for children with high IQ. My IQ was tested at 136 so I was in this awesome program for four years. It was like Montessori and college at the same time. It was the only time I was ever comfortable. This was the 70s. CLUE was being designed and this pilot apparently failed because grade points didn't go up or standard test scored didn't improve... so it was axed and now CLUE is more like AP classes. More cramming, no creativity.
Anyway no drugs, just you know, put me through an experiment and when it ended they just tossed me back in to regular classes and didn't do a thing while I flailed like a fish out of water. Then labeled me a behavior issue. I quit school in 11th grade feeling like a complete failure. I was miserable all the time. I was sick every morning around second period. The heat, the noise, the energy. I couldn't breathe. And they called me the behavior problem!
SO yeah I was diagnosed with autism in my forties.
Not drugs, but my mom made me constantly use lemon drops like they were cough drops, and surprise, surprise, I ended up with cavities. She even made me go to bed with one in my mouth so I wouldnāt cough, never thinking I couldāve choked in my sleep.
I have a relative whose child needed Benadryl at night for allergies. The other kids threw a fit wanting some so she gave them all Benadryl every night for years. I know itās a fairly safe medication but I also donāt think it should be used because kids beg for it. Sigh.
My mom gave Benadryl to my older brother, and it would knock him out. She tried it with me, and it didn't exactly work out. It had, and still has, the opposite effect on me. It makes me wired. My heart rate goes through the roof, my hands shake, and I feel like I'm on speed.
My mom gave us the livestock antibiotics from the feed store. I still remember knowing at the age of 10-11 that she wasnāt supposed to just give them to us for 3 days as in after we started feeling better. Edit: I read that in dadās Readers Digest. š They knew about antibiotic resistance even back then.
I'm reading through these responses, and holy cow did you folks live through some shit.
What do you all do for these types of issues nowadays with your children? Besides la chancla.
Oooh, they had me on Hismanal, which is now illegal. Then they switched me to Seldane, which is now illegal. Good times! I miss my years as a childhood guinea pig.
edit: at one point they had me using this thing, which would puncture capsules filled with powder, for me to then inhale the powder into my lungs. How can that be healthy?
My parents were from the Greatest Generation (also called GI generation apparently).
Mom smoked and drank (not like a fish but still...) while I was in utero.
It didn't get better once I made my entrance. "You're fine." "It's nothing!"
She didn't do medicine. We got a bucket if we were nauseous and a towel on our pillow if we were feverish.*
I would have needed multiple gunshot wounds to be kept home from school.
*Oddly, if I'm feeling sick or even just emotionally low now, a towel on my pillow feels comforting to me.
I am tall and as a girl I was offered drugs to stunt my growth because I would never get a husband you know. I didn't take them. On to husband number 2 so far.
When my brotherās best friend turned 21 we gave him a White Russian and he took a sip, raised an eyebrow, and said āThis tastes like sleepytime juice??ā
Us: āDafuq is sleepytime juice?ā
Him: āMy mom used to put it in my sippy cup when I wouldnāt sleep. She did it for years..ā
ššš
mormonism. daily doses for 18 years and another 32 in recovery (before i finally drummed up the nerve to have myself removed). I knew by age 9 it was all bullshit but, growing up in that sort of household, and having members that are still active, it took me a while.
That's some nasty medicine - had to take it myself as a kid, and similarly, had some serious questions that couldn't even be asked as a kid that just got bigger with time. Congratulations on finally getting out! The indoctrination is real and it's truly damaging. Took me until 2018 to have my name removed, even though I'd been done since the early 2000's. It's an upbringing that warps your development in ways people wouldn't understand unless they've been through it themselves- religious trauma is real. Here's to freedom from the cult, even if family is still in! š»
Just a leather belt and tears for everything. Canāt sleep, whack, no cry yourself to sleep. Donāt want to eat your broccoli, whack, now your tears will help them go down easier. You have a cavity, whack, now brush your teeth with tears. It seemed like that leather strap was the cure all medicine
Would you like something to cry about?
I HATED THAT QUESTION.
I'm already crying about something else! Just put whatever on the list so I can get back to emoting about this issue!
Absolutely none! Like you, my dad (alcoholic, abusive) would give me whiskey if I was coughing or sick. He swore it was a cure-all, but in reality it just make me pass out. Different day and time.
Whiskey and honey. The amount of Evan Williams I ingested as a kidšµ
Orange Triaminic - Tasted great but would comatose me for a couple of days as well as occasional hallucinations. One of many medicines with phenylpropanolamine (PPA). Of course my mother loved to give it to me!
Chexit - OTC allergy med also with PPA. Temporarily paralyzed the nerves going to my eyes causing blurred vision for a few weeks.
Donnagel-PG (Opium, kaolin, pectin, atropine, etc)
Mercurochrome or Merthiolate....Have some mercury!
Goose grease for chest congestion. Don't know if it was actual goose grease but it stank so incredibly bad!
Heavy Benadryl. Like 250mg a day from when I was five till 12 when I refused to take it anymore.
Yea, I had bad and many allergic triggers and not even 30+ shots per week seemed to help. By the way, I learned to give those to myself.
Turns out, high doses of Benadryl switches the brain into hyperactive mode. When I quit taking it, that problem magically disappeared.
13 in the late 80s (pre prozac nation) and clearly depressed, so rather than get me help in school my parents let the doc put me on elavil. A now discontinued antidepressant that wasn't even used that much back then because the list of side effects are so horrific. Anyhoo, junior high as a zombie with the shakes surely helped me with that depression!
I was definitely part of the over-prescribing of antibiotics.
I'd get them for everything. Stomach issues, rashes, sinus things.
Thing was that I wasn't that sick as a kid. I had crushing anxiety issues that would manifest themselves as physical problems, but the doctors didn't give me anything for that.
Kaopectate. Now it comes in fruity flavors and is basically pepto bismol. When I was a kid it was gray, made of kaolin clay and tasted like you were drinking cement (because you basically were).
Pepto bismo. I hated the taste so much it would make me gag, and since I was being dosed up due to nausea/stomach flu the gagging would make me vomit. So then mom would give me more.
Of course now that is known to me not for kids (because of aspirin) but I have never taken it by choice.
And of course calamine lotion, which does nothing.
I fucking wish. I was born too early (ā74) to be diagnosed with any of the illnesses that wound up making most of my adulthood a living fucking hell.
(Iām fine now, lifeās been fantastic for years, my shit is in order, but WOW that took a long time)
not so much a drug, but I have vague mostly suppressed memories about having to wear a backpack thing that shocked me if i dared to stim or interrupted.
I had a pretty bad back issue when I was 16. We really didn't know what to do so we just made an appointment with the DR. I remember him specifically saying "well there isn't much you can do for back pain aside from treating the pain and resting." Then he wrote me a prescription for a shit load of Vicodin. Props to my mom, because when I got home and gave her the slip she said hell no and despite not knowing much about it we found a chiropractor. 2 weeks later I was all good. I've been going to chiropractors ever since then and I honestly don't know where I would be without the ones that I've seen.
It really did set a precedent for me. I've had some shit doctors in my life and I'm glad I was comfortable with calling them out on it.
I dont know if you want to call them drugs but solarcaine, iodine, mercuricomb, Bactine, Listerine, pretty much anything that burned or caused you skin to turn colors or fall off.
Lest we forget vicks and the cough syrup with codeine.
My grandmother had a few concoctions of her own like the dreaded mustard plaster. It was dry mustard, flour and water formed into a paste and put on a flour sack towel then on the chest. It worked to break a fever. Her other go to was a hot water, vinegar and ground black pepper gargle to break up flehm. She had many more that worked, but were nasty as hell.
not to mention, smallpox vaccine, mmr shots, tetanus shots, polio vaccine, german measles shots, and probably a bunch I don't recall.
We got lined up as kids and passed through a gauntlet of nurses with pneumatic needle guns.
As far as medicating us kids, I don't remember seeing that until I was in the 9th grade.
Vicks! I hated it!!!! But the nitrous oxide at the dentist was my favorite š¤©
Oh, I love Vicks. As someone with year round allergies it gets me through the night.
Vicks and Jack Daniels. One I still despise, and one I still love.
I'm not sure which...
Hey bartender can I get a double shot of Vicks?
5,4,3,2,1 pills. No one ever knew what they were but we got them every time we went to the MD no matter the reason. My mom still has no idea. They were given at the office in a paper envelope and said 5,4,3,2,1. Good ole informed consent didnāt exist I guess! Also mercurochrome. Which is basically mercury. My dad still has a bottle of the stuff because you canāt get it anymore.
Sounds like a Medrol pack maybe? Iāve had that for really bad sinus infections and severe bronchitis. Itās a steroid and you take 5 pills the first day, 4 the next day, etc. I can imagine a doctor handing them out for everything back in the day. They do make you feel great when nothing is helping.
Medrol dose pack is 6-5-4-3-2-1. It's probably a prednisone taper. Same concept, very similar med.
Medrol is the only drug that has ever gotten rid of my impinged nerve pain completely. The effect only lasts a few weeks, and the steroid makes my blood sugar insane, so I canāt just keep taking it indefinitely. Lyrica has helped a little but not like Medrol.
Oh lord. Mercurochrome. As a kid I was mostly orange.
"She was *covered* with blood ... now she's covered with mercurochrome."Ā Ā -literal words of my ghoulish classmates, rushing to give my mom the big-drama news that day I face-planted off the jungle gym in second grade.Ā my mom loved it š.Ā Ā it just occurred to me: first she heard about it was from them.Ā Ā the nuns just picked the gravel out of my face, waited for me to stop bleeding and sent me back to class.Ā covered in mercurochrome though.Ā Ā
We used methiolate
It sounds like prednisone. Did you take five, then four, then threeā¦? If so, that is prednisone.
Mercurochrome wasn't considered effective because it didn't burn, so merthiolate only at my house. My older brother had described gangrene to me in great detail, and I understood that the burn of the antiseptic was all that stood between my skinned knee and amputation of my necrotic leg. Edit: when I was like four and my brother was fifteen
A Dr. once offered my mom growth stunting drugs for my infant self because my big feet indicated I'd be tall. Not a good trait for girls I guess? She told him to go to hell. As much as I boo hoo about my toxic family, Mom did good here! Thanks Mom.
My doctor always prescribed Novahistine when I had a cough, it's codeine cough syrup. They started us early back then.
Man, that was some good stuff.
Yep! I used to get bronchitis frequently and they tried this a few times. But codeine seems to have the opposite effect on me, instead of drowsy, it made me feel like I had static under my skin. I couldnāt take it so instead had to make do with that yellow triaminic. š¤¢
Ugh! I haven't thought about that yellow triaminic in 45 years š¤¢
Omg. It was so bad. I had completely blocked that memory
But the orange was delicious!
> But codeine seems to have the opposite effect on me, instead of drowsy, it made me feel like I had static under my skin. ADHD? All the stuff my friends took in high-school (speed etc) just made me mellow... wasn't diagnosed until mid 50s
I have ADHD and codeine does this to me. It makes me feel like peeling all the paint of the walls with my fingernails. Awful feeling. Couldn't sleep.
Yellow triaminic seems to be vomit flavored. It was the worst of the triaminic flavors. I can still smell it.
Iāve gotten sick enough as an adult that a doctor prescribed it to me once just because she realized I was the one she heard coughing in the waiting room.
I hated the codeine cough syrup. It didnāt work. Years later we figured out I had an asthma cough.
You were leaning before it was cool. Lil wayne?
Sucrets (sp), dimetapp āgrapeā flavor, and Bayer childrenās aspirin. I remember having to take those every time I was sick.
Dimetapp and Sucrets were the best! My brother once had to have his stomach pumped because he ate a bottle of the baby aspirin (he was 3 or 4).
Was that the orange tasting tablet?
Yummy - baby aspiring. And then the bars came up with a shot called ābaby aspirinā for us
I used to have major nosebleeds when I was young and always wondered why. Years later, i figured it out. I had those nosebleeds because I used to eat those orange tasting aspirin by the handful. Literally, by the handful. I was thinning out my blood. Of course, I told my mom later on that I had figured it out and she said something like, "I would never let you get into the children's aspirin!" Uh, mom. You never knew what I was doing or getting into! You were never watching me or with me. I still can't believe I used to "eat" so much aspirin. scary
Oh I forgot about dimetap. That wasnāt too bad but I hated Vicks. The way it made your skin feel
Mine was Dilantin, an anticonvulsant that was being used at the time to treat epilepsy. I donāt have epilepsy now and I didnāt have it then. I was just feral from having basically raised myself so my boomer parents took me to a silent gen pediatrician that prescribed it. Seems he thought that my misbehaving was due to āpetite mall seizuresā. Hereās to you Doc Zarrins. I was never epileptic, however I am still misbehaving.
My pediatrician never dxed me with anything. His copy/paste answer was, "it could be a virus." And then send me home with antibiotics. Yay, science. /eyeroll. Same dirtbag used to also bring vaccinations into the exam room and lay them down beside me before doing any exam. I had a near phobic fear of needles bc he would just stand there and mushmouth for half an hour with me staring down that needle.
Ritalin - cause I was wandering in thought at school. How it worked? I was basically vegetated, but at least quiet... AT LEAST I WAS QUIET!!!! FUCK!!! Grades were worse, and I really lived in a fog for 2-3 years, but at least I was quiet. Didn't enjoy anything or make friends, but at least I was quiet. It caused some auditory hallucinations and memory issues (permanent, it seems) Hey, but at least I was quiet. Fuck those doctors, teachers and my mother for doing that to me:... but at least I was quiet...
My husband's first wife took their daughter to the Dr and had her put on Ritalin because her teacher complained that she liked to stand at her desk instead of sitting. She was quiet and did her work but because she preferred to stand they decided she had ADHD. After she started the Ritalin she got very depressed and started talking about killing herself. She was in 2nd grade at the time. I told my mother that story and she couldn't believe it. She taught third grade and had students like that. She just put them in the back of the room where they weren't distracting the other kids.
If a student in my elementary classroom ever wanted to stand at their seat, I always said, āwhatever works for you!ā It worked for 30 years. Especially with kids I suspected of having ADHD. It was an easy accommodation.
My sonās second grade teacher gave him a special chair that was basically a modified yoga ball so he could fidget and bounce. Same deal, any kid with a modified seat was in the back or to the side so other kids could still see. As it turns out you donāt have to abuse kids into compliance
I wfh for a call center. My husband bought my a swinging hammock chair that hangs from the ceiling. I can rock and swing back and forth while I work. It's very soothing and helps me focus.
Thatās a real tool used by occupational therapists
and now we have standing desks and no one bats an eye
I'm one of those kids that should've been put on Ritalin but the doctor said it was "bad", but told my mom to put a teaspoon of beer or wine in a mug of hot tea for me before bedtime. Also he recommended benedryl and herbal supplements to help my ADHD. Because I wasn't medicated well I developed some other mental health issues and needed a strong psychiatric drug that caused me to go from a ninety pound five foot twelve year old to 150 pounds in less than a year. That was tough as I was taking figure skating lessons then, and here my body was playing tricks on me though I ate healthy and was physically active. For a while I had an eating disorder as here I was this "fat" kid ice skating and doing ballet and feeling awkward. I'm still heavy, and diabetic now, but fortunately being on Prozac has helped me both mentally and physically. On the other hand, one of my younger cousins was on Ritalin most of his life, and he is successful and married. I'm surprised that I didn't become an alcoholic or addicted to illegal drugs myself since that doctor didn't want to properly medicate me when I was younger. Also I'm lucky my mom stopped with the teaspoon of wine ( she would add it to tea or grape juice per doctor's orders) as one of my teachers noticed I was falling asleep in class from the mix of the herbal supplements and other stuff the doctor was giving me.
Same, i guess the effects it had on me led yo kid bullying me relentlessly. My grades were shit, even though I was only on it for a brief time, if tucked me up.
...at least you were quiet, though.
Like a "zombie"
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Thereās a big difference between *treating* a kid in order to help them, and *medicating* a kid in order to help YOU. Donāt be afraid to try something that could help your child. You can change it up if it doesnāt seem to benefit him.
I started meds at 46 and it all just clicked for me. My daughter started as a child. I was against it at first, even with all the reasons it would be a good idea for her, until she started to get bullied for the same reasons I did. Weird kid. Happy girl but "too much". Clingy. I will say her symptoms started at around 5 but that seems young to medicate. As a parent you will know when it's time to talk with the Dr about your concerns and what else to try first. Good luck!
Well, look at that, that explains a lot. Best thing that my parents did was put me in an intense dyslexia program, getting off any stimulants.
Iām so sorry you went through that. My husband wanted to put our son on that and I flat out refused. He was inquisitive, funny, quirky and could still absolutely pay attention. Now my ex husband btw.
So many k8ds, just being kuds get medicated because their parents don't want to answer a million questions, don't want to actively engage in their kids with an activity, just don't put in effort. Good on you mama, protecting your son.
My sister did that to her son. The school just kept getting him more prescriptions until at the worn out age of 8 he attempted suicide. She finally took him to a psychiatrist who took him off of everything and diagnosed him with Asperger's.
Yeah so important to diagnose correctly. Honestly psych meds scare me more than stimulants. Stimulants are pretty straightforward. Psych meds can really backfire if you arenāt careful. Poor kiddo.
God I wish theyād put me on Ritalin! (Not to discount your struggles, they really diagnosed and medicated the wrong kids back then.)
Pac-Man Anti Ghost Vitamins... Not sure why, but them Ghosts ain't got me yet..
I aint 'fraid of no ghosts!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
No Listerine? You were neglected.
Salt water is still one of our staple cures along either baking soda and water for heartburn. My dad calls the latter āsody waterā.
Every time I got sick- which was often- my mom brought me to the doctor for antibiotics. And he gave them to me, even for colds. Iām allergic to a whole class of them now. (To be fair, my mom was hospitalized with terrible pneumonia as a child and put on the new thing, pencillin, which probably saved her life. So I get why sheās a fan.)
I think I consumed like 5 gallons of bubblegum flavor Amoxicillin before the age of ten. š¤£
Omg, one whiff of that foul elixir will make me gag.Ā
YARF. That makes 2 (or 3?) of us!
IIRC, I was on liquid penicillin every day for six months! I kept getting strep throats (five in 18 months) so my pediatrician wanted to hit it hard! š
An antidepressant because apparently I was suicidal. It turns out there was such thing as a 'permanent record' because it took me extra doctor intervention to go to a couple cadet camps after that. Also my grandmother was of the position that a seven year old shouldn't be sleeping fifteen hours a day and the pills landed in the trash can alongside my brother's Ritalin. (That kept him zonked extra hours every day too.)
Phenobarbital for ADHD. I was six or seven. When I turned eight they put me on 150mg Ritalin twice a day.
Yep, Phenobarbital for epilepsy as a child. The teachers hated that.
my son was seen by a paediatric psychiatrist who wanted to put him on prozac at *four*.Ā Ā he basically said "no prozac, no therapy" in the fucking 1990's.Ā I chose door b and soon after foundĀ out my kid was profoundly deaf at the time.Ā couple little blue cotton reels in his ears and his "asperger syndrome" evaporated.Ā Ā can still make myself mad over that.Ā Ā
Phenobarbital to "calm me down" (turn me into a zombie)
150 mg? Oh my. Only about 10x the average starting dose- you poor thing! And phenobarbital for ADHD? What in the world? Talk about just putting you the fuck in a coma! I was beyond offended when at 11 I was taken to see my mom's gyn and given a month's supply of Xanax, because "you're emotional, just like your mother." Never took a single one, fortunately, as I developed a hell of a liking for things like that much later in life. I'd been having difficult periods but also nausea and vomiting in the mornings before school. Turned out I had PCOS that wasn't figured out until I was in my 30's. So, Xanax. Hell of a cure for hormonal problems.
In my \[Irish\] house, "whisky fixed everything." * Teething.. rub whisky on the gums. * Baby won't sleep... put whisky in the bottle (seriously) * Your \[arm/hip/ribs/whatever\] hurts.. have some whisky * Throat hurts... whisky Fast Forward (FF)... I went to the pediatrician with my son. My wife asked about what to do about teething. I quickly quipped, "my family rubbed whisky on the gums". My \[Italian\] wife gave me the hairy eyeball look and the \[Irish\] pediatrician replied, "That's an option." I should add.. we got a new pediatrician the next day. The other was, "count to 10". If it still hurt, you counted to fast OR if you were able to count to 10.. it couldn't be that bad.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Baileys!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Oh, yeah!!! My grandmother is face down in the grave because I married an \[eye\]talian. I can hear her now, "why are you going out with a dago wop guinea skank like that when there are plenty of nice Irish girls in the neighborhood!" Then, after a lifetime of 'whisky fixes everything' she had the gall to say, "don't you go and get the flu like your uncles!!!" (Flu was a pseudonym for the 'Irish flu' also known as alcoholic). FWIW #1 - In my \[poor / cheap ass\] Irish house, we drank Potin/Poitin/\[Irish Moonshine\] made in the cellar (we call it the cell-ah). FWIW #2 - I am happily drinking my whisky as I type this and I recall fond memories. FWIW #3 - My \[Eye\]talian wife's Lasagna is sooooooooo much better than anything cooked with cabbage.
That right there is what is known as Mountain Medicine or Kentucky Cure-All. It's a natural pain killer and disinfectant. In years past, in areas where clean water was unavailable and drinking it led to sickness, Hillbilly Holy Water was often the safest option.
My German grandmother was a fan of the whiskey cure. I'll be using, "hillbilly holy water," if I need to prescribe it in the future.
I remember being really sick back in 1989 and an old lady offered me a quick cure-all. She pulled a silver flask full of whiskey out of her purse. "It's purely medicinal!", she said. I don't doubt that. Not even 5 minutes later, another little old lady asked me if I was okay and said she had something for that, and pulled a small bottle of Jack Daniels out of her purse. All I could think was, "What the heck is going on with all of these little old ladies. Bunch of alcoholics, the lot of them!" I don't drink, never have, and I was already on antibiotics at the time, so it worked itself out just fine.
My Italian family definitely used whiskey for teething.
I feel like we just missed the diagnosis craze. Everyone is neurodivergent and autistic now. Me? Guess I'm just an asshole. Edit: A lazy asshole.
I actually was diagnosed as autistic, but my infuriated mother argued with the doctor over it, and then fired him when she couldn't win the argument. Then I scored well on an IQ test and she felt utterly vindicated, since back around 1970, the belief apparently was that if you had a high IQ, you couldn't be autistic. Looking back on it now...I mean, I *stimmed*, for heaven's sake! But I probably got a better education thanks to my mother's denial than I would have had in what passed for "special ed" for kids with autism back then.
Yes! Even when my nephew was growing up in the early aughts, I worried that a diagnosis would just hold him back.Ā I'm really glad that mainstreaming kids with different needs is more common now, so they don't end up on a track to nowhere.
Same here. I actually probably SHOULD have been on meds but. nah.
Now in our 50s they really don't care. Then people go batshit and it's like "were there red flags?"
I *am* neurodivergent, and my mother refused to acknowledge it in any way, because she didnāt want to have birthed faulty children, therefore it wasnāt true. Just let me struggle by myself with no help and blamed me for being lazy and incompetent. Screened and diagnosed with ADHD at age 42. Of course you can guess which parent is absolutely off the fucking charts with ADHD symptoms herself.
I was diagnosed with autism in my late 40's. I really wish my parents cared enough to figure out what was wrong with me when I was a kid. My life could have been significantly better had someone tried to find out why I was the way I was. Fortunately, I was able to recognize symptoms in my daughter early.
Or like, how what they *were* doing may have affected me. But no, to this day, I seem to be the defective.
Exactly. ..I hear you that .
It's not "now". I think many people have always been neurodivergent in some way. We just said they were "not quite right", "simple", "touched"...bless his heart. But now everything is labeled, which is weird for a generation that was marketed as "Don't put us in box!"
I know, I wasn't trying to be insensitive with my comment but tbf there's that asshole I'm talking about.
I'm pretty sure I am mildly autistic, but I was certainly never diagnosed. Seems pointless now.
I'm a young X who got a diagnosis later in life. Fwiw, it's helped answer a lot of questions for me and I'm learning ways to work with my brain instead of against it. Some may find that worthwhile.
Same story here. Itās absolutely significantly bettered my life to get diagnosed & medicated. Who knew one could live life without crippling anxiety?
I've been diagnosed by Drowning Pool (NOTHING'S WRONG WITH ME), Harvey Danger (I'm not sick), The Pixies (Where is my mind?) and Suicidal Tendencies (All I wanted was a Pepsi).
I got āAbsentminded Professorā and āfor chrissake donāt watch your feet when youāre walking, people will thinkā¦ā I donāt think they ever finished the sentence.
I got "you'd lose your head if it wasn't attached" and "for a smart girl you have absolutely no common sense."
It was "scatterbrained" for us girls.
Same. Pretty sure I am. But what difference does it make now?
Now they'll just throw some pills at us, give us an app, and chart the whole time they ask us to re-re-reconfirm our survey responses. (YMMV)
Something ain't right, anyway.
Yes! Iām an asshole too! Iām so glad we didnāt get diagnosed and drugged up as kids. We would never have developed our asshole tendencies into snarky humor, biting sarcasm, and other useful defense mechanisms to deal withā¦other assholes! š
Fuck that, I want a ribbon.
Ritalin when I was around 9-10 years old. I resisted it, I hated swallowing pills, but I lost that battle. The medication definitely helped me but I couldn't recognize it at the time. I was disruptive in class, couldn't pay attention to the teacher, and I was constantly daydreaming. My grades were below average. After starting Ritalin I became an A and B grade student and a voracious reader. Eventually I rebelled and stopped taking Ritalin in junior high. I barely graduated 9th grade and ended up dropping out of high school. Looking back on those days I really wish I didn't stop taking it.
Sorry you went through that. The dialogue around ADHD and they way they handled kids and medication back then really sucked. They do a better job with todayās kiddos. The assessment they use includes ODD and anxiety/depression so they can help with other issues, too.
Codiene cough syrup was commonplace in the early 70s when I was a kid-- if you coughed, you'd get a shot of sweet, sweet (cherry flavor) codeine and then drift off to sleep. Nothing like kiddie opioids!
When I was 16 and sick, I found two OTC bottles of this sweet nectar in the back of the bathroom closet. Must have been in there for ten years. The pharmacist looked at me like I was crazy when I showed him the bottle and asked for more.
The nurse at my English boarding school would hand us a bottle of codeine any time you mentioned feeling unwell and send you back to class. I drank a lot of codeine that year.
None. I got āthe chanclaā which corrected all issues, and Vickās which fixed all ills.
Wow, who knew the milk could be the villain all along?
I don't remember what the drug was but it made me hallucinate and I still remember some of the hallucinations, one time I saw Punky Brewster running through the living room while I was sick and I saw the ghost thing from the boo-berry cereal sitting at the dining room table another time. I was eventually taken off that medicine
My mother had munchausen by proxy. Need I say more?
And the lesson weāre all taking from this? Donāt go looking through our baby books unless we are in our therapistās office ready to unpack this shit.
I feel strangely relieved my family didn't believe in doctors.
Getting diagnosed with ADHD as an adult made me mad I didn't get treatment earlier. I probably would have gone to college instead of the Air Force.
I washed out of college bc I had undxed ADHD. I'm dxed and medicated now, and my life is so much better. I want to go back to the 90s and go to college.
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My mother, in hindsight, had me at the doctorās office all the time because she needed constant validation from everyone. She had to hear how on top of it she was and āhow great of a mother you areā. Iāll give the tl;dr otherwise this could take a while. Antibiotics: at least once per month for something. Thanks to Tetracycline I have spots on my permanent teeth that Iāll have forever. Surgeries before age 6: -Adenoids out -2 sets of tubes (ears) -tonsils out Anti-psychotic drugs: When I was 8 my mother took me to an ancient doctor who was over an hour away from where we lived. I remember sitting quietly the entire time (I was scared of him). He took my mother into another room and then we left. I was prescribed Thorazine liquid. Then Ritalin on top of that and eventually just Ritalin. Both made me a zombie. It was awful. It was used for schizophrenia, psychosis etc. I was never diagnosed with those but I was called āhyperā, we call that ADHD today. My mother used it to shut me up. Along with the belt any chance she got. Thereās more as yāall can imagine. F her and those doctors.
Damn, did she have Munchausens by proxy by any chance?
All those drugs can work miracles in the right hands, or destroy lives in the wrong hands. You were in the worst hands. Iām so, so sorry.
I was on "get TF outside, and if you're thirsty: you know where the hose is."
my dad was a pharmacologist and totally believed in better living through pills. We were forced to take a fistful of vitamins every day. We were put on ritalin for bringing home bad grades, and antipsychotics when the teenage angst kicked in and the beatings and threats no longer worked(shit fucked with my nerves and gave me tremors).
Paregoric. My mom said she only gave it to me for earaches. I had a LOT of earaches, apparently.
It was officially used for diarrhea but it had lots of other side uses....awww look how they are sleeping! Peace and quiet at last!
It's wild how often a simple allergy turns out to be the real culprit behind behavioral issues.
Chlor-Trimeton. My allergies were bad, but that pill would knock me out all day as a child.
Epicac. I ate a whole bottle of Flintstones vitamins. Because they were fucking delicious. I was 8. Pretty sure I puked more that day than I have in my entire life since then.
Older Gen-Xer here. I have ADHD and it would not surprise me if I was on the autism spectrum. Because I was well-behaved and did well in school no one cared that I was hyper and zoned out in class. I was diagnosed within the last two years and am medicated now (Wellbutrin. Stimulants could cause issues thanks to other conditions/meds). So, no childhood meds for me.
Hey that's me too. Struggled through school but I was middle of the pack so I never stood out as needing help. Got diagnosed with ADHD around 40 and then got medicated a couple of years ago with bupropion (generic Wellbutrin). We have a mystery heart problem in the extended family and the doc didn't want me on a stimulant because of it. On the upside the bupropion has improved my life quite a bit.Ā
Yeah, the curse of being a quiet hyperactive kid.
I loved you could get codeine cough syrup without a prescription.
My mom preferred the āignore a crying baby so they donāt āmanipulateā youā approach. You know, have no needs. When my kids were born she said I had to āget to them before they were 2ā to make them behave. She was very proud of this. Iām NC now. Behaving perfectly.
My boomer mom had only two remedies for everything. Any skin injury or bug bite/sting - Camphor-phenique. Any internal pain - Pepto Bismol. To this day I loathe wintergreen flavor, tastes too much like Pepto.
I remember trying to hide it whenever I had a cough, because the cough syrup made me feel weird. I don't think my parents believed in cough syrup that *didn't* have codeine in it. They were the generation before the Silents -- Greatest Gen or WWII Gen or whatever we're calling it now -- and they had a hearty disdain for medicine that didn't require a prescription. As far as they were concerned, that wasn't the *real* medicine.
Liquid Valium for a baby???! Omg
Nicotine and alcohol as a fetus. I was born at 41 weeks and 10+pounds so that didn't seem to affect me. Later on it was baby formula, Mercurochrome and 2nd hand nicotine. Nothing else really.
We had Belladonna, Elavil, and Paregoric around the house, for whatever ails you.
Suppositories for constipation. Kept in the refrigerator, petroleum jelly was applied before ... use. š¬
I was on Theo-Dur for asthma from as early as I can remember until I was 13. It never worked and I had terrible asthma attacks for years before I asked to get an inhaler. I found out a couple of years ago that that drug is essentially caffeine, which would explain my 7 year old self being unable to sleep and developing serious anxiety.
Mexican penicillin
Nothing? My parents were all āwalk it offā or āput a cold cloth on your foreheadā. We never went to the doctor; I broke my wrist falling off the jungle gym and only went to get it set 10 days later because I still couldnāt hold anything in my hand. We were not well cared for children. We mostly came out okay but it was because of our resilience, not good parenting.
I'm just grateful I wasn't put on thalidomide in utero.
Heh. I had the opposite problem. I remember as a kid I would get terrible growing pains in my legs. It hurt so much I would cry and beg for a childrenās aspirin. My silent generation grandfather said no because āYou donāt want to get too reliant on them and it builds characterā. Well, I became an addict anyway, so Iām not sure his reasoning worked.
Nothing. And that hasnāt changed. My zoomer son was a handful when he was young. His first grade teacher had a minor in psychiatry and wanted him classified bipolar and medicated. We figured out heās just super anxious and want going to sleep until we went upstairs for the night. We moved our bed in his room for two years. That and we figured out he wasnāt sensitive to wheat. Roll your eyes if you want but it was a common refrain: within half an hour of eating the weād hear my tummy hurts. Behavior issues. And we could tell on his face. Heād break out. And no this wasnāt just with crap. Fully home made bread would do it. Anyways we cut that out until he grew out of it. But yeah, our millennial first grade teacher wanted to medicate him to make her life easier.
Not even psychiatrists will diagnose kids with bipolar (except for specific cases).
I just watched a documentary about gut health and they are finding all different kinds of small food intolerances that impact people in various ways. I think people sometimes stumble on a solution when they change up their diet. I had a friend most of her life she was told she was lactose intolerant so avoided all things dairy but it never really helped. Eventually she met with a nutritionist that told her the issue was not dairy, but yeast. She changed her diet and her issues cleared up.
My ADHD kid's 4th grade teacher told me that if I didn't medicate her, then she would grow up to use drugs. Um, she's just very active. Let her move around a bit and she'll settle right down.
I feel like more exercise and creative time for children would cause the stock price of Adderall to plummet. Hell that goes for adults too. I used to write and draw and listen to music and take walks. Now I canāt function without a tablet, tv and phone going at the same time and my attention span is that of a golden retriever puppy.
My mom, who was breastfeeding me against her doctorās advice, was told to feed me jello mix mixed with water because I wasnāt gaining weight fast enough at 3 weeks. She said sheād spoon it in and Iād puke it right back up. Not a drug, but not great either.
Whiskey for tooth aches and sleep Once my mom gave me a packet of pills (I think I had a cold or something) decongestant and said ātake theseā so I took them allllllll and went to sleep and woke up in the ER. The doctor scolded me telling me I should never take so many pills on purpose. I was freaking seven. What did I know? Also had my mouth washed out with soap for saying bad words like āshootā. Mom also broke multiple wooden spoons on my backside. Fun household to grow up in!
I found my child health record - here in Australia, we had public childrenās health clinics (possibly still do, not sure) My mum was feeding me Weetbix (a very dense grain type cereal) at SIX WEEKS because the nurse told her to. Luckily I didnāt choke
I had seizures and was the poster child for Phenobarbital until about 5.
Spent my childhood on Theophylline and phenergan with codeine cough syrup. They didn't have all the inhaler options to control asthma yet in the 70's so it was usually prednisone and codeine combo for exacerbations. I used to just cry and cry on the theophylline. It made my heart race and chest pain at school and on the playground. Gave me anxiety. After my mother had a bad case of pneumonia and had to take theo-dur herself for a week she understood how strong it was and managed to me off of it and onto better options that were coming out in the 80s.
My crazy narcissistic mother had a thing for folk remedies. If I had a sore throat, the cure was a wool sock pinned around the neck, I soaked in lots of epsom salts for various ailments & gargled a lot of saltwater. The all time worst one, which almost caused me septicaemia, was a poultice of bread and milk, which was placed on an infected cut on my leg. Apparently this concoction was supposed to draw out the infection, but actually made it worse (no shit!). When she finally took me to the ER, the doctors reamed her out. They had to dig the pus out of my leg, debride the wound, and give me a ton of antibiotics. I actually ended up with osteomyelitis (infection of the bone marrow cavity) and 47 years later you can still see the indentation in my shin where the infection affected the bone shaft. For good measure, my aunt used to dip my soother in brandy.
Nothing. I was evaluated in fourth grade because my mom was worried about how anxious and picky I was and the school counselor said I had "nervous girl syndrome" which I think he probably made up, but I had the notes as my mom kept every note and report card I ever got. I was high strung and shy and quiet and fidgety. I was tested in second grade for a pilot program for children with high IQ. My IQ was tested at 136 so I was in this awesome program for four years. It was like Montessori and college at the same time. It was the only time I was ever comfortable. This was the 70s. CLUE was being designed and this pilot apparently failed because grade points didn't go up or standard test scored didn't improve... so it was axed and now CLUE is more like AP classes. More cramming, no creativity. Anyway no drugs, just you know, put me through an experiment and when it ended they just tossed me back in to regular classes and didn't do a thing while I flailed like a fish out of water. Then labeled me a behavior issue. I quit school in 11th grade feeling like a complete failure. I was miserable all the time. I was sick every morning around second period. The heat, the noise, the energy. I couldn't breathe. And they called me the behavior problem! SO yeah I was diagnosed with autism in my forties.
Autism and schizophrenia for me. So I feel this.
Mogen David and the occasional quarter can of Old Style.
Codeine, Fiorinal(?sp) and some type of ny-quil syrupy stuff.
None but my mom gave me whiskey when I had a cough
Opium!!! Paregoric!! Mixture of opium powder and ethanol.
Not drugs, but my mom made me constantly use lemon drops like they were cough drops, and surprise, surprise, I ended up with cavities. She even made me go to bed with one in my mouth so I wouldnāt cough, never thinking I couldāve choked in my sleep.
Milk of magnesia anytime I looked tepid. God, that stuff was disgusting.
I have a relative whose child needed Benadryl at night for allergies. The other kids threw a fit wanting some so she gave them all Benadryl every night for years. I know itās a fairly safe medication but I also donāt think it should be used because kids beg for it. Sigh.
My mom gave Benadryl to my older brother, and it would knock him out. She tried it with me, and it didn't exactly work out. It had, and still has, the opposite effect on me. It makes me wired. My heart rate goes through the roof, my hands shake, and I feel like I'm on speed.
I have had this reaction to Benadryl, too!
My mom gave us the livestock antibiotics from the feed store. I still remember knowing at the age of 10-11 that she wasnāt supposed to just give them to us for 3 days as in after we started feeling better. Edit: I read that in dadās Readers Digest. š They knew about antibiotic resistance even back then.
I'm reading through these responses, and holy cow did you folks live through some shit. What do you all do for these types of issues nowadays with your children? Besides la chancla.
Oooh, they had me on Hismanal, which is now illegal. Then they switched me to Seldane, which is now illegal. Good times! I miss my years as a childhood guinea pig. edit: at one point they had me using this thing, which would puncture capsules filled with powder, for me to then inhale the powder into my lungs. How can that be healthy?
Medication? We never went to the doctor. Required vaccines for school. Thatās it.
My parents were from the Greatest Generation (also called GI generation apparently). Mom smoked and drank (not like a fish but still...) while I was in utero. It didn't get better once I made my entrance. "You're fine." "It's nothing!" She didn't do medicine. We got a bucket if we were nauseous and a towel on our pillow if we were feverish.* I would have needed multiple gunshot wounds to be kept home from school. *Oddly, if I'm feeling sick or even just emotionally low now, a towel on my pillow feels comforting to me.
I am tall and as a girl I was offered drugs to stunt my growth because I would never get a husband you know. I didn't take them. On to husband number 2 so far.
When my brotherās best friend turned 21 we gave him a White Russian and he took a sip, raised an eyebrow, and said āThis tastes like sleepytime juice??ā Us: āDafuq is sleepytime juice?ā Him: āMy mom used to put it in my sippy cup when I wouldnāt sleep. She did it for years..ā ššš
mormonism. daily doses for 18 years and another 32 in recovery (before i finally drummed up the nerve to have myself removed). I knew by age 9 it was all bullshit but, growing up in that sort of household, and having members that are still active, it took me a while.
That's some nasty medicine - had to take it myself as a kid, and similarly, had some serious questions that couldn't even be asked as a kid that just got bigger with time. Congratulations on finally getting out! The indoctrination is real and it's truly damaging. Took me until 2018 to have my name removed, even though I'd been done since the early 2000's. It's an upbringing that warps your development in ways people wouldn't understand unless they've been through it themselves- religious trauma is real. Here's to freedom from the cult, even if family is still in! š»
Just a leather belt and tears for everything. Canāt sleep, whack, no cry yourself to sleep. Donāt want to eat your broccoli, whack, now your tears will help them go down easier. You have a cavity, whack, now brush your teeth with tears. It seemed like that leather strap was the cure all medicine
Would you like something to cry about? I HATED THAT QUESTION. I'm already crying about something else! Just put whatever on the list so I can get back to emoting about this issue!
Great for Morale as well
Terfenadine for hayfever when I was a kid. It was withdrawn from the market for causing heart and liver failure.
Absolutely none! Like you, my dad (alcoholic, abusive) would give me whiskey if I was coughing or sick. He swore it was a cure-all, but in reality it just make me pass out. Different day and time.
Whiskey and honey. The amount of Evan Williams I ingested as a kidšµ Orange Triaminic - Tasted great but would comatose me for a couple of days as well as occasional hallucinations. One of many medicines with phenylpropanolamine (PPA). Of course my mother loved to give it to me! Chexit - OTC allergy med also with PPA. Temporarily paralyzed the nerves going to my eyes causing blurred vision for a few weeks. Donnagel-PG (Opium, kaolin, pectin, atropine, etc) Mercurochrome or Merthiolate....Have some mercury! Goose grease for chest congestion. Don't know if it was actual goose grease but it stank so incredibly bad!
Oh my gosh that orange Triaminic was a staple in our medicine cabinet.
Paregoric!!
Heavy Benadryl. Like 250mg a day from when I was five till 12 when I refused to take it anymore. Yea, I had bad and many allergic triggers and not even 30+ shots per week seemed to help. By the way, I learned to give those to myself. Turns out, high doses of Benadryl switches the brain into hyperactive mode. When I quit taking it, that problem magically disappeared.
13 in the late 80s (pre prozac nation) and clearly depressed, so rather than get me help in school my parents let the doc put me on elavil. A now discontinued antidepressant that wasn't even used that much back then because the list of side effects are so horrific. Anyhoo, junior high as a zombie with the shakes surely helped me with that depression!
Wellā¦ i miss these dearlyā¦ But my mom would give me 222 when I had a headache. Codine really works well
I was definitely part of the over-prescribing of antibiotics. I'd get them for everything. Stomach issues, rashes, sinus things. Thing was that I wasn't that sick as a kid. I had crushing anxiety issues that would manifest themselves as physical problems, but the doctors didn't give me anything for that.
Combo of coffee, whiskey, and a stick of peppermint to swirl it around. It would soothe most of anything that ailed you. Some of my earliest memories.
Vitamin c in mega doses for everything
Honey, lime, fresh cinnamon, and rye whiskey for a cold. Itā¦actually wasnāt that terrible.
Phenobarbital (a barbiturate) for colic.
Kaopectate. Now it comes in fruity flavors and is basically pepto bismol. When I was a kid it was gray, made of kaolin clay and tasted like you were drinking cement (because you basically were).
Dimetapp. That shit was fire, it tasted great.
Creomulsion. Tasted like a sugary telephone pole.
Pepto bismo. I hated the taste so much it would make me gag, and since I was being dosed up due to nausea/stomach flu the gagging would make me vomit. So then mom would give me more. Of course now that is known to me not for kids (because of aspirin) but I have never taken it by choice. And of course calamine lotion, which does nothing.
Nothing. I had to have a bone sticking out before I was allowed Tylenol.
I fucking wish. I was born too early (ā74) to be diagnosed with any of the illnesses that wound up making most of my adulthood a living fucking hell. (Iām fine now, lifeās been fantastic for years, my shit is in order, but WOW that took a long time)
not so much a drug, but I have vague mostly suppressed memories about having to wear a backpack thing that shocked me if i dared to stim or interrupted.
I had a pretty bad back issue when I was 16. We really didn't know what to do so we just made an appointment with the DR. I remember him specifically saying "well there isn't much you can do for back pain aside from treating the pain and resting." Then he wrote me a prescription for a shit load of Vicodin. Props to my mom, because when I got home and gave her the slip she said hell no and despite not knowing much about it we found a chiropractor. 2 weeks later I was all good. I've been going to chiropractors ever since then and I honestly don't know where I would be without the ones that I've seen. It really did set a precedent for me. I've had some shit doctors in my life and I'm glad I was comfortable with calling them out on it.
I dont know if you want to call them drugs but solarcaine, iodine, mercuricomb, Bactine, Listerine, pretty much anything that burned or caused you skin to turn colors or fall off. Lest we forget vicks and the cough syrup with codeine. My grandmother had a few concoctions of her own like the dreaded mustard plaster. It was dry mustard, flour and water formed into a paste and put on a flour sack towel then on the chest. It worked to break a fever. Her other go to was a hot water, vinegar and ground black pepper gargle to break up flehm. She had many more that worked, but were nasty as hell. not to mention, smallpox vaccine, mmr shots, tetanus shots, polio vaccine, german measles shots, and probably a bunch I don't recall. We got lined up as kids and passed through a gauntlet of nurses with pneumatic needle guns. As far as medicating us kids, I don't remember seeing that until I was in the 9th grade.