Re: old fashioned ideas (was re: wet chair)

[Guest guest]

What a nightmare! Sounds terrible. I heard that in China they used to strap

the babies to a board and bind them tightly as they thought it helped to

straighten their backs! My mum (who is 66) used to be given a dose of

medicine every sunday night to flush the system out (and it did!), think it

was syrup of figs or something, but everyone used to do it!

Has anyone else got some weird stories to tell?

[Guest guest]

Kirsten,

Not sure why malt vinegar was given, but it was originally sold as a sort of

tonic, the same way coke was first sold, to make you feel better and

re-vitalised. Now we just stick it on chips!

Other 'horsey' people I know feed their horses cider vinegar as it is meant

to be good for digestion!

SAHM to Rohan (3mths)

[Guest guest]

I remember being given Cod liver oil and Malt extract. I suppose it

had vitamins etc in it. My mum also gave me 's Emulsion, which

is ***the*** most disgusting tonic you can imagine. It's cod liver

oil made into an emulsion. It was white and the bottle and box had a

fisherman with a huge cod on the front. It made me retch to take it

and I would sometimes hold the whole tablespoonful in my mouth and

spit it out on the way to school. Then you had the fishy taste all

day. :-(((

I was also fed Parrish's Food, which was an appetite stimulant. It's

banned now because the active ingredient was arsenic or cyanide (can't

remember which)!! It also had iron in it but I didn't mind taking it

as it was quite nice.

Lesley

--------------------

From: Kirsten

My Nan used to give my mum, Malt extract weekly as a child, and so Mum

gave us Malt extract weekly as children, which is horrible by the

way!.

[Guest guest]

> My Nan used to give my mum, Malt extract weekly as a child,

and so Mum

> gave us Malt extract weekly as children, which is horrible by the

> way!.

Ooooh I loved malt Extract!

> No, I am not going to give it to DS, unless someone can give

me a

> really good reason why! Any Ideas?

It was meant to be good for hair and also a general building up

kind of thing I think - Mum gave it to us because we were fairly

weedy pale kids (hardly weedy now although DB is still tiny)

I wouldn't bother really.

Caroline

[Guest guest]

> My Nan used to give my mum, Malt extract weekly as a child, and so

Mum

> gave us Malt extract weekly as children, which is horrible by the

> way!. When I asked Nan why she had used it and what it was for, she

> replied that she gave it to mum cos her mum gave it to her, and she

> had no idea why!!

The malt extract I was given was Malt with codliver oil, and it was

delicious, sweet and sticky like toffee. I loved it.

No idea what it was for, except in my dim memory it had LOADS of

vitamins in.

Ruthie

[Guest guest]

> My Nan used to give my mum, Malt extract weekly as a child, and so

Mum

> gave us Malt extract weekly as children, which is horrible by the

> way!. When I asked Nan why she had used it and what it was for, she

> replied that she gave it to mum cos her mum gave it to her, and she

> had no idea why!!

The malt extract I was given was Malt with codliver oil, and it was

delicious, sweet and sticky like toffee. I loved it.

No idea what it was for, except in my dim memory it had LOADS of

vitamins in.

Ruthie

[Guest guest]

> My Nan used to give my mum, Malt extract weekly as a child, and so

Mum

> gave us Malt extract weekly as children, which is horrible by the

> way!. When I asked Nan why she had used it and what it was for, she

> replied that she gave it to mum cos her mum gave it to her, and she

> had no idea why!!

The malt extract I was given was Malt with codliver oil, and it was

delicious, sweet and sticky like toffee. I loved it.

No idea what it was for, except in my dim memory it had LOADS of

vitamins in.

Ruthie

[Guest guest]

>>>I heard that in China they used to strap

>>>the babies to a board and bind them tightly as >>>they thought it helped to

>>>straighten their backs

In one of my baby books it talks about carrying babies about on boards (though

not in China, I think), and it says the babies actually seem to not mind it at

all. Apparently they are taken off to be played with regularly, but the rest of

the time are carried around on boards, which allows them to see what's going on

and be part of the community (possibly not that much worse than being strapped

in a car seat, or being plonked under a baby gym on their own...?)

Also, research showed that their physical development did not lag behind Western

babies (they crawled/walked as early as we do).

Funny... but who's to say our way is always the best...

Karina

Mum to Emilia (Oct 98) and Sebastian (Aug 00)