What kind of poultice did your mother used to slap on cuts when you were a bairn?

Question

We used to have the infinitely disgusting sugar and soap poultice and it was always the green lifebouy soap that she used.

Answer 1

Mine also used the sugar and soap format, (you must be scottish using a word like bairn), well my mum was Irish,so the celts had it right, and now that I am married to a scot for 38 years, I still use it for all my children, and now the grandchildren!

Answer 2

Liquifruta for coughs as you could buy it over the counter,doctors cost money to make housecalls in those days & were only called for really serious ailments.Calamine lotion for all stings or bites & even to take itch out of chicken pox spots,not a good look when on your face as you not only had the pox spots but also the calamine dried in white splodges on the skin too.I did not end up with any chicken pox scars though so that must have worked.I think Germolene pink smelly ointment in tins was around so you stank of that if used on grazes etc.Iodine neat on some cuts,I remember the sting of that.If we had splinters we had to keep dipping the affected part in very hot water with iodine in it to make the splinter swell & pop out,that did work.We always had a small tin of Tiger Balm but can't remember what it was used for but loved the smell & think you can still get it.Oil of cloves for toothache,another stinky remedy,still used by some.I was such a tomboy that I always had cuts & grazes,got bitten by every insect going & was allergic to any acidic fruit such as rhubabrb or gooseberries so often had spots all over associated with that & seem to have spent a lot of time covered with several of these remedies & must have smelled delightful !

Answer 3

Oh my god, I am cringing at some of these answers!! If there was anything stuck in a wound, my mum used to submerge the area in very hot, salty water, it actually worked for tiny bits of grit, splinters etc. I've used kaylin poultice on my horse, that worked too!

Answer 4

I read your initial question without seeing the full info and immediately thought, ugh, soap and sugar, and nasty soap at that. Then I laughed when I read you were the same, i hadn't thought of it in years! Used to keep getting infected bites which my mum treated in this way and can still imagine the feeling of the scratchy sugar sensation under a plaster. I think it worked though!

Answer 5

Ha poultice?. We got it scrubbed with a cold flannel to get the grit out and a plaster if it was bleeding. Then back off into the big bad world.

Answer 6

Absolutely nothing.

My mother was a nurse and refused to fuss over any cuts or scrapes I ever had. If I'd come home with my arm hanging off, I might've got a bit of Elastoplast. The only concession I ever got was a cap full of Dettol in my Sunday night bath!

Answer 7

Bread poultice, my mother thought that was a global Panacea
It was used for everything from nettle stings to infections needless to say it never did any harm but as to whether it actually worked or not ???????????

Answer 8

My grandmother used vinegar for cuts and bee
stings. It hurt for a few minutes,but it always
worked. The one thing I dreaded as a child, was the awful goose grease, rubbed into my
chest for colds, uh, horrible.

Answer 9

Mercurochrome and Dettol Antiseptic

Answer 10

Mine used Kaylyn poultice .She said it draws out infection.