Foods you associate with being sick as a child or adult

[Harborwitch]

I was on my annual visit to Grandmother's house and wound up with strep throat. It was broth and jello for several days. Then when I finally got hungry and felt like I could eat she brought me cinnamon toast broken up in warm milk. Couldn't get it down.

My favorites when not feeling up to par are Hot & Sour Soup, Campbell's chicken noodle soup - made with milk, and cream of wheat - really runny. Looking at that I'm wondering what kind of wierdo I am?????

 

[amber]

I guess we all had the same mom Chicken noodle soup, or chicken with rice soup, gingerale, 7-up, saltines. OH and that dam vicks vapor rub everytime I had a cold, but I must admit, it does work

 

[mudbug]

Call me wierd, amber, but I love the smell of Vicks. Here's something even wierder - my first husband's dad used to make the kids SWALLOW the stuff.

 

[wasabi]

I love the smell of Vicks. Brings back the days of being sick in bed and Mom rubbing Vicks on my chest and back. I don't know if it was the Vicks or Mom's hands that made me feel so much better. Now when I'm all stuffed up with a cold, out come the Vicks.

 

[bethzaring]

7-up. that was the only pop/soda/carbonated beverage we were allowed as kids. I was sick a lot as a child, I am convinced because of my culinary challanged mother. The instant I left home at the age of 17, I have only been sick one time. I had strep throats almost every winter, and was given these horrible foot ball shaped lozenses. I was also put on Penicillin daily for one year, to try to kill the strep. I was too young to protest that intervention!

 

[BreezyCooking]

Ooh - one more thing I just remembered from childhood days: sometimes when we woke up in the middle of the night due to sore throat issues, we were given half a fresh lemon with a lot of sugar sprinkled over it to suck on until we fell back to sleep.

I come from a 100% Czech background, & most of my parents' "remedies" came from grandrelatives recently from the old country.

 

[Harborwitch]

Yeah, Vicks - still love that stuff. Worst was mustard plasters on the chest. Aw geeze there was torture - supposed to do something for a cold, I think. I can remember having to take an antibiotic of some kind for a kidney or bladder infection (Grandmother said from sitting on cold concret curbs to put on rollerskates) it was flavored orange. To this day most artificail orange flavored things will still kick up the gag reflex! Coughs got warm honey with lemon and bourbon. Maybe that explains why bourbon is still my fav. drink?

 

[FryBoy]

7-Up and Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup. Oh, and buttered toast.

 

[Yakuta]

Vicks, Hot Black Tea with cinnamon and ginger and Mild tea mixed with some honey and lime to sip.

I also remember mom and grandma making us some soft rice with moong dal and we had it with a fresh dollop of pure ghee (when it hit the warm rice it melted and got all gooey). Those days no one cared about calories or ill effects of it on our body but they were good days nonetheless.

 

[amber]

Call me wierd, amber, but I love the smell of Vicks. Here's something even wierder - my first husband's dad used to make the kids SWALLOW the stuff.

I've heard of that, swallowing it or stick it up the nose Imagine the burn.

 

[amber]

I love the smell of Vicks. Brings back the days of being sick in bed and Mom rubbing Vicks on my chest and back. I don't know if it was the Vicks or Mom's hands that made me feel so much better. Now when I'm all stuffed up with a cold, out come the Vicks.

I dont love the smell of it, but it certainly brings back the same memories as you, mom rubbing it on my back and chest. I stil do the vicks too. It works!

 

[amber]

Ginger Ale, Coca Cola Syrup, Toast, Emitrol

Coca cola syrup, my mom didnt use that on me, but I did with my child, and it works great for a stomach upset. A bit of ice chips and cola syrup works wonders.

 

[crewsk]

And though I'm certainly not advocating alcoholic beverages for children, when we had very bad colds or flu, etc., our nighttime beverage was often a cup of tea with a small dash of whiskey. In fact, there used to be something called "Rock 'n Rye", which was Rye whiskey with a skewer of rock candy in the bottle. That was, frankly, kept around our household just for bad colds - lol!! (Keep in mind that this was over 40 years ago.)

Breezy, I keep a bottle of Rock 'n Rye on hand at all times. I've never seen it with the rock candy though, just with a lemon wedge in the bottle. Mom used to mix about a tablespoon or so with a little honey & lemon juice for chest congestion. I still use it to for myself, but I generally take about a shot glass full now.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Wow - I haven't seen Rock 'n Rye in a dog's age!! But here in VA, unlike NY where I'm originally from, all the liquor stores are state-owned, so they don't carry the variety that independent stores do.

Never saw Rock 'n Rye with lemon in it, but I bet it's good - that must be something new. It actually was named "Rock 'n Rye" because of the wooden skewer of "rock" candy in it. What I could never figure out was how/why the alcohol didn't dissolve the rock candy, since it's just sugar. Any chemist-type folks here know the answer to that?

 

[SizzlininIN]

Breezy, I keep a bottle of Rock 'n Rye on hand at all times. I've never seen it with the rock candy though, just with a lemon wedge in the bottle. Mom used to mix about a tablespoon or so with a little honey & lemon juice for chest congestion. I still use it to for myself, but I generally take about a shot glass full now.

I remember dad drinking Hot Toddies when he got a bad cold. When I close my eyes and think about it I can remember the smell . I can't remember what all was in it but I know there was whiskey......probably why I can't stand the smell of whiskey to this day.

 

[Half Baked]

I dont love the smell of it, but it certainly brings back the same memories as you, mom rubbing it on my back and chest. I stil do the vicks too. It works!

I hate Vicks....oh the way it made my pjs stick to my chest with that gooey yucky smelly stuff. Bleeck.

 

[JMediger]

We were generally given dry toast and our own 6 pack of ginger-ale to nurse us through. We weren't allowed much pop either as kids so it was a treat to have 6 cans all to your self ...
I had a ton of colds and ear infections as a kid and my mom was a firm believer in Robotusin (spelling?) cough medicine ... I can't stand anything with a medicinal cherry taste or smell to this day! A few years ago, my SIL and her kids were living with us and we were trying to live on a shoe string budget so we had the bright idea to mix vodka and the kids' cherry kool-aid. OMG. Instant gag and stomach toss.

It's so interesting all the home remedies that used whiskey, even for kids. My grandmother would give us sips of blackberry brandy for a bad cough. That I can still handle! I keep a bottle on hand just for that.

 

[mudbug]

What I could never figure out was how/why the alcohol didn't dissolve the rock candy, since it's just sugar. Any chemist-type folks here know the answer to that?

auntdot, you are needed here.

 

[Claire]

Funny how many repeats there are:

7up &/or Ginger Ale -- we were NOT allowed pop in our everyday lives, so this was a real treat.

Ginger Tea -- Mom made it with copious amounts of powdered ginger, honey if she had it (sugar if not) and maybe milk.

Lipton's Chicken Noodle Soup -- to this day I love it when I have a cold even better than my own home-made. Mom made it up with extra water when we were very sick, then added extra noodles as we got to feel better.

Ice Cream, especially with a sore throat.

Not only did old cough meds often contain considerable amounts of alcohol, but often a good dose of codein. These were referred to by my parents as "GI Gin". I don't know if they were OTC or Rx.

 

[Bugs]

i threw up when i ate beets one time and now i can't eat them or i'm afraid i'll throw up.