Unusual home remedies from your family?

[Tommy]

For a touchy stomach: the BRAT diet. Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, (dry) Toast.

 

[Lilac]

If I get poison ivy, I'll carefully pop the blister & use a cotton ball with a little bleach on it to dab it a couple of times of day to dry it out. For me, it takes the itch away too.

 

[Murrmurr]

I just remembered another one...

To remove warts, burn a piece of brown paper bag on a ceramic or glass plate until the flame burns out. A light brown sticky goo will remain. Apply that to the wart with a cotton swab. Do that a couple times a day for a few days.

 

[Murrmurr]

In an emergency situation, a person could pee on a wound and could potentially prevent serious infection until further medical help could be received.

Urine is definitely not sterile. Your urethra is a cozy home for various kinds of bacteria.

 

[Alizerine]

My father's remedy when afflicted with a cold, which was approx. two times or more per winter, was always to stuff his narrow pug-nosed nostrils full of Vicks Vapor Rub. I personally could never tolerate it regardless of how often or vehemently he recommended it.

We would put Vicks in a bowl of steaming water and lean over it with a towel over our heads to make a tent.

 

[JBR]

Stomach ailments were cured with 7up and soda crackers.

My mother was told by a pediatrician to give either of her sons 7Up to drink if we had nausea or had been vomiting. Once I grew up, I had to wonder if the doc was recommending this due to his medical training, or something in a science-based medical reference book, or as a nostrum from his own family's home remedies. And would it be to settle the stomach, or to replace electrolytes if someone vomited?

 

[jujube]

Who remembers Mercurochrome, it was in a small bottle and orange in color. My mama used it on all our scrapes and cuts. I think it stung and burned a little too.

Mom had a contraption that had a squeeze bulb and a long spray nozzle and we got that stuff sprayed on our tonsils.

It would drip down our throats....YUK!

Now, of course, we know how bad that stuff was to ingest.

 

[Jules]

Mom had a contraption that had a squeeze bulb and a long spray nozzle and we got that stuff sprayed on our tonsils.

Now that you mention it, I recall it. It was sold by the Watkins Man or Raleigh. They had something for anything that ailed you.

 

[oscash]

Urine is definitely not sterile. Your urethra is a cozy home for various kinds of bacteria.

My Grandfather said when he was in the army the best thing for frostbite was to pee on the toes. He said it worked every time

 

[Murrmurr]

My Grandfather said when he was in the army the best thing for frostbite was to pee on the toes. He said it worked every time

The navy told my dad that peeing on his feet kills athlete's foot fungus and yeast, and my dad told me. For years, I peed on my feet every time I took a shower.

Someone on this forum told me a few years ago that the only thing peeing on your feet does is get pee on your feet.
So, I asked my doctor about it. She said, "Urinary tract infections, bladder infections, kidney infections, yeast infections of the nether regions - those were no less common during WWII than they are now."

 

[Bretrick]

Butter on burns.

 

[Radrook]

Well, FWIW, this is what I do for cold and sinus. It works, so far, TY.

Thaght my father

My Grandfather said when he was in the army the best thing for frostbite was to pee on the toes. He said it worked every time

Pee you say? My father recommended pee mixed with soil to place on a bee sting. I was stung during a camping trip after throwing rocks at a bee hive. Moments later, I found myself zealously following his instructions.

 

[Radrook]

We would put some Bleach in the bathtub to help kill off Chiggers/Redbugs and Ticks. We picked off thousands of ticks over the years as kids.

Raw Potatoes over the eyes was for burned eyes from Arc Flash while welding.

Kerosene was used for cuts on the farm. And Iodine.

There was this dude, who seemed to fancy himself some type of sage, who went around recommending kerosene as a remedy for pubic lice. Told us that the first reaction would be to role around on the floor in agony, but that the pain should be ignored.

 

[Radrook]

We would put Vicks in a bowl of steaming water and lean over it with a towel over our heads to make a tent.

That's the way I used it. It was the stuffing it deep into the nasal cavities as my father did that I couldn't tolerate.

 

[oslooskar]

To get rid of warts. Rub bacon on them and then bury the bacon. Got rid of a bunch of warts on my hand.

Can the bacon you use for that come from any type of hog, or does it have to come from a Warthog? lol

 

[oslooskar]

My paternal grandmother 1882-1970 was a walking encyclopedia of old folk remedies. I remember she once ground up some brown soap and mixed it in with brown sugar and made a compress out of it with some cheesecloth and placed it on a boil I had on my neck and it sucked all the pus right out of it.