James Lileks posted a link to his newest book, Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice. I laughed at his comments about parents' obsession with children's constipation in the 1940s.

It wasn't just the 1940s. I remember being dosed with Fletcher's Castoria on many a Friday evening. My mom would say, "Be thankful it's not castor oil," but it still tasted horrible, a thick sweetish brown taste that stuck to your tongue and left a gluey aftertaste. I think it had senna in it. Mom was the child of Victorian parents, and never mind the 1940s—Victorians were the real obsessive maniacs about proper bowel movements. Heck, I guess I was lucky I wasn't born a century earlier, back when you were sick they'd dose you with stuff that was poisonous, like calomel (a mercury derivative that settled in your joints; it's what caused Louisa May Alcott's chronic poor health in her later years) just to keep you "cleaned out."

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:25:00 AM

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