I was talking to my brother last night, and we both reminisced about how our mother used to give us ipecac when we were kids to treat some illness(es). We couldn’t remember exactly what we had at the time, but it definitely was not poison related. She would decide in the morning that we needed a treatment, so we got to stay home from school for the day and watch TV, while vomiting in a bucket on a regular basis.
Now, of course, we have no idea why she did this. Googling did not come up with any uses for ipecac other than treatment for poisoning (which is no longer recommended). Mom’s no longer with us, and my dad has no recollection of this. I’m hoping there’s a GQ answer where ipecac formerly was recommended for some other illnesses and it’s not just my mother getting medical advice from some other biddy at church.
Maybe. According to this wiki, ipecac used to be used in combination with other drugs as an expectorant. Maybe your mom was going on the cheap. I’m guessing, though, that she had some theory about poisons in your system that “needed to be purged”.
I was expecting the bulimia and M-b-p jokes, so no worries. I think croup is probably the correct answer - googling epicac+croup does say it was used as a treatment for croup up until the 20th century.
Related to strange family cures, a FOAF and his sister personally testified to me that their mother used to give enemas as the “cure all” to all the children (2 boys and 2 girls) until essentially they moved out for college. Got the measles? Enema time. Sniffles? Grab the lube. Dry cough? Bend over and grab your ankles. Headache? Better fill the bag up with a full gallon…
IMO that set up an incredibly twisted family situation. The siblings who I spoke to didn’t seem overly bothered by it.
I collect medical memorabilia. I have some pages from a pharmacist’s ledger from 1871. Ipecac was a very common ingredient, usually in very low doses, as were digitalis and cannabis. Before medical treatments were well understood, often illness that was self-resolving would be treated by concoctions that would make the sick person “feel different”, a sign that the medicine was working.
i used to listen to a radio talk show hosted by a naturopath. It was a riot. Callers with various health problems: dizziness, short of breath, poor memory, backache, etc, were almost all told to brew a pot of strong coffee, allow it to cool, add various other things, then use it as an enema. :eek:
Not quite what the OP asked, but a use nontheless: In the slavery memoir novel Jubilee, there is a scene where the plantation mistress doses one of the kitchen slaves with it, suspecting her of stealing food.
In Anne of Green Gables, Anne saves Diana’s little sister, who appears to be dying of croup, with repeated doses of Ipecac. I recently reread the book, and was surprised to read that passage, as I had previously thought Ipecac was only used to induce vomiting.