I’m referring to the kaolinite/pectin version (Wiki), not the attapulgite that replaced it in the 1980s, until it was inexplicably sacked in the 2000s after the FDA basically disproved it, leading to the brand changing its products to ones based on bismuth (=Pepto) and/or loperamide (=Imodium).
dL
Moved to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
If you mean the Kaopectate we had in the 50’s and 60’s, I certainly don’t miss it. The odor and (especially) taste of that stuff was hideous.
Dude, all that stuff did was make shit/clay jello in your intestines. No, I do not miss it one bit, especially after trying to get some down a diarrhetic German Shepherd who objected so strenuously there was Kaopectate coating a 10 foot radius of her. Including most of ME. Gross.
Omg, same goes for me! It was vile stuff, like drinking barium before an upper GI, only worse.
I actually *compounded * kaolin-pectin suspension as part of pharmacy tech training back in '85. The result was… well, let’s say the brand name had little to fear from people wanting old-school back-shop artisanal remedy from most of us.
I remember my Dad long, long ago was a consistent buyer of the brand but eventually moved on to other products.
There was a “Beavis and Butthead” episode where, while making fun of a video shot in a grocery store, have this dialogue:
"Is that Kaopectate?
“Kao-what?”
“Kaopectate. It’s for diarrhea.”
“Oh, yeah, I know what it is. Tastes bad, doesn’t work…I took it once for a whole week, and I never got diarrhea! However, about a week later, this big old brick pooped out of my butt…”
“…I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear any of this.”
The only affection I can mount for the stuff was its use in the Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight, which my brother played non-stop for months when it first came out:
So you bust out the door while it’s still closed
Still sick from the food you ate
And then you run to the store for quick relief
From a bottle of Kaopectate
Other than that amusing-as-hell lyric, I don’t miss it. I always much preferred its competitors.
Guys? I, uh, kind of liked it.
I was a very weird kid.
Me too. It had a nice minty flavor.
I must be looking in the wrong stores because I don’t see it. I see things LIKE it. I end up buying those teeny pills entombed in plastic that are SO maddening to open. I’m usually in a hurry here!
I did too.
Okay, I don’t really want to admit it because it will mark me as hopelessly weird, but I loved the old, gray, clay-ey Kaopectate. My mom used to give it to me when I was a kid, and I loved the taste.
I haven’t needed anything like that in many years, and now I’m kind of disappointed to hear they don’t make it anymore.
I remember reading in National Lampoon, I think, about a guy visiting the Soviet Union. “Every other word on all the signs is Kaopectate” .