We went to the doctor whenever needed. I don't recall how often it was but I know we went and I have fond memories of our old family doctor and the two nurses who worked in his office. I know we went in and had flu shots and I hated that my mom made us get them :-) Now I'm all for them! I also remember that the doctor's office handed out penicillin and sulfa tablets like they were candy and we took them for anything and everything. One good reason why so many bugs are resistant now, I believe.

I'm old enough to remember the doctor coming to our home a couple of times.

I was taken to the dentist a lot...got my bad teeth from my Dad.

I had asthma as a child so was always seeing some doctor, I guess.

I do know I gave my dear Mama pure H@LL when I had to get a shot or take a pill..Mama would crush the pills for me and mix with juice.

3 times--vacination--tonsils--& at age 18 had a ck up for my job! Don't even know if they had baby shots back in those days!!

Donna (^_^)

I never had a vaccination. After moving away I had a tetnus shot and flu shots. Growing up I had terrible migraine and sinus headaches. Just took asprin and tried to sleep it off.

Sue

Yep..and I was ALWAYS "sick"! My Mom was a big believer that if you sneezed..you needed to be seen by a Dr. because you needed medicine! After I married, I never went to the Dr. unless it was absolutely necessary (needing stitches, having a baby,etc.) I'm hardly ever sick!

I find it odd that the more someone goes to a Dr. the "sicker" they are! We have medication now for EVERYTHING! You'd think everyone would be healthy!

No. My mother said getting sick was good for me. She had a theory that it would "toughen me". I got whooping cough, measles, German measles, chicken pox, flu and more flu. I learned not to be a whiner.

Thank god I did not get polio since it was going around in the neighborhood. I remember kids were forbidden to play with each other and we were allowed to go outside and wave to each other from a distance and shout.

I do not know if I was ever taken to the doctor. I do know that my mother would force opium down me to knock me out unconscious. I found out years later as an adult, that she was getting it from a doctor. I was appalled. Tincture of Opium/ Paragoric used to be available without a doctors prescription prior to the 1972 Federal Controlled Substances Act, which put it into Schedule III. It was handed out freely by doctors for all those "colicky" babies and annoying children. In those days it was common that moms put booze in baby bottles to help the baby "sleep" too.

The only time I needed to go to the doctor was once in high school when I sliced my hand on a shower knob that shattered when I tried to turn it ,and I took myself to the emergency room for stitches. My parents were pretty mad about having to get a doctor's bill but they did not make me pay for it which I was afraid they would do..

dilly dally - Paragoric was opium??? I didn't know that!

I too do not remember going to any Dr between birth and right before I was married. When I first had my first "time of the month"" as it was called, I spent 4 days in bed because I thought I was going to bleed to death and my mom let me, and always had horrible cramps, would not take aspirin but after my first baby, they went away. At that time I refused to swallow any pills, thought I would choke so I chewed everything, including aspirin and now swallow everything. My grandparents use to get so angry because I was spoiled so bad. Guess that is why I insisted my kids, especially the girls learn to do everything and gee they turned out pretty good. I am really proud of them.

I remember the doctor making house calls, too. Once in the middle of the night when my sisters and I had scarlet fever I got really bad and remember laying on my parent's bed and the doctor coming. They said I almost died that night.

Went to the dentist once at 6. Mean old crabby dentist didn't believing in numbing so when he put his big old hand in my mouth with what looked like a pair of pliers I screamed like crazy. Boy, did that hurt. He told me to "shut up" and my mother yanked me out of that chair and out the door before he knew what was happening. Didn't go back until I was 13 (but to a kinder, gentler dentist).

We didn't go for mumps, measles or chicken pox. We stayed in bed in a dark room--mother thought you'd go blind if you had one of those diseases and got too much sunlight.

I tend to not go to the doctor unless it's an emergency. Makes DH really upset.

OK ladies. I can remember being taken to the school my brothers attended before I was of school age and getting the small pox vaccination. The whole town was vaccinated. I also remember having to go to the doctor for the required vaccinations before I was allowed in school when I was old enough for 1st grade. This was the DPT vaccine but don't remember what else if any. The polio vaccine came out when I was in Middle School and we went to the doctor for that. I'm thinking that even the least of you would have to have had this much exposure to a doctor and/or medical treatment. Of course there were the usual cuts that had to be sewn up along the way. Having said that I was by no means taken to the doctor every time I had the sniffles. That's why an antibiotic works pretty well for me today when I absolutely have to have one.

As for "booze in the baby bottle" and overuse of paragoric let me say I don't personally know of anyone doing that but don't doubt that it happened. Drugging the kids is still going on today. Just with prescribed drugs instead. What really ticks me off is it's the school insisting on getting the drugs for kids they can't control rather than the parent in a lot of instances. I don't believe that ADHD is as prevelant as the number of prescriptions would have you believe. I know of several instances where the teacher as much as said the child would not be allowed back in class unless the parent put them on drugs. That's just wrong and worse yet the doctor is going along with it. When the parent brings the kid in and tells him he can't get back in class without it, he accomodates them.

Suzieque, You do know that the original forumla for Coca Cola contained cocaine, don't you? When it was outlawed, they substituted caffine for the cocaine.

It seems all my vaccinations were done at school.

When I was 5 my tonsils were a problem. Saw the doctor, sent to hospital, tonsils gone, ate as many popcicles as I wanted. :-)

Right around that same time I had the mumps. I can clearly remember exactly where I was, what it smelled like and what I was doing. My father was a pro Golden Gloves boxer and I was on the side of the ring watching him in a match. I took a bite of a hotdog and complained to my mother that my left jaw hurt. She waited for the match to finish and then took me to the doctor that was stitching up a cut above my dad's right eye. The dr. diagnosed me with mumps, end of story.

Other than that, I can't remember seeing a doctor until I was in my early 20s.

Jodi-

Yes, I do know that (about Coca Cola). But I didn't know about Paragoric.

Except for my vaccination, which was done at school, I did not see a doctor until I was 13. And then he came to see me. I was very ill with a really bad headache and a high temperature.

My parents called the little town's only doctor and he came to the house and after checking me over and asking if I had seen a tick, he said I had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. The only treatment was aspirin for the fever. No "wonder drugs" back then. He later brought 2 or 3 doctors from DC to see me so they could see what RMSF looked like. I don't remember now how long I was sick, but it was weeks, not days. I've been told that I am lucky to have survived it.

The first time I went to a doctor on my own was when I was 18, and needed a physical to get a job. Didn't go again until I was married and pregnant. I was 23 then.

Sue

thanks be we had health care and i took all 4 of my kids for reg check-ups, shots, allergy dr, eye, into the time they left for college...

my mother only took me twice, both serious (combo flu and the measels and bone infection) but for the most part there were no well baby checks in the 50's as far as i can tell...

I only went to the doctor a couple of times that I remember, except for two injuries I had to my hand...once a 3rd degree burn that required skin grafts and the other time when my nephew found a loaded pistol and shot me through the same hand with a .38. He was 5 and I was 4.

I remember going to the doctor when I was around 4 for an ear ache and then when I had tonsilitis when I was around 8. My mother didn't really believe in going to doctors very much. I also didn't have vaccinations, including small pox, which most people had. I did have light cases of mumps, measles and chicken pox. I was never sick very often, and haven't been sick very much as an adult. I have never had the flu or a sinus infection and have no allergies. I haven't had a cold in years...at least 10. I have had pneumonia twice...or maybe some kind of lung infection...the doctor didn't do an x ray. Both times I got it from cleaning out old moldy buildings.

It was rare that my mother took us to a doctor. I went through the mumps. measles, whooping cough, and a very mild case of chicken pox without seeing a doctor. The first immuziation shots that I recieved was at school when the country participated in a program. A county nurse came to the school to administer the shots. She may have been accompanied by a doctor - I don't know - there was someone else with her. We got 3 rounds of shots over a 3 week period.

The first physical exam that I had was for entering high school. It was mandatory, I suppsoe for the physical ed class and sports. You were excused from the more extreme exertions in phys ed if you had a medical condition that warranted it.

Not much at all.

My mother's friends called me her 'hot house flower'. They thought she pampered me too much. I was an 'only' and she almost lost me.

When I was less than three weeks old I was operated on for pyloric stenosis: valve into the stomach constricts so no food can go in; projectile vomiting is the symptom. (This is my ugliest scar -- all down my middle -- no two-piece bathing suits for me!) I've been told they didn't give infants ether then -- only a whiskey-soaked rag to suck.

I had all the usual childhood diseases. Measles was no big deal, but I had a terrible case of chicken pox with high fever; I couldn't walk. Still have a dime-sized scar on the side of one knee. You can get mumps in all three sets of glands in your neck; guess how I know that! Avoided the dreaded polio but had classmates who were cripled by it. The general 'cure' for sore throats was to have your tonsils removed; I did.

School required vaccinations, so I had those.

I remember our doctor making house calls. It probably limited contagion -- one reason I dislike seeing the doctor is mingling with all those sick people in a waiting room!

I loved my first pediatrician. She kept a pair of Kerry Blue dogs in her office! They slept under her desk.

I had all my well baby checkups and shots at the health department. I had ear surgery for a cyst when I was 4 and had my tonsils removed at 8. I had never been in an ER until I started working in one in my late 20s. I had asthma as a child but still wasn't taken to the ER when I had a scary attack.

Not much. Mostly just for school physicals and maybe a couple of times other than that.

I remember going to the doctor when I was young just for check ups. Not sure why, but I hated going there and getting undressed. Yuck. Our family doctor was also a close neighbor, and would come to the house with his black bag. My sister was epileptic, so we saw him quite a bit back in the 60's.
I don't remember getting my shots really, but do have the measle shot scar under my arm.
I do not like going to the doctor even now.

Trin

My parents only took us when we got sick. I did get sick a lot as a small child so I did see the doctor pretty often. We did get our baby vaccinations and I remember going in for polio vaccine when I was around 7 I guess.

We had a doctor who made house-calls when I was five and six.

I remember going to the Doctor quite a bit when I was a kid. I was rushed to the hospital when I was a toddler because I had convulsions and spent some time in the hospital, I had my tonsils out when I was 4 and then when the top of my index finger was cut off also when I was 4 years old. I always had ear problems and dizziness just like I am having now so I was always being treated for that. Our Doctor was Dr. Whitty and he delivered all 8 of us.

Last time I saw Dr. Whitty I was 17 years old and needed a physical when I joined the Army Cadets. He died soon after.

I probably then didn't see a Doctor until I was in my early 20's.

Anne