We were reared on it
IT’S been used to treat everything from sweaty armpits and spots to dandruff, tummy upsets, constipation and even the occasional attack of childhood insomnia.
For generations the familiar blue glass bottle sat in family medicine cupboards around the world; the go-to for busy mums coping with upset tummies and sleepless children.
But now the creamy substance, a solution of magnesium hydroxide created in 1829 by James Murray, has fallen foul of the EU because it contains too much sulphate.
Manufacture of the medicine, known colloquially as MOM, stopped last autumn — and, as stockpiles have dwindled, it has been reportedly selling for up to 10 times the usual price on the auction site eBay.
GlaxoSmithKline, which makes the medicine, is said to be considering modifying the recipe, a solution of magnesium hydroxide, so that it contains less than 0.5% sulphate, the new legal limit.
In the meantime, however, even a temporary loss of the traditional stand-by is being mourned by mothers everywhere — among them Alice Culbert, a mother-of-three from Corbally, Co Limerick.
Milk of Magnesia was a family mainstay when Culbert was growing up in a family with 13 children:
“My mother always had it in the cupboard. It never went off — our Milk of Magnesia would have to go into chalk before it was thrown out,!” recalls Alice, 55.
“As a child I got Milk of Magnesia and I didn’t like the taste of it, but it always worked.
“It was a total mainstay of the house when I was growing up — if you even had a headache they’d tell you it was caused by a ‘dirty stomach’ and into you the Milk of Magnesia would go.
“If you couldn’t sleep, my mother would give it to you. Milk of Magnesia was the cure for everything in our house. My mother-in-law always had the blue glass bottle in the press as well.
“She used it for what she called a ‘bilious’ or ‘dirty’ tummy — which was a constipated tummy and she told me her own mother used it also.”
As a mum, Alice — who went on to have three children and three grandchildren used it occasionally when her own children were young, for stomach upsets or constipation. They hated it, she says.
“They used to say it was like a punishment.! But I found it very good; it really worked and it was brilliant.”
Milk of Magnesia came to the rescue when Alice became ill during a holiday abroad some years ago.
“I was in America visiting one of my sisters. I was very sick — I had a terrible tummy bug — and my sister gave me some Milk of Magnesia mixed with orange juice and boiling water. It was fantastic. It really worked.
“It didn’t leave me feeling drained — if you take an ordinary laxative it can leave you feeling very dehydrated because it pulls all the water out of your system, but Milk of Magnesia is very gentle. It doesn’t not leave you feeling that you have to lie down.
“I’ve heard that people also used it for acne to dry up oily skin and they thought it was brilliant for bad perspiration problems when your deodorant didn’t work — you slapped it on under the armpits.
“I also read somewhere that in the 1950s it was believed that Milk of Magnesia could counteract the heavy head and the bad taste in the mouth and the upset tummy caused by excessive smoking.!”
For consultant dietician Aveen Bannon, the deep blue bottle of medicine is very much a blast from the past.
“My grandmother used it on my mother, and she disliked it so much she never gave it to me,” recalls Bannon, who says that it’s not recommended for pregnant women.
Other than that, she says she wouldn’t be concerned about somebody using it, though in 12 years of practise she has never recommended it.
Nowadays, she explains, the emphasis on dealing with something like constipation is different from in the past:
“Generally if someone has mild constipation I’d try to improve their diet to include more soluble fibre and fluid — that’d be the first step and sometimes I’d recommend a faecal softener.
“Nowadays the emphasis is more on preventing something like constipation by adjusting the diet than on simply fixing the immediate problem and not tackling the reason for it. Milk of Magnesia was like an old-fashioned plaster on a cut.!”
Glasnevin mum-of-two Ann Byrne is no great fan of the medicine either. Now aged 48, she vividly recalls how her mother used to administer the medicine to her and her older sister.
“My mother used to sit us up on the kitchen sink, hold our noses and shove it in, There were seven children in the family and I was the second youngest. My sister was about a year or so older than me and the two of us would be sat up on the sink, one at a time. My mother thought she was doing us good but we hated it.!
“!It was either for an upset tummy or for constipation. It was to get you going.
“It was chalky and horrible and we’d be given milk to wash it down and I hate milk.”
She disliked it so much, she says, she never gave Milk of Magnesia to her own daughters now aged 13 and 15.
“My older sister hated it as well. Now I shudder when I think about it.”
*As an anti-perspirant: Apparently the bugs which cause under-arm odour dislike the magnesium hydroxide, which makes up this well-known liquid.
*As a dandruff cure: If your dandruff is caused by seborrhea, Milk of Magnesia may be of help, say its fans. Its natural ingredients are believed to restrict the growth of yeast, the underlying source of seborrhea.
*Oily skin: Dabbing milk of magnesia on your face helps fight the acids in your body which produce the oily T-zone.
*Spots: The drying action of the product can apparently help reduce the occurrence of pimples.
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