I remember when on one of the very few occasions I asked my mother in law to baby sit for us, my baby was asleep in bed and would not have woken up until his ten o`clock feed was due and we were going to be back by then. However she woke baby up and took him a walk, couldn`t get him back to sleep so went to the off licence- which was open late and sold everything -,and bought some STEEDMAN`S powders. She gave him one --or two, we never established how many. Thank god he was violently sick and all his nightgown and bedding were stained bright magenta pink otherwise I would not have known( because she would not have told me,) maybe I could have given him something myself and that would have been an overdose .I could not get her to see how dangerouse it was, I did not want him woken up when he was settled and I did not want her to give medicine without my say so for obvious safety reasons. That was 52 years ago and it rankles yet. The next week in the newspapers there was a report about these powders because they contained either arsenic or strychnine and how dangerous they were and they had been withdrawn after many years of use .. Paregoric is camphorated tincture of opium- Phew! Viktoria.
