Bad Mommy!

Wow. I guess I'm not the only one who was scarred by the laxative as a child deal. My mom used to force me to take cod liver capsules every morning. I hated those things because it would hurt to swallow them.

@Wordy-

I think so... My dad was born in 1932 and he and his sister have told me about having to take "fishy" (Cod liver oil) every day. They actually kind of liked it, though. But besides the lubricating features, I think the cod liver oil was also given to tykes to provide vitamins A @ D. The D was probably the main issue in a day when it wasn't added to milk. I'm not sure if castor oil or senna based elixirs offered any additional "benefits"....

Apparently forcing children to sh*t was a popular pasttime in the 40s? I'll have to ask my mom about that.

P.S. A guy named "Brownkid" wants to start a band called "Laxative Tantrum". Brilliant!

Tim, I did have Fletcher's. Check your facts before you attempt to correct someone. Castor Oil was not an ingredient in Fletcher's Castoria. Castor oil is vegetable oil - you might be thinking of Cod-liver oil. I got that stuff on my hands once and I couldn't get the smell out for days. I'd rather be constipated than take that stuff.

Castor Oil is a good laxative. My dad gave me that once & I barely made it to the toilet, but it tastes like drinking pure cooking oil.

Maleia I'll agree it was more of a root beer flavor than flat coke.

This stuff never had any castor oil in it. I don't know why they called it Castoria. The original formula (according to Wikipedia) was: senna, sodium bicarbonate, essence of wintergreen, taraxicum, sugar, and water. The current formula is: senna, citric acid, flavor, glycerin, methylparaben, propylparaben, purified water, sodium benzoate, and sucrose.

Personally, I'd rather take the original. It has less crap in it (and probably makes you crap more!). :)