The Bread Poultice
By Jabo
@jaboUK (64354)
United Kingdom
January 7, 2021 9:44am CST
The most common remedy for minor ailments in our house when I was a child was the bread poultice.
My mother would mix hot milk with bread, add a little mustard and stir it up. Then she would squeeze out any excess liquid and enclose the resulting paste in a bit of cloth. This was then applied (as hot as possible) to the affected part of the body.
It was used for all sorts of aches and pains, for drawing out pus from boils or for soothing the pain of bruises and grazes.
Applied to the jaw it alleviated toothache, and it was put on the chest if we had a cold.
One of my sisters often suffered from earache and would have the poultice put against her ear and held in place with a bandage wrapped round her head.
Looking back I don't know how effective a remedy this was, but we believed in it, so that might be why we felt better after having it applied.
32 people like this
30 responses
@jaboUK (64354)
• United Kingdom
7 Jan 21
Yes this would be one that was passed down, but it must have come to an end with my mother's generation. I certainly never used or made a bread poutice myself. As far as I remember it held the heat for quite some time, so that in itself would be comforting.
6 people like this
@LowRiderX (22903)
• Serbia
7 Jan 21
@jaboUK I've never heard of it, but it’s always interesting to read something new
6 people like this
@jaboUK (64354)
• United Kingdom
7 Jan 21
@LowRiderX Nearly everyone is young to me!
4 people like this
@RebeccasFarm (90294)
• Arvada, Colorado
7 Jan 21
Would anything be included in the bread or no?
I had heard of this Jabo.
Irish Granny always used a spud for headaches
5 people like this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
7 Jan 21
Quite an interesting mixture your mother concocted. I do think though that it's the heat that did the healing.
True, healing begins with believing.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
12 Jan 21
@jaboUK My mother did put rice in a clean sock, microwaved and applied the heat on her stomach spasms.
1 person likes this
@jaboUK (64354)
• United Kingdom
12 Jan 21
@eileenleyva I have a heat pad now and that works in a similar way.
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@allknowing (137552)
• India
8 Jan 21
We too had the poultice therapy but we had hot rice and turmeric.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (30539)
• United Kingdom
7 Jan 21
When I was a child my mother had two books that I used to find fascinating. One was 'Modern School Hygiene' dating from the 1930s and the other was 'The Book of the Stable' (even older). Of course they both pre-dated antibiotics and even sulphonilamides (the 'miracle cures' that came before antibiotics) so there was plenty of fresh air, poultices and that sort of thing in those.
1 person likes this
@thelme55 (77168)
• Germany
7 Jan 21
I have not heard of bread poultice. Thanks for the info.
Back then, when I was learning herbal poultice massage in Germany, I learned how to make them. The herbal poultice is really soothing. When I was in Ireland later years, working in a spa, a client booked for a herbal poultice massage and we didn´t have that poultice in the spa and so I made my own poultice for that client.
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (181942)
• United States
8 Jan 21
I am sure it was better than doing nothing. I know they used mustard plasters alot during WW!.
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@BelleStarr (61102)
• United States
10 Feb 21
It might have been the heat that was helping more than the bread and milk. But of course, the placebo effect is very strong.
1 person likes this
@Tampa_girl7 (50580)
• United States
21 Jan 21
A lot of old time remedies work good.
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@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
8 Jan 21
It might be similar to how a kiss these days in a boo boo a child gets makes it better or so it seems.
The only odd poultice we did was with raw potatoes. I remember my sister having one on her foot with a bag around it. Is have to ask my sister what that was for. Maybe a wart, maybe a corn I've no idea at this late date.
We used hour water bottles to help with earaches. I've been one to get a lot of wax stuck and the got water bottle made it feel better and maybe helped it drain but not immediately unfortunately.
Now I use hydrogen peroxide to eliminate wax.
1 person likes this
