01/07/2026
Atkinson & Barker's Royal Infants' Preservative claimed to be the brand of choice for the mothers in the royal family.
It had already been around for decades before HM Queen Victoria ascended the throne, and persisted through the whole 20th century too. In its heyday, it was one of numerous op**te preparations aimed at helping babies through the pain of teething.
Teething appeared dangerous because it coincided with a time of life when deadly childhood diseases often struck. Although these ’soothing syrups’ were sometimes responsible for infant deaths, there was also a popular belief that babies wouldn't thrive without them; parents could feel that the risk of avoiding them was greater than the risk of using them.
By the first decade of the 20th century, the product's formula had changed, and would later change again to become a dill-based gripe water – so if you remember being given this as a child, you won't have been getting laudanum and can't blame it for the way you turned out.
