How times have changed

Frank, can we assume your mother knows you have continued with enemas after she stopped giving them to you (at what age?) and is happy you do? It is a way of your approving the kind of care she gave you.

Any details would be of interest to many here.

Enemas were common for me as kid, too. And like most households then, the enema bag with hose tucked inside was hanging in the bathroom... always at ready!

Yes, how times have changed. My Mother was a nurse, and our family physician believed in the use of enemas for many illnesses, and as a periodic good health measure. Yes, it was the "golden age" of the enema. Early on we also received enemas as a periodic good health measure with each change of season. I still believe, at least in my case, that periodic enemas have and do contribute to my good health. How lucky I was to grow up with an enema syringe on the back of the bathroom door!

I was born in 1942 in Rural Louisiana. Very few houses had bathrooms but every one of them had an Enema rig hanging either under a bath robe or towel. Usually they were located in the room where a chamber pot resided. Most of the rigs were combo Enema/Douche rigs because women who engaged actively in sex douched regularly. Enemas were used for many common ailments and were discussed openly in mixed company. I didn't know anything about sex but I did know what a douche and Enema were. My mom used enemas very often solo and I am sure she did them for fun although she would never have admitted that. I don't know of anyone ever giving her one. When she took douches she usually used Massengill powder. Until this day I will still get an erection when I smell Massengill....Jimbeaux

Arianna--Interesting. Thanks.

I grew up in the 30's and 40's and enemas were very common and regularly discussed among adults and kids alike. Almost every bathroom I was ever in had a bag (most commonly the open top variety) hanging in plain view with hose and nozzle. Everyone I knew received enemas from time to time. It was a cure for EVERYTHING. Many doctors prescribed them and most mothers wasted no time in administering them regardless of wether or not they had been prescribed.

I see a lot of people claiming that they seemed to shorten the length of an illness and/or made them feel better. I also see claims of cures for headaches, hangovers, bellyaches etc., not overlooking that it was a positive cure for constipation.

What bothers me is the medical profession seems to ignore or object to the use of enemas, except when it is an unavoidable prep for some procedure and then they only prescribe "Fleet enemas" or laxatives. What is the medical profession afraid of? Lost revenue maybe?

Has there ever been any studies to evaluate the medical benefits (or lack there of) of enemas as a cure for anything other than constipation, or as an aid in reducing the length or severity or discomfort of an illness? and If there has why don't we hear about these studies. Does anyone have any knowledge of such studies?

I have heard that enemas are much more common and still used extensively in foreign countries. Can any one comment on this?

Daisy:

I grew up in the 40s & 50s and remember the same things you do about Enema prevalence. Also douches were common. I think because Enemas are a home remedy and nobody except the manufacturer makes money on them, they are not prescribed by doctors. I really believe that Doctors of our day were much more interested in your getting well than in how much money they were going to make off of you. Also you could get medicine from the pharmacist if your illness wasn't very serious. The Dr. came to our house many times and treated us at home if we were running high fever. My folkds weren't rich or influential either. Jimbeaux

Golden age.... Dr. Benner had an enormous bag hanging on his office wall. Never got it from him, butt can imagine the swelling, the pain, the fullness, the spasming, and the blessed release. And, as others have noted, enemas and those who were only too happy to give them, were everywhere. Maybe it was that men had gone to war or had just come back. Butt the phallic symbolism of them was not - in hindsight (LOL) lost on me. Nurse Levicky at camp, nurses and later orderlies in the hospital, enemas from mom, "just what the doctor ordered...." probably got mom off, they were my first sexual turn on. Was it the adventure? the attention? the hidden eroticism? Don't know. But still at it 60 years later..... And it doesn't seem to matter what a guy's sexual orientation is: the wiring is there.....

These were very interesting accounts.I was amazed at the fact that these personal stories ranged from the 1930's through the 1980's,a half century.

Yeah... I definitely was born 50 years too late... oh well, next time!

All jokes aside, I love reading these great accounts of other people's experiences regarding enemas!

My mother had been a nurse and did enemas on me often. Once at summer family camp (circa 1940) she left the enema bulb on a ledge of a screen porch. I was embarrassed but no one commented. I think she did it to show off. Now I never see enema/douche equipment in open display in bathrooms but many are sold at drug stores, etc. At home she left the gear in a hall drawer readily accessible for me to 'borrow' for my secret pleasure.

I grew up in the 50's when Dr.'s made house calls. Very often the Dr. would tell Mom to give an enema even for things like lung infections, asthma, etc. I couldn't figure out how this treatment had anything to do with these illnesses. I believe the Dr.'s prescribed them as a placebo for the Mom. It made her feel like she was doing something to help the child's illness.

Mom felt better that she was helping her ill child and after all, they couldn't hurt. And in those days Dr.'s subscribed to the systemic toxicity belief, which a flushing out would help any infection. Later it was proven that this belief was a bunch of bunk.

I got chicken pox in grade school and the lesions were on my tongue. Any food with salt caused intense burning. Mom called the pediatrician and told him. He told her I had to have salt in my diet and to give me saline enemas 3 times a day. That was a lot of fun and wore me out. Thank God she changed pediatricians, cause this guy was an enema nut!

I too grew up in the 40's and 50's and remember visiting bathrooms in other's houses and seeing enema or douche bags hanging on the back of the bathroom door covered with a towel held by the hook holding the bag. It's remarkable that so many folks found that to be the preferred storage location.

I also remember sometimes being told that I should try to have a BM and if I didn't I would get an enema. While I was trying mother would set the colon tube and funnel and a pitcher filled with soapy water on the table in the bathroom. I guess to urge my performance, Guess what, up on the table. Then if I begged for the enema to be stopped enough times she would stop it and let me go then it was back up on the table until I held the whole pitcher of warm soapy enema. Oh well that's how I got to be a Klismo.

hobo

In the 50's every bathroom had an enema bag or douche bulb. It was standard equipment in those days.

I grew up in the 40" and 50"s my mother was a nurse who loved to give enemas but I didn't realize that until later. Enemas were very common and I remember some of my fiends commenting on how they got enemas at home.I got enemas from my Mom Aunts and a grandmother. I thought that I was the only one who really enjoyed enemas.Now I realize that a lot of people in my family did also. I got enemas when I was sick and also when Mon thought I should get enemas. When she said I am going to give you an enema it really meant enemas.I loved to hera her say that.

Same here. Whenever we were sick for more than a couple of days, we received enemas as part of our "get well" therapy. They were always nice warm Ivory soap enemas given to us on the bathroom floor, usually in the evening. Because my Mom was always very gentle with them, I never minded them, but didn't associate sexual arousal with enemas at the time. Year later, when I entered puberty, my mind remembered the nice warm enemas I received as a child, and I decided to try them in private. Yes....I've been enjoying them ever since.

When I hit puberty is when I really started to enjoy getting enemas. My Mom used to talk about high enemas that they gave in the hospital where she was a nurse she called them 3h enemas. She started to give them to me when I was about 16 and even when they hurt a little toward the end I still loved them and I got a thrill when she told me she was going to give me one and I saw the colon tube. She always gave a regular enema first. The anticipation was fantastic.

I had a job many years back that had me visiting several bathrooms a week. Now this was during the 80s and 90's and when I could, I would look for enema douche equipment and it was a definite turn on when I found something. I was amazed at the number of master bathrooms that had this type of equipment still. I would later dream of the younger wife/mothers using this equipment.

I was born in 1959 and when growing up not only did I get enemas but my friends did, too. Lots of families made no effort to hide their enema equipment, although my own mom did. People would talk about them much more openly than today and I do recall the mom of one of my friends saying how she needed help giving an enema and my mom going across the street to assist. We don't talk about it that much anymore and generally feel that sex is much more open topic by comparison.

It is a bit different today. The whole issue of enemas seems to be more closed and "taboo". There are only a few places where contacts can be made with fellow "klysmophiles".

klyster3

It's really surprising to hear how open and common the practice of enemas was in decades past. I'm only 35, and so did not experience that era. Was it really as common as you all say, or do you think your perception is colored by the fact that it was used frequently in your own family? If just seems like it couldn't have been quite as prevalent as some are describing. I'll bet that a lot of the families that frequently took enemas were headed by parents who were quite health conscious anyway.

Over a decade ago, I received two gravity-flow colonics from a woman of about 45-50 years of age who did them in a room above her husband's chiropractic office. During the procedure, I mentioned that I had considered trying a bag enema, as I had never had one at that time. She said that she still uses them in her family, and that as soon as her kids get sick, they pull out the bag.

The only thing I remember about early enemas from Mom was it was all business, amber folding bag with Ivory suds flowing down the side, small bars inside floating, and it seamed hot as hell. Then hung on a coat hanger from the shower rod, me on a bed of towel in the tub, CRAMPING before the nozzle was ever inserted with Cold Cream, and then only thing said during the process was, "Hold on just a little more", I don't remember the nozzle it seamed as large as a bowling pin in those days, my God the cramps......I wonder how I became to enjoy "A Good Enema" !!!!!! roflmao ( early '50s )

TommyG...........i was raised in an "enema conscious" home and it was just routine to receive an enema, mostly from mother but her sister and my grandmother were also involved. When I had an erection, I was told that it was perfectly normal and not to be embarrassed about having one and growing up in an enema environment, those happened quite often.

A true story. Way back when there was only castoroil and enemas,mom and her bridge ladies choose enemas, and it was constant conversation. One day a bridge lady was late, her excuse, Jimmie needed an enema, and how he screamed, but with pride announced,"Got it all in". The ladies agreed a large enema is needed to be good. Mom was a champ no spanking or soap sticks, no need as her enemas were always large,cry scream,beg you got it until the bag was flat.Fast forward, years later the company I worked for a company that had a NYC office and I had 30 years of enema play.NYC was Great for enemas, could write a book.

I think back to the days I received my enemas and I question the timing. I was born in 1956 and received my first enema at age 4 so it was 1960. I received until I was 13 so this made it 1969. I believe that by the 1960's enemas were pretty much out of vogue and not mainstream anymore. I knew of no one else who was still receiving enemas at that time. I think my Mom had carried on her tradition well past the so called "Golden Age" of enemas and that partially accounted for the air of secrecy that surrounded my enemas. While I looked with dread and nervousness on those hot very soapy enemas what I would not do to be able to turn back the clock and relive each and every one of them!

I still remember my first it was 1-16 -60 , was woke up early in the morning for it .

My mom has always used enems on me and it was not unusual to get them at my doc so mabe the golden age is still here but a matter of medical schoolo/opinion just a thought.....

Hello lindab13,

I think your mom and your Doc are an exception in todays environment

klyster3

My grandson was taken to a children's hospital the other day because he was throwing up. It was determined that he was constipated and he was given an enema. I was surprised as I thought like many on this site that enemas were a thing of the past by today's medical personell. I am guessing that the doctor figured that an enema was the quickest way to fix the problem as a laxative would have taken time. As far as I am guessing he was not given a small fleet type enema, but either a bulb or bag enema.

Bill

I have a 3 year old grandson, and his mother says ablolutly no to an enema,(even though she got them as a youngster, herself.) All she wants to do is feed the kid alot of fruit and give him a laxative.