children's medicine for nervousness; traditional remedy for fretfulness in children
A traditional Japanese herbal or folk medicine given to calm irritable, restless, or colicky children. The term is somewhat old-fashioned and may be encountered in historical or cultural contexts.
In the old days, they used to give children's calming medicine to babies who cried at night.
My grandmother often used the phrase 'mushi no mushigusuri' (medicine for the 'worm' that causes fretfulness).
Formed from 虫, referring to the traditional 疳の虫 believed to cause childhood fretfulness or convulsions, and 薬, “medicine.”