In the past, parenting was a little different than it is now.Everything from birth to discipline to nutrition seems to have change drastically on past some decades. The invention of infant formula revolutionized the way babies were fed and provided much needed nutrition to babies who, for whatever reason, were unable to obtain breast milk. New moms will be sent home from the hospital with recipes for a homemade formula using ingredients that most parents today won't approve of.
formula evolution
In the days before the Industrial Revolution, it didn't make sense for children to come of age. So many have lost their first few years to every kind of illness and accident - which is one reason why there are so many strict guidelines around childcare today.
For babies whose mothers died in childbirth, early formulations were given when a wet nurse was not available - to help babies survive until they could eat solid food.
The first formulas for babies were invented in the 19th century and were often made with forms of sugars and grains and either cow's milk or freshly canned evaporated milk. These early formulas were considered "ideal foods" at the time, and were presumed to be nutritionally complete despite little scientific evidence to support them.
However, the use of early formulas was dangerous because sterilization of baby bottles and nipples was not yet common. The germ theory was not widely accepted until the 20th century, as bottle feeding became less dangerous.
The increase in the number of women working outside the home in the late nineteenth century also reduced their milk supply because they breastfed their children on a schedule rather than feeding them normally. This led clinicians to believe that milk production had become evolutionarily unnecessary and that girls' education might have been hampering their physical development.
Eventually, breastfeeding came to be seen as something only uneducated women would do, and by the mid-20th century, many healthcare professionals pushed formula milk as a natural alternative, especially after the long separation between mother and child in hospital.
Twilight sleep births, which severely sedated the mother for days on end, left mother and baby separated sometimes for a week or more. Many of these mothers were encouraged to use the formula.It wasn't until the late 1950s that groups like La Leche League & others tried to do this.promote breastfeeding as the default option, using milk only when there was no other alternative.
Beginning in the 1930s and 1940s, more nutritionally intense types of powder were sold that were supplemented with nutrients and were seen as safe if used with equipment and sterile water. Many hospitals and doctors at the time were also writing instructions on making baby formula at home - and these recipes include things we would never give newborns today.
No matter what types of feeding a family chooses for a new baby, most people today will never give their babies evaporated milk or Karo syrup. However, these types of recipes are exactly what many moms send home. Below is one from 1960.
The recipe calls for 13 ounces of evaporated milk, 20 ounces of water, and 2 teaspoons of Karo syrup to heat together and divide into 6 bottles. The 'Special Instructions' also state giving the child water twice daily, giving 2 ounces of tea daily, giving vitamins starting at 10 days of age, and giving orange juice diluted with water only after 3 weeks!
Today we know that most babies find it difficult to digest solids, sugars and other substances until they are around 6 months old (or older). Most of the modern parents did not allow their children to taste tea until their childhood. However, in ancient times it was common to give babies food made of meat to babies as young as one month old and to offer salty and thickened soups to young children. Thinking back then was very different from what it is today.
