What would a baby born in the 40's have been fed if not breastfed? - Page 5

[savithny]

yeah, orange or tomato juice was started at 2 months, and cod liver oil around that time too.

Remember, though, that it was in VERY small amounts -- a few ounces a day. It wasn't a beverage the way people think of it now.

And yes, it was very consciously to make up for the nutritional deficiencies of the "formulas." canned milk was recommended because it was safer from a pathogens point of view, but then canned milk had the vitamin C cooked out of it. CLO was for the vitamin D, even before they understood that was the substance that was most needed in it.

[emmaegbert]

My grandmother was apparently lactose intolerant as a baby (very rare, but does happen) and she was apparently fed barley water. She had pervasive health and mental problems all her life. She breastfed one of her 5 kids (my mom).

in the late 60s, my mom was studying for her junior year abroad in Rome, and the young adult son of her family and the son next door were "milk brothers" because one of the moms nursed both of them (I don't remember which). That would have been probably right after WWII ended- possibly Italians would have also made these sorts of "formulas" in better times but these families, at least, were still cooperatively nursing infants. My mom thought it sounded gross/crazy (to her 19-year-old self) b/c she'd never heard of such a thing growing up in upper-middle-class post-war America.

my husband was born in 1975 and was not breastfed, and was fed commercial formula, and at the advice of doctors, "solids" starting at 2 weeks and was eating meat by 3 months.

There is a FASCINATING book by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy called "Mother Nature" with a whole chapter all about the biological and cultural history of feeding infants. From what she says, it most definitely NOT "awesome" to be a wetnurse (or an orphan) in the pre-industrial Europe (or pre-formula days I guess) unless working for a very wealthy family- and those wet-nurses often had to leave behind their own nursling or were available to nurse a rich baby b/c their baby had died. I was fascinated to read that most children, even of the rich, were sent away to live with their wetnurse for at least a year and infant mortality was very high for those babies. You can do a search when you "look inside" the book for "milky way" and read a bunch of it. I think its an amazing book.

[emmaegbert]

Originally Posted by daisymommy

My mom was a bit of a naturalist back then, and I was breastfed till I was 1. But she said the doctors and nurses all made her feel like it was dirty and second class to do so

My mom lied to the doctors about weaning me b/c so much pressure from doctors to do so (said I was weaned and on solids at 6m when that wasn't true at all). She did switch me to cow milk bottles at 9m. Apparently I was so desperate at that point that I tried to nurse my dad. Oh, my mom also waited 4 hours between feedings no matter how much I cried. She said it was awful. And that everyone just said I was a fussy baby. When she watched me nursing on demand, I think she really felt bad, she apologized and said she just didn't know better.

All good reasons to take the advice of "professionals" (and our own moms, lol) with a grain of salt. I was strongly advised to night-wean when my son was 12m and I told the doc is wasn't bothering me or him, and thank you very much, but I'll take his word over hers about when he is hungry.