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I don’t mean to be adamant, but there was no such thing as powdered baby formula for centuries and we all grew up just fine.
Quite right.
I never had formula, although we called it formula. It was just whole milk (since 2%, low-fat, and pseudo-milk did not exist) mixed with different stuff like honey, or a few drops of cod liver oil or Brandy or whatever.
Seriously, I'm not sure why American women stopped breast-feeding.
You can't blame it on the Women's Lib movement, because American women had stopped decades before that.
It seems to be largely an urban phenomenon, because rural women were still breast-feeding up through the 1960s.
I never had formula, although we called it formula. It was just whole milk (since 2%, low-fat, and pseudo-milk did not exist) mixed with different stuff like honey, or a few drops of cod liver oil or Brandy or whatever.
Seriously, I'm not sure why American women stopped breast-feeding.
You can't blame it on the Women's Lib movement, because American women had stopped decades before that.
It seems to be largely an urban phenomenon, because rural women were still breast-feeding up through the 1960s.
American women stopped breast feeding when commercial formula was available in the 1920's.
I couldn't produce enough breast milk with my daughter and my son could not suck properly. I know a couple of friends couldn't produce enough breast milk either. My doctor said what increased child survival rates in the early 20th century was formula. Until then, if a mother couldn't produce enough milk, the baby was sent off to a wet-nurse or fed milk alone.
FWIW, We were super careful with my first child - only had one new food every week so we could test for food allergies. My four month old son looked at my husband homemade cheeseburger like it was the best thing ever. His doctor said to start him on solid foods and he ate with gusto! No allergy testing for him!
American women stopped breast feeding when commercial formula was available in the 1920's.
I couldn't produce enough breast milk with my daughter and my son could not suck properly. I know a couple of friends couldn't produce enough breast milk either. My doctor said what increased child survival rates in the early 20th century was formula. Until then, if a mother couldn't produce enough milk, the baby was sent off to a wet-nurse or fed milk alone.
Yes, more or less. There were still mothers who breastfed. My mom breastfed six of her seven babies, starting in the later 1940s (the one who got formula was my sister who was slightly premature, undersized and having a hard time feeding), but a large number of women at that time went straight to bottle feeding.
Doctors liked to recommend formula because they saw that babies who hadn't thrived on breastfeeding, or whose mothers were having a terrible time with it, did well with bottles of formula. So if it was good for them, why wouldn't it be good for all? Formula was much easier and more scientific than breastfeeding, and "scientific" was a big deal back then. A mother and her doctor could know exactly how much the baby was eating and feel assured that the formula milk was full of all the right nutrients. At least, that's what they thought.
Breastfeeding by comparison seemed like a big hassle: it was more time-consuming, only the mother could feed the baby, there was no way to know whether baby was getting all the nutrients it needed, mother could get mastitis, etc. Of course formula and bottles were also expensive so poor and rural women were more likely to breastfeed than wealthier city dwellers.
Formula shortages is only the beginning…. Wait until there’s food shortages everywhere in the U.S. bc farmlands are being sold in every direction. Many people probably think food just magically appear on grocery store shelves. Most young adults have no interest in farming. I think our future generations will be depending more on lab-grown food.
If you can’t or won’t breast feed your babies, please be aware that a generation of babies were fed just fine on Evaporated milk, Karo syrup and water. Internet recipes are readily available.
It is also possible to restart breast milk production with proper stimulation. There have been a few reported cases of men producing milk too.
I hope they get this crap together asap, our second wasn't able to drink regular formula so we had to buy hypoallergenic. I can't imagine what it's like for those parents right now.
It is also possible to restart breast milk production with proper stimulation. There have been a few reported cases of men producing milk too.
The first is not as easy as it may sound (keep in mind that many mothers who are not breastfeeding their infants aren't breastfeeding because it didn't work), and the second...well, let's just say neither of these is a potential solution to the formula shortage.
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