Throughout the ages and until the end of the 19th century, animal's milk was the most common source of artificial feeding. As mentioned earlier, pap and panada were used only as supplements to animal's milk when the infant failed to thrive.
Wet-nursed children often died, but not as frequently as the babies of wet nurses, deprived of their mothers' milk. An even riskier alternative was bottle-feeding or spoon-feeding. Infants ate soft or liquid foods made from animal milk, broth, or grains.
From the 1930s or early 1940s, most formulas fed to infants in the United States were prepared by mixing evaporated milk or fresh cow's milk with water and adding carbohydrate.
Prehistoric babies were bottle-fed with animal milk more than 3,000 years ago, according to new evidence.
Cow's milk can be an alternative
In a bind, babies over 6 months old—who are already eating solids—can have cow's milk, Dr. Phillips notes. Keep the dairy to under a week. Babies allergic to cow's milk can also drink soy milk fortified with calcium and vitamin D, she adds.
Parents who could not afford a wet nurse turned to alternative baby foods. In early modern Europe and early America, caregivers mixed animal milk, water, or broth with flour, bread, or other grains, much like the Wabanaki blend of nut milk and cornmeal.
By the 1940s and through the 1960s, most infants who were not breastfed received evaporated milk formula, as well as vitamins and iron supplements. It is estimated that, in 1960, 80% of bottle-fed infants in the US were being fed with an evaporated milk formula.
There were three options available to Victorian mothers: maternal breastfeeding, wet nursing (the employment of another woman to breastfeed the baby), and “hand” (bottle or spoon) feeding.
Pap was the common hand feeding source of nourishment for infants. It became common to add flour to milk (or water), to produce a more solid food and this became known as pap which could be fed to the infant from a spoon or a “pap boat”. Pap boats came in tin, and for the wealthy, enamelled ware or silver.
By the 1920s, instead of nursing babies in hospitals, households, orphanages, and other institutions, most wet nurses began to sell their breast milk to be bottled. The decline of wet nursing coincided with the rise of bottle-feeding in the 1910s.
Twelve years ago, 300,000 children in China were poisoned after drinking infant milk formula that contained melamine, a chemical used in plastic. Six babies were killed by the toxic substance, which was used by 22 companies to artificially boost the protein levels that showed up in nutrition tests.
A 1950s recipe card for homemade baby formula — containing evaporated milk, water and karo (corn syrup) — is spreading online. The same recipe card also instructs parents to feed their infants orange juice at three weeks old.
By the early 1960s, commercial formulas were more commonly used than evaporated milk formulas in the United States, which all but vanished in the 1970s. By the early 1970s, over 75% of American babies were fed on formulas, almost entirely commercially produced.
“Formula recipes that include PET evaporated milk provide inadequate calories and fat content and contain too much salt and protein for an infant's kidneys, and it is deficient in several minerals and vitamins,” according to Dr. David Deutsch, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Mercyhealth.
In the Victorian period, babies were fed broth, milk and diluted wine in special baby feeders.
At 12 months old (but not before), your child can be introduced to cow's milk. Before your child is 12 months old, cow's milk may put him or her at risk for intestinal bleeding. It also has too many proteins and minerals for your baby's kidneys to handle and does not have the right amount of nutrients your baby needs.
A woman can only act as a wet nurse if she is lactating (producing milk). It was once believed that a wet nurse must have recently undergone childbirth in order to lactate. This is not necessarily the case, as regular breast stimulation can elicit lactation via a neural reflex of prolactin production and secretion.
The First Cribs
Parents have always laid their babies down in bundles of cloth or even baskets. However, the invention of the first crib-like structure didn't take place until between the 1600s and 1800s. Even then, people used hollowed-out logs for this purpose, and rarely did they cradle a newborn for a full night.
The monarch breastfed all four of her children
The Queen was quite a trailblazer when it came to parenting, however, opting to breastfeed all four of her children herself.
A social distinction between classes, emphasised by the use of wet nurses, is first recorded in this time period, as royalty primarily used wet nurses to feed their infants. Immediately after a queen gave birth, her infant was given to the wet nurse, who then breastfed the infant.
Swaddling involved wrapping the infant in linen strips with his legs together and his arms close to his body. This, of course, immobilized him and made him much easier to keep out of trouble. But infants were not swaddled continuously. They were changed regularly and released from their bonds to crawl around.
Dry nursing, or comfort nursing, is a process in which an infant or toddler engages in the act of sucking without consuming any breast milk or formula. This practice has been observed in many cultures for centuries and is often used to provide comfort, security, and bonding between a mum and the baby.
In 1920, the U. S. Public Health Service published a “sample formula for a six-months-old baby” consisting of 24 ounces of milk, 12 ounces of water, and 3 tablespoons of malt sugar, spread over five feedings daily.
For powdered formula:
Measure the amount of water needed and add it to a clean bottle. Use the scoop that came with the formula container to scoop the powdered formula. Add the number of scoops needed into the bottle. Attach the nipple and cap to the bottle and shake well.