Baby feeding schedule of 1970's

[HoHoHowMuch]

A relative found this feeding schedule from probably early to mid 1970's. Amazed to see how much advice has changed! No feeding on demand. Orange juice from 2 months and boiled cows milk from 8 months. No fresh vegetables, but honey at 7 months is all good. I guess we all survived, so it can't have been that bad, but looks VERY different to what I have done with my kids in the past 10 years.

My colleague (Also a paediatric nurse) stuck to a 4 hourly feeding schedule for her new born. I think the child is about 8 now. We were a little bit horrified by this, especially as she had jaundice.

Had my 4 in the 60s.They were all breastfed for at least 6months. When I came home from hospital with my first, my doctor visited and when he was going he asked why I had decided to breastfeed. My rather feeble reply was, "I thought that was what you did." My only experience was my mother feeding my brother and my best friend's mother who breastfed her two youngest. I later realised that very few people where we were living (North Durham) breastfed their babies.

The first thing I did (well not quite, maybe exaggerating) was make two large slices of peanut butter on toast. Sorry, I don't want to risk having a peanut allergy child - I love my peanut butter.

We all do the things we think are best based on the information we have at the time. I only had DS in 2019 so really recently. He was on a 3 hourly schedule but as this was due to him loosing a large percentage of his birthweight if he was hungry sooner he was fed sooner. I talked a lot about the way things were done when my mum had my younger sister in 1998. Guidance on how to make bottles was updated. Safe sleep guidance was updated. Now me and my sister are both adults and the way we were fed etc as an infant did us no harm. But I still did things according to the guidance available.

As an example just look at how much car seats have changed over the years, I find it fascinating. From no car seat, to loosely attached to the back seat to now Swedish plus tested ERF seats. All because of new research and developments.

I had a small (6lb 6oz) baby boy in 1977. Because BIL was a medic and there was a serious history of cows' milk allergy in DH's family, we decided to BF only and not introduce milk, eggs or wheat until 1 year. All baby food was home prepared. It wasn't that much bother, but it was revolutionary to the local health professionals. The problem was that DS1 grew very quickly indeed, doubling his birth weight after a few weeks. He demanded BF every 2½ - to 3 hours, but slept really well (with a couple of brief refuelling sessions obviously!) and turned very quickly into a big, sturdy, energetic toddler without an ounce of fat on him. I was pretty slim too with all that BF. The HVs were always on my case - if he wasn't made to wait for four hours, he would develop bad eating habits and become spoilt...I ought to start him on baby cereal at 3 months, preferably wonderful nutritious Milupa, to make him go longer between feeds. I refused because Milupa was full of cows' milk protein and egg. But how would we know if he was allergic if we didn't try him on it? Not worth the risk, looking at the other children in the family. And so on. In the end, they left me to get on with it. The dietitian at the local hospital was very helpful in finding food that would fill him up safely - she said she didn't recommend pork for babies normally, but in DS' case it was worth a try. She also provided soya milk to mix with rice and porridge. Nice woman. And he's still a big, chunky guy...

I remember in the early 90s my mum (born in the 60s, youngest) and my grandma (a rural midwife trained in the 40s) having blazing arguments over how to feed/settle my little sister.

I think breastfeeding worked out for me because I just had absolute confidence that it would and no expectation that it would fail, because I didn't know anyone who hadn't breastfed their babies for at least 6 months except my mum, who combi-fed. My grandma was of the opinion that my dsis (who screamed nonstop for 18 months) needed "proper" (breast) milk and my mum was adamant she was using formula instead, which my grandma was certain was rubbish.

She also disapproved of jar foods, believing mashed vegetables were better, and she thought baby rice was equally rubbish. Babies should sleep in the same room as the mother for as long as possible and she was very suspicious of these disposable nappies and insisted my mum use cloth ones (with "safety" pins and crackly plastic pants) which my grandma rinsed in the toilet before boil washing in a pot on the hob! As a six-year-old I was completely shocked and disgusted!

My mum's response was that my grandma was old-fashioned, and my mum stuck Dsis in a cot in another room and unsuccessfully left her to cry it out daily for 18 months. But she did do the cloth nappies. The jar foods were abruptly halted when there was a scandal over ground glass being found in some of them and my mum borrowed a food processor and switched to purees.

Your grandma was right. Disposable nappies are easier and I used them. But I think it was much easier to toilet train with the old cloth nappies.

The whole "we all survived" argument is incredibly flawed!!! 🤦🏻‍♀️

You survived, your family survived. But probably other people didn't and their parents/family fought hard for things to change.

Personally I survived no wearing seatbelts! A lot of other people didn't...........

Yes they do. I'm a milk donor for a milk bank who supplies NICU units. They don't pay now though.

@grey12 I do agree that we shouldn't just be looking for survival. When I think back to the lack of car seats and seat belts, playgrounds with concrete under the climbing frame, being put to sleep on our front etc there must be a lot of kids that didn't make it. It will be interesting to see what advice is given when my kids are at the age of having their own kids if they choose. They will probably think their childhood was terribly unsafe.

The irony here is that those of us brought up in those “dangerous” times may well live longer than those born now. Life expectancy is starting to fall…

I had my first in the late 70s. Four hourly feeds were the thing (if normal birth weight, otherwise 3 hourly) - 6, 10, 2, 6, 10, 2.

Worked fine for my first (I breastfed) - she’d evidently read the books, mostly slept between feeds. 2nd wanted a bit more frequent feeding in the very early days, but settled into the routine after a few weeks.

Starting solids at 3 months was pretty normal - tiny amounts of puréed foods. Though a Dsis of mine started her 2nd at 2 months - a very hungry baby, going through 2 full bottles and still wanting more. He’s late 40s now, never remotely overweight, always perfectly healthy.

My DM (who had 4) always used to say, ‘Fill them up and they’ll sleep’ - I know say it’s 😱to say that now, but maybe fewer big feeds rather than endless tiny ones does help with that.

As always, a lot depends on having an ‘easy’ baby though - I dare say my DM and I were lucky.

Baby care advice does change - I was horrified at what my MiL told me about stern ‘gospel’ advice at the time, which she thought all wrong, but was too scared/unsure of herself to ‘disobey’. (‘You must not pick them up when they cry!’)

My DM, OTOH would never have listened to that sort of crap.

I really believe that today rising obesity levels pose a greater risk to good health and longevity than ever changing advice on how babies are fed and raised. There are too many fat children and young people who are setting themselves up for problems later. Everywhere you look people are snacking and eating.

I wonder if the feeding on demand has then spilled over into toddlerhood where children have a snack regularly, and the culture of snacking and grazing continues into adulthood.
As adults we are not accustomed to the feelings of hunger and yet for adults fasting has been shown to help with weight loss. It’s an area currently being researched.

I’m not suggesting that feeding infants on demand is wrong, but I wonder if there’s a point in our lives where this becomes detrimental rather than beneficial.

I think snacks are fine but people have big snacks instead of maybe an apple at around 60 Cal's that will help regulate blood sugar and satiate until the next proper meal, they're giving kids.. peanut butter sandwiches (filling them up too much for dinner) or crap like "melty puffs" which won't fill them properly and are almost like... something to do.

I'm all for snacks, but it should be something like an apple or a small pear, or maybe a babybel size cheese, a digestive, a small handful of nuts etc

Snacking started when the food industry started pushing it as more healthy. Before then people had their meals and only occasional snacking. Maybe an apple or a biscuit with a cup of tea. But the food industry started seeding articles about how eating lots of small snacks were more healthy than 3 meals a day. People snacked more and snacked with their children because they thought it was healthier for blood sugar levels. At the same time, food manufacturers started to sell packaged snacks, many not that healthy but sold as healthy e.g. dried raisins and other fruit, cheese dippers, etc.

I think it does help regulate blood sugar levels.

If you're having lunch at 1, and then nothing until around. 8pm, then maybe an apple, or a slice of toast, or a piece of cheese would be good around 4pm

Why does Mumsnet take a thread about an interesting document from the past into fat bashing?

In 2004, my health visitor told me to start wraning at 6 weeks old because he was "a hungry baby". And I did! My son became quite ill with gut intolerances for years.

When I had my daughter in 2009, I exclusively breastfed and then did baby led weaning. Fit as a fiddle.

I actually cured my son's gut problems at age 5 when his sister was born by pumping milk for him to have instead of cows milk. I explained what I was trying to do to help with his eczema and gut issues. he agreed and after a few months, his issues cleared up.

I'm pregnant again and have already opted out of health visitor appointments. Exclusively bf and baby led weaning all the way. Nature knows best

@Mylittlesandwich Saying that obesity in children and young people is a problem is not fat bashing. I'm overweight myself and I know there are things about my health that improve when I lose weight. I really admire the confidence young women have in their bodies these days. It's a great thing. But there is no doubt that being overweight, especially from a young age, is not good for long term health.

Anyway, I don't want to derail the thread but I wanted to be clear that I am not 'fat bashing'. I just wondered about the connection between children being fed on demand, constant snacking and obesity. It's not a bad thing to feel hungry sometimes.

I had my DC in 89 & 91. Fed every 4hrs, solids from 12 weeks, own room from around 16 weeks by which point they were sleeping through the night. Another thing I feel was different, is back then people didn’t hold and/or entertain babies/toddlers constantly. You had bouncy chairs/walkers/the door frame hanging things etc. Mums got on with their day and baby slotted into that.

Because of that I found it all quite easy, even with having two 18months apart. It seems a lot harder now!

It isn’t fat bashing.
We were looking at infant feeding from years ago and considering the health of those people now. We also had noted that life expectancy is now falling so the young people of today are not likely to live as long as their parents or grandparents. This lead to discussion about eating habits today.
There’s no doubt that obesity is much more prevalent than it was 20-30 years ago. The question is , is there a link between that and the culture of continual snacking?

@digestivebiscu1t less food allergies though I would say
Don't remember any at school with them
Plus plenty of healthy people in this generation as well, also depends on what they did later in life
I had my first in 2003 and even then weaning was at 4 months and lumps at 7 months , and advised to try and get a schedule of feeding so not on demand other than first couple weeks , mine pretty much always went 3 hrs min anyway
It changes all tne time in 10 years prob be different again

@SwordToFlamethrower i breastfed and my son has awful excema

He was the one I breastfed the longest as well so it just depends
I think babies are all different and what suits one may not suit another
Same son he went 4 hrs between feeds naturally where as older ds was more like 2 hrs
We just went with our instincts and what appeared baby needed which worked for us
My young friend is struggling now with her baby as she is trying to follow all advice to the letter and not using any instinct, worrying if baby doesn 't have exact sleep as suggested at exact times etc

My DM (who had 4) always used to say, ‘Fill them up and they’ll sleep’ - I know say it’s 😱to say that now, but maybe fewer big feeds rather than endless tiny ones does help with that.

It might be 😱 but it is true. It certainly worked with all of mine. Both breasts each time, plus dream feed before I went to bed. All slept through by 11 weeks. I might have been lucky but I don’t think it was a coincidence.