To ask what people did before formula?

[Annabelleinapickle]

There's always a BF/FF debate but genuinely what did we do before formula existed? It worked fine then, people produced milk? Personally I think it's all the devices, unhealthy crap invented that has made our bodies less able.

Really? They starved.

Yes really, babies starved to death.

Is this create a Feeding AIBU day?

I don't know why a couple of people are being mean to the OP. It's a reasonable question.

I used to have an old textbook that had a recipe for makeshift baby milk - something like condensed milk diluted, boiled, and vegetable oil plus extra sugar added iirc.

Another thread

Wet nursing where available, which does carry risks formula doesn't. Cows milk, other substitutes including water/cereal mixes.

There are records of lactation failure going back as far as there is writing. Back to ancient Egyptians. So is it bollocks anything to do with formula being invented.

You might also want to look into infant mortality figures for those days. They weren't pretty.

I think it must be Only.

Every child that was born grew up healthy and strong and lived until 90, Annabelle

My parents were born just after the war. My GM was expected to work. Needed to work. There was no formula as we know it and my mum was fed the "national milk" which was pretty much sweetened dried cow's milk with added vitamin D
www.cooksinfo.com/national-dried-milk

Well a lot more babies died, so they would potentially be more people with milk and no baby.

But I suspect for poorer people that would be the exception rather than the rule as people were too busy trying to survive themselves to help the neighbour's baby.

To be honest, I hadn't looked at the figures. Clearly in my own bubble far too much.

Sorry for my naive post and if it's caused any offence, heart in my mouth now having read what I have.

I'm not against formula in anyway, and I'd never judge a mother on what way she chooses to feed her child. In fact I'm more grateful for formula now I've read the stats. X

I reckon there are a few journos starting bf/FF threads since JO made his comment about bf being easy. Hi Matthew.

Aye, Lemon

And please. Just enjoy the fact that you can give your baby some milk from you and top it up with something nutritious that will keep them alive and thriving and is very unlikely to harm them in any way, whatsoever.

And talk to your HV or GP if you're feeling overly anxious about that.

My uncle was born just before the war and rejected breast milk and the only formula available (there was only one kind then).

He was raised on cows milk and condensed milk. He was a fine healthy child but despite being fit and healthy all his life and eating healthily, he developed type 2 diabetes in his fifties.
I've always wondered if poor infant nutrition was a factor in that. My dad, his brother, lived a very unhealthy lifestyle and sadly died at only 59, but he didn't develop diabetes. As a baby he took to breastfeeding and presumably that and formula are much better for a baby than cows milk.

Thanks Lemon but as far as journalism is concerned, my pumping log is the only thing I keep in a journal.

In relation to starving to death I imagine that malnourished babies were more likely to succumb to other illnesses which might have killed them.

My grandmother was born in a developing country and had a son (my uncle) born with a cleft palate deformity. He couldn't latch on and breastfeed and starved to death. She described trying to feed him and the milk just running back out of his mouth.

Funnily enough, I was only thinking the other day that my little DS probably wouldn't have survived infancy in an earlier time... He had tongue tie and couldn't suck though I had lots of milk. He also had colic and screamed loads, and CMPA and reflux so would chuck up a lot. I'd probably have thought he was a changeling and exposed him for the fairies to take away.

There are examples of 'hand feeding ' which date back thousands of years. One of the main problems was it often involved a tube which was hard to clean so many died from drinking dirty fluids.
Personally, I don't think it's a stupid question at all with us all being told that everyone can feed their babies. I hear this question all the time.

Personally I think it's all the devices, unhealthy crap invented that has made our bodies less able

I really dont know what you mean by that so could you expand please?

My DM had condensed milk as she was a poorly baby and this is what was recommended. It was wartime so everyone gave their condensed milk rations to my grandma so my
Mum would have enough.
Mad isn't it.
She still loves condensed milk.

Yep my son would have died.

Possibly dd too.

I fed dd for 5 weeks until I was admitted to hospital very ill. My milk dried up.

I didn't produce any with ds.

We any afford to pay someone (or a couple of someone's) to feed the kids.

So yes my babies would have died.

I didn't even have a home computer when I had dd. Don't get the link.

My uncle starved to death at two weeks old i the 1930,s my grandma,s first baby she formula fed her other three thank god for formula.

Load of tosh answers to your question here OP!

The infant mortality rate was not higher before formula because of a lack of breast milk!

Those that could use a wet nurse mostly did not do so because of a lack of milk!

Before we had formula, people knew how to BF properly and had a lot of very good support on hand.

The human female does produce enough milk except in very odd/rare circumstances.

We're genetically designed for evolution, think about it for more than one goady minute

PMSL at that one.

Some of the posts on this thread are really interesting, the recipe for milk, for example. I do not understand why there can't be a single thread about feeding without posters coming on to have a go and shout journalist. It's the kind of thing that might pop into my head to ask, I'm on mums net so I put a quick post up. Jeez. You all make it REALLY boring for everyone else by shouting about goady threads all the time. I think this is interesting OP.