Have been reading a fabulous book with lots of suggestions for increasing milk production.
My favourite is: "The pouder of earth wormes, dryed and dronken in the brothe of a neates tonge"
(apparently a "neate" is an ox, cow or heifer)
So this is what the up-to-date HV of the 16th century would have been forcing down my throat.....
The book is called "The Boke of Chyldren" by Thomas Phaer, and it's a sort of early paediatric text book. It was published in 1544, and some of the stuff is a bit yuck, but some of it stands up today, eg I notice he also mentions fennel as being good for milk, and that's still going strong.
The "breast vs bottle" debate of his day was "own mother vs wet nurse" and he's very strongly in favour of breastfeeding your own child. Says it is "moost commendable and holsome". So, no changes there.
He also says that sleep is very important for babies ("slepe is the nouryshment and foode of a suckyng chylde", and that "baby pasta is thee worke of thee devylle". Seems a sensible chap really.
(OK, OK, the last quote is made-up. )