What did people do before formula was invented?

[JollySergeantJackrum]

If they couldn't breastfeed? I've been wondering about this a lot. And were babies weaned much earlier?

One of my grans talks about feeding my dad eggs at 6weeks and the other says her milk disappeared at 6weeks, but neither is very clear about what happened next.

My husband was fed on Carnation tins from birth: he was born in 1967 (in UK)
In fact MIL is very pro-BF (and both her daughters have BF) - I just think she wasn't given any sensible help with her first child and just assumed she couldn' t do it.

I was born in the 70s and I was given Carnation! Mum defensively says it was fine. Fortified, she says.

Ninja It's the PD James sequel to P&P, Death Comes To Pemberly.

I have some thoughts about it, but that's a whole other thread!!

in a BF-prevalent society though, it's not that hard to find someone who can feed a baby ... adoptive mothers in the third world usually do ( i think 80% of adoptive mothers in PNG) ..although yes all kinds of 'stop-gap' foods were given...

women who have BF before sometimes come into milk just around other womans baby..and you read on here about women still 'leaking' years after they have stopped. you wouldn't need to recruit someone who'd lost their own baby, probably most women that had already had kids, and had the time would do.

pictures of women working in the C17th / C18th also show them carrying babies whilst they work . I think factory workers in the C19th typically had their babies brought to them for feeding in breaks (as much as a contraceptive as anything).

Yes, I thought it might be :o

My grandads sister took a reaction to breastmilk and they thought she was going to die because she couldnt feed. They ended up giving her sponge cake mixed with water to make a thin paste. She died 2 years ago at the ripe old age of 94

Ninja

Hijack, sorry, but what did you think of it? I'm half-way through and already more than a little disappointed. It was a Christmas present from DP though so, what with that and the need to know if I've guessed the ending correctly, I've got to finish it.

I enjoyed it - I think the language was very nice and there's a little bonus at the end for anyone who had read Emma. Not fantastic and groundbreaking , but an enjoyable read and not (IMO) in any way conflicting with the spirit of P&P.