What was the official feeding advice in the 1970s?

[stargirl1701]

This is a little TAAT.

What was the advice given to mums in the 1970s about feeding their babies? I was a baby then and my mum is dead so I can't ask her. MIL has been quite disapproving of me managing to ebf DD2 (23 weeks now). Is the advice/practice really that different?

Just interested, if anyone knows.

3littlefrogs, my Aunt pumped for preemies in 1979. She had oversupply and seemed to have enough for the ward, according to her!

i was born in the 70s and my mum breastfed on demand and then weaned me at 3 months. my brother was born in the 60s and got weaned at 6 weeks :/

That's good to know daylillie, I've heard so many varied systems for feeding twins!

I just thought tandem would be the way to go because DS will be 19mo when they're born and will still need a lot of attention.

16 weeks! That's terrible - TT diagnosis and revision is very hit and miss over here too. You really have to push to have it checked out and snipped.

There was a big difference between early 70s and late because by the time I had DC2 in 1980 all the advice had changed

stargirl1701
We had a "milk kitchen" where the nursery nurses sterilized the donated expressed milk and decanted it into bottles for either bottle feeding or tube feeding the babies in SCBU.

Everyone who had any breast milk was co-opted into expressing and donating! Hence the pumps being called "Daisy" as in the popular name for cows!

HIV wasn't heard of then - that was only in the early 80s.

My mum was born in 67 and my uncle 74. My gran was very proud I tried Breastfeeding and because I did we had a discussion about it. No idea about with my mum but apparently with my uncle the mw asked how she was going to feed him and she said breast and apparently at that time, it was so against the norm that the nurse couldn't hide the disgust on her face.

Don't know about schedules tho.

MIL had BIL in 1970 and DH in 1972. She was given tablets to dry up her milk and didn't even consider breastfeeding. She couldn't bear to leave them crying so gave them a bottle when they were hungry. She can't remember the details of weaning, but was surprised and fascinated that DD, her only grandchild, pretty much eats what we eat and mostly eats it herself.

Born in 73 to a Scottish mum, me and DB were both formula fed from the off, think DM was told that it was better. I think it just made it easier for the hospital as the babies were kept separate and wheeled in every 4 hours for a bottle. With mums regularly kept in for a week after birth it was about efficiency. The push to go 4 hours between feeds wasn't about what the baby needed at all, just gave the housewife more time to shop, cook and clean! Hence kids being stuck in prams in the garden or in play pens.

Do what I did with DM, politely but firmly tell her you are happy with what you are doing and you are not going to discuss it with anyone else. And if she tries, just change the subject or just stare silently at her until she does

I was born in the early 80s and my Mum was advised to feed every 4 hours but as soon as she came out of hospital she just went to demand feeding. Babies were taken to the nursery at night in hospital and only brought to the mother to feed. I was given formula milk without her consent, I think she's still cross about that now! Weaning was at 3 months and she stopped bf at about 7 months, but younger siblings were bf for longer.

My mum had two babies in the 70's.

Breastfeeding was unhygienic compared to modern sterilised bottles, and breastmilk thought to be weak and unsatisfying. Formula was rich, nourishing and far better, and you could regulate how much the baby had, making sure they had the correct amount to last them 4 hours.

Feeds were every 4 hours, baby left to cry or at the bottom of the garden. Rusks in the bottle if they wanted milk more frequently. Night feeds for the first week only, after that left to cry or given water. Bottles meant women could get on with their day rather than be tied to house and baby.

My mum was horrified when I breastfed, it was dirty and unregulated, and how could I possibly do it in public. I was also making a rod for my back feeding on demand, I should be teaching discipline. Feeding less than 4 hourly meant my milk wasn't good enough, or I didn't have enough.

My dh was born in the late 60's, and if my mil is to be believed, was on jars of baby food before leaving hospital at days old, because he was such a greedy boy. He has the most awful stomach and digestion issues now.

My mum had 2 babies in the 70s.

Breastfeeding was "best" but there was no official support so if you struggled you were quietly moved onto formula after as short as 12 hours.

She bf one daughter and ff twins.

She said everyone knew bf was "a bit better" but they were very into routines and obsessed with sleep - so feeding up on formula made babies sleep (my dad is still terrified lack of sleep results in sn). This may have influenced many women away from breast.

...FWIW she finds 30 somethings smugly telling her how her generation didn't bf and foolishly didn't know about it very insulting (I have to take care which mummy friendship circles I expose her to). She is quite sassy and savvy though ... In those days I wonder if hcp said slightly different things to different women, as I get the impression there was less guidance.

...oh 2 babies = twins. Singleton was cusp of the 80s.

... the sleep thing was NOT always to do with parent led routine (but it makes nice rhetoric for us modern mums) - there was a genuine misguided obsession with sleep among some misguided hcp. Not enough sleep could lead to everything from failure to thrive to asd.

My parents were very baby led and all their parenting books were bloody obsessed with it.
Mind you that's creeping back into fashion I notice - without the medical element - but with breast is best.

From what my mum says, there wasn't really an "official line" back then, it would just have depended on when your midwife or health visitor was trained and what their personal experience or opinion was.

3littlefrogs Where did you train? Your training matches what my mum was doing but it must be regional if others didn't.

My mum breastfed me in 1968, but only for three months and alongside bottles. She says she didn't produce enough milk, but looking back that would be because of the four hourly schedule. She had caesarians and so was in hospital for two weeks everytime.

I remember my late Granny (who would be 110 if she was still alive) asking me if I was feeding DS1 myself and when I said I was she said "It's the best thing", she BF all seven of hers but she wouldn't have been able to afford formula.

Wasn't Penelope Leach's 'Your Baby and Child' published in the 70s? In seem to remember this being very pro-breastfeeding on demand and was quite influential.

I had 3 of mine in the 70s, one in the 80s. All ebf until 6 months or longer, and then gradually weaned - but that wasn't the norm. I had the curtains of shame drawn around me on the ward so the other mothers wouldn't have to see me feed and was told very bossily to do the "2 minutes each side" carry-on. Usually they forgot to check so I just fed in peace behind my curtain until they returned.

My babies were big - between 9lbs 2 and 11lbs 3 - and all must have been efficient feeders because I had no real problems feeding them. I did have mastitis a few times, and the instant response from midwives/doctors/HVs was to stop feeding. So I stopped mentioning it apart from telling the GP when I needed antibiotics once.

At home I fed on demand (huge disagreement with my own mother, who'd nursed her own babies in the 40s/50s but only four-hourly and never at night) until they started to last a bit longer between feeds. This happened naturally - my babies were never left to cry - but we did have terry nappies to wash and boil, twin tub washing machines to supervise, coal fires to stoke and meals to cook. We needed those breaks between feeds and I think we did encourage them by moving around a bit more. We simply didn't have the time to sit on the sofa for hours on end after the early weeks but I got very good at doing other things while nursing. In more traditional cultures, mothers don't just sit around feeding - they get on with their chores at the same time.

I started to wean at 6 months or later, whenever each baby showed interest in what I was eating. They ate strained or mashed versions of our food. I never saw the point in feeding baby rice - it's a pretty empty food, so ours had egg yolk, vegetable soup, that sort of thing. Never used a bottle - I breast fed them until they lost interest which was between a year and 15 months. They drank from a normal (open) cup from six months if they were having water and when they started to drink cows' milk, they had it from the cup too.

Sorry for the essay. My real answer is that I probably didn't follow the prevailing wisdom which was to bottle feed until 3 or 4 months and then introduce Farex-type foods. I did know women who followed those guidelines but all the breastfeeding mothers I knew did much the same as I did.

Rural Scotland, by the way!

My mum had my brother in the 70s and said she was delighted to have a side room on the ward so she could feed more often than she was "allowed to" without anyone noticing

She also stayed in 10 days despite having a completely straightforward vaginal delivery! No paternity leave, mind.

I'm not in the UK and I was told to feed dd with Milupa baby tea sometimes to space out feeds. Interestingly, my mum mil and a friend who's the same age as them who all had babies in the 70s in different parts of the country all remember giving ud Milupa baby tea.

I was born in 77 and dh in 75. Neither of us had any formula at all or were bottle fed. I'm currently debating if I should wean dd and mil is all for it since she weaned dh at 3 months on whatever she ate!

I also remember mum telling me she was in hospital for a while.

Just in case it's of interest, here's a page from a booklet produced by the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin in 1978.

It seems very harsh for a newborn squish

I've actually got my Mum's hospital feeding record from when I was born in the late 70s. I'll put done details on here if I get time.

I was always told I was only ebf, but it turns out I had lots of little feeds of cow and gate and dextrose solution in the first few days.

I think I was on solid food by about 12 weeks, but my Mum continued to bf till about 8 months which was considered a but odd at the time

My Mum also said she fed me more often than she was told to in hospital once they got home.

Poor babies!

1979 - 2 weeks in hospital and only give your baby 4 hourly to feed. It must have be awful - my mum said she used to dread being given me as all i was there for was to feed.... but then they took me away again so we didt get to bond.says a lot about our relationship....

presumably all the sugar water i my generation didnt help the obesity/sugar obsession there is now.

With all we know about attachmet i think its awful. And not at all surprising that so many had to give up due to "not enough milk"