WEJBT , AMD ebEAH:
A Glance at the History of Infant Feeding
да»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»*»»»»»»»»»»»»:
MELLIN’S FOOD
I For Infants and Invalids.
by Dr. Ruth M. W. Moskop and Melissa M. Nasea’
Mntil the 1900s, an infant's health and
survival depended largely on having
its mother's milk to drink. Doctors
still recommend mother's milk as the
best food for babies. Modern, scientifi¬
cally produced formulas in clean bot¬
tles, however, now offer another safe choice for
babies in North Carolina and elsewhere.
Few records exist about infant feeding during
the Middle Ages, but we know that between 1500
and the late 1700s it was not fashionable for
wealthier women in the West to nurse their babies.
This trend continued into the 1800s, in spite of
expert advice that infants should
drink mother's milk, if possible.
Often, families hired another
woman, called a wet nurse, to
feed the baby. Many babies in
North Carolina were brought up
"by the hand," which means they
were fed artificially — with ani¬
mal milk — or given pap. Pap was
a very unwholesome, thin mix¬
ture of bread and liquid boiled to
a pulpy texture. Cleaning infant
cups and pap feeders was almost
impossible. They exposed
hand-fed babies to harmful bac¬
teria, and the food lacked impor¬
tant nutrients.
Around 1800, things began changing. People
recognized that glass was a better material for
baby bottles. Because glass is clear, it can be
cleaned more easily. Still, many more artificially
fed babies died young, compared to naturally fed
babies. Medical writers insisted that human milk
was best for babies.
During the second half of the 1800s, doctors
realized two important things about feeding
infants. First, human milk stays almost germ-free
as it passes from mother to child. Prepared for¬
mula — especially from animal milk — in a bottle,
5 A Soluble Dry Extract of Barley Malt and Wheat,
jr prepared after the formula of the eminent chemist,
»
Baron Justus von Liebig, for the
MODIFICATION OF FRESH COWS MILK.
* MELLIN'S FOOD is entirely free from Starch: the
* Carbohydrates contained therein are Dextrins and
* Maltose.
7 “ The sugar forced by Ihr action of the Ptyalin of the Saliva and the Amylopein
У
Of the Pancicas upon eurch w MALTOSE In the di4e.1t.ve trad MALTOSE Is
г
absorbed UNCHANGED.” Ttxt/ifA
»/ Пиша»
LatUeu »»J Surbnf
A '-MALTOSE constitute* the end product of the action of dliatase, and
A arajTolytic fermenu generally, on atarcb and its Congeners.”
A
/•*//<«<./>
t/iAi I. u: )f D. LK.D., FKS
5 MELLIN'S FOOD, prepared with FRESH COW'S
5 MILK according to the directions, is a true LIEBIG’S S
6 FOOD, and the BEST SUBSTITUTE for Mother's a
£ Milk yet produced. £
This ad for Mellin's Food appeared in the Charlotte
Medical journal in August 1895. ( Above right) The
"Mellin baby" graced a manual for proper infant feed¬
ing in 1905. Images courtesy of Laupus Health Sciences
Library, East Carolina University.
hard time digesting it. The
first fact made physicians
encourage the use of glass
feeding bottles designed
for easy sterilization. The
second fact made chemists
join doctors in trying to
modify cows' milk to
make it more like human milk.
By 1918, drugstores sold a variety of prepared
infant foods. Although mother's milk was best for
most babies, the sale of artificial foods like Mellin's
and Horlick's increased. Clever advertisements
showed enchanting pictures of
healthy babies and suggested that
mother's milk might not be
enough. Doctors offered compli¬
cated instructions for homemade
artificial feeding formulas well
into the 1900s.
Better choices finally came.
Similac, first sold as a powder in
1923, and Enfamil, introduced in
1959, are artificial infant foods we
still use today. When these formu¬
las are mixed at home with clean
water and bottles, artificially fed
babies usually grow up just fine.
Although it has taken hundreds of
years, at least in the United States
and in other developed countries, babies now have
food that is sweet and clean. Mother's milk is still
recommended, but artificial infant feeding has
come a very long way, indeed!
cup, or spoon can be contaminated. Second, cow's
milk is very different from human milk. It is less
sweet and lacks nutrients. Human infants have a
This pewter infant feeding spoon was used for feeding pap in North
Carolina around 1800. Pap was a pulpy mixture of boiled bread and
liquid. Image courtesy of the Country Doctor Museum in Bailey.
"Dr Ruth M W Moskop serves as the assistant director, history programs, at East Carolina
University's Laupus Health Sciences Library, as well as the director of the Country Doctor Museum.
Melissa M. Nasea is the histori/ collections librarian at Laupus Health Sciences Library.
THIH, Spring 2007
17
