# Bootle fed Baby milk formula **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 19, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002 "2012-01-19T13:07:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/1 "2012-01-19T13:07:00Z")
I am pretty sure its components have changed over the years. Sometimes through more scientific knowledge and sometimes through commercial interest. Personally my view on modern baby formula is that while it may promote growth, it does not promote health. I would be interested to know what the contents of baby formula was in 1946 when I was a baby as i recall my mother telling me I was not breast fed. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/2 "2012-01-19T13:51:59Z")
I have a huge cookbook from 1959 called [Mary Margaret McBride Encyclopedia Of Cooking](http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Margaret-McBride-Encyclopedia-Cooking/dp/B000ILKX7G). It’s more than a cookbook, it’s a how-to-be-a-homemaker-wife-and-mother manual for the young bride. with a section on “infant and child feeding”. Here’s what it has to say: > [@](#): > > Planning a Formula > The milk mixture that is best for you baby should be planned by the doctor. The amount and kind of milk and sugar and the amount of water that should be used in the mixture vary according to the individual needs of the baby. Even though the doctor has planned a formula for the baby, it may be necessary for him to change that formula, perhaps more than once, before a mixture suited to the baby’s individual needs is found. After the right mixture has been found, it will need to be changed from time to time. > > Babies, even at the same age, vary a good deal in the amount of food they require. For example, very active babies need more food than babies that are less active. After observing a great many babies, doctors have found that, on the average, they can predict about how much food a baby will need at different ages. > > Most babies thrive on very simple formulas of cow’s milk, water and sugar. As a baby grows older, water and sugar are gradually cut down until he is taking milk alone. If you are unable to get in touch with your doctor, a formula that suits most young babies is: > > Evaporated milk…4 ounces > Water…8 ounces > Sugar…1 tablespoon (level) > OR > Whole milk…8 ounces > Water…4 ounces > Sugar…1 tablespoon (level) > > This mixture may be divided into 6 bottles of about 2 ounces each or 8 bottles of about 1 1/2 ounces each. This amount of feeding usually satisfies a newborn baby from about the second or third day to the end of the first week. However, it will not be enough for long. > > As soon as your baby is no longer satisfied with this amount of feeding, double the amounts in the original formula and later, when the baby wants it, use three times the amount of each item in the formula. > > Most babies do well if they are given as much of this milk mixture as they wish when they are hungry, which will usually be about every 3 to 4 hours. After your baby is 2 weeks old, he will need in each 24 hours from 2 to 3 ounces of this milk mixture for each pound that he weighs. If in 24 hours your baby usually takes less than 2 ounces of this formula for each pound that he weighs, tell you doctor about that. > > A formula which has less water in it may be quite satisfactory for your baby, particularly when he is 2 or 3 months old. Gradually cut down the amount of water until he is taking whole milk or until he is taking equal parts of evaporated milk and water. > > When your baby is taking other foods, it is time to stop adding sugar to the milk. If sugar is cut down slowly, your baby will probably not miss it. By the way, a whole lot of the other advice in here, things like “Despite the fact that great progress has been made in the artificial feeding of infants, there is no doubt whatever that breast-milk is the best food your baby can have,” and “If it is impossible to breast-feed your baby, and you have to feed him by bottle, give him the same attention he would have if he were nursing,” and “It can’t be too often repeated that each child has his own personality and temperament,” really show that the advice HASN’T changed much over the years. When my grandmother protests that she didn’t breastfeed because “we didn’t know back then it was any better!”…she’s lying. Or perhaps “misremembering” would be a more charitable verb. I have a lot of old cookbooks and old medical texts and old child rearing manuals; it’s something of a hobby of mine. (I’ll look later to see if I have one from 1946; this one is handy, the others are in a box somewhere.) I haven’t found a single one that says formula is superior to or equivalent to breastmilk, from any era. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/3 "2012-01-19T15:09:17Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > When my grandmother protests that she didn’t breastfeed because “we didn’t know back then it was any better!”…she’s lying. Or perhaps “misremembering” would be a more charitable verb. But by looking only at official books, you might see only part of the picture. There was for example the [Nestle boycott](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott) because of the huge problems that Nestle’s aggressive marketing had caused in developing countries . > [@](#): > > For example, IBFAN claim that Nestlé distributes free formula samples to hospitals and maternity wards; after leaving the hospital, the formula is no longer free, but because the supplementation has interfered with lactation, the family must continue to buy the formula. IBFAN also allege that Nestlé uses “humanitarian aid” to create markets, does not label its products in a language appropriate to the countries where they are sold, and offers gifts and sponsorship to influence health workers to promote its products.[17] > [@](#): > > Ihnen wurde vorgeworfen, aggressive Verkaufsmethoden anzuwenden, etwa Verkaufspersonal als Krankenschwestern zu verkleiden … > > _They (=Nestle) were accused of using aggresive sales tactics, like disguising their sales people as nurses …_ If your grandmother lived earlier, then at the turn of the century, middle-class people were not breastfed by the mothers, but given cows milk, too. Scroll down a bit in [this essay on scurvy](http://idlewords.com/2010/03/scott_and_scurvy.htm) to the paragraph > [@](#): > > An even starker example was the rash of cases of infantile scurvy that afflicted upper class families in the late 19th century. This outbreak was the direct result of another technological development, the pasteurization of cow’s milk. The procedure made milk vastly safer for infants to drink, but also destroyed vitamin C. For poorer children, who tended to be breast-fed and quickly weaned onto adult foods, this was not an issue, but the wealthy infants fed a special diet of cooked cereals and milk were at grave risk. It took several years for infant scurvy, at first called “Barlow’s disease”, to be properly identified. At that point, doctors were caught between two fires. They could recommend that parents not boil their milk, and expose the children to bacterial infection, or they could insist on pasteurization at the risk of scurvy. (Note the solution they came up with - onion juice! bleagh, poor kids). A person in the great-grandfather/ grandfather age range grew up on a moderately rich farm in East Europe at the turn of the 19th century, and developed ricketis because he didn’t drink pure cow milk despite having lots of cows on the farm; presumably because of tuberculosis (he drank heated milk). In the 1950s there was still a big campaign in Bavarian farms to eradicate tuberculosis on milk farms, and those which were certified free got a special badge and more money for their milk. (Today everybody expects milk and cows to be free, so a special badge is no longer necessary). ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/4 "2012-01-19T16:14:35Z")
There is a high risk of scouseness. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/5 "2012-01-19T17:31:23Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > But by looking only at official books, you might see only part of the picture. > > There was for example the [Nestle boycott](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott) because of the huge problems that Nestle’s aggressive marketing had caused in developing countries . > > . Absolutely…which is \*why \*Nestle is Teh Evil. It wasn’t that no one knew/knows that breastmilk is superior. It’s that formula makers and supporters lie about the equivalency of formula. It’s not ignorance, it’s untruth. It’s willful untruth. (And, before this thread goes off the rails, as breastfeeding threads always do, let me state that I used formula after exhausting all other methods known to medical science (and a few that aren’t) to increase my milk supply under the care of a certified lactation consultant, and yes, I’m damn glad it’s there to save lives when it’s needed. I’m also glad that insulin is there to save lives when it’s needed, but I’m not about to rip my baby’s pancreas out and give him shots instead.) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/6 "2012-01-19T17:38:21Z")
Now that [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_formula) is back, a stop there is helpful. > [@](#): > > Evaporated milk formulas > > In the 1920s and 1930s, evaporated milk began to be widely commercially available at low prices, and several clinical studies suggested that babies fed evaporated milk formula thrive as well as breastfed babies[11][21] > > These findings are not supported by modern research. These studies, accompanied by the affordable price of evaporated milk and the availability of the home icebox initiated a tremendous rise in the use of evaporated milk formulas.[4] By the late 1930s, the use of evaporated milk formulas in the United States surpassed all commercial formulas, and by 1950 over half of all babies in the United States were reared on such formulas.[11] > > Commercial formulas > > In parallel with the enormous shift (in industrialized nations) away from breastfeeding to home-made formulas, nutrition scientists continued to analyze human milk and attempted to make infant formulas that more closely matched its composition.[4] Maltose and dextrins were believed nutritionally important, and in 1912, the Mead Johnson Company released a milk additive called Dextri-Maltose. This formula was made available to mothers only by physicians. In 1919, milkfats were replaced with a blend of animal and vegetable fats as part of the continued drive to closer simulate human milk. This formula was called SMA for “simulated milk adapted.”[11] ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/7 "2012-01-20T10:40:10Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > (And, before this thread goes off the rails, as breastfeeding threads always do, let me state that I used formula after exhausting all other methods known to medical science (and a few that aren’t) to increase my milk supply under the care of a certified lactation consultant, and yes, I’m damn glad it’s there to save lives when it’s needed. I’m also glad that insulin is there to save lives when it’s needed, but I’m not about to rip my baby’s pancreas out and give him shots instead.) Hey, My sisters and I were fed formula in the 60s and 70s - my mother has encapsulated TB and was therefore absolutly forbidden from breastfeeding (which she still regrets not being allowed to do.)\* - One thing I never understood is why no doctor had a problem with her donating blood. How does this work with TB? ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/8 "2012-01-20T10:42:54Z")
So for 1946 I can guess that I was fed with evaporated milk and sugar… or maybe normal pasteurized bottled cow milk with sugar added? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/9 "2012-01-20T10:52:07Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > There is a high risk of scouseness. C Like May God have Mersey on your soul. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/10 "2012-01-20T11:02:52Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > C Like > > May God have Mersey on your soul. Calm down. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/11 "2012-01-20T12:35:51Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > There is a high risk of scouseness. Is that associated with pooling of the liver? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/12 "2012-01-20T12:38:23Z")
> [@WotNot](#): > > Is that associated with pooling of the liver? And extracathedralitis. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/13 "2012-01-20T14:01:17Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Hey, My sisters and I were fed formula in the 60s and 70s - my mother has encapsulated TB and was therefore absolutly forbidden from breastfeeding (which she still regrets not being allowed to do.)\* > > - One thing I never understood is why no doctor had a problem with her donating blood. How does this work with TB? TB doesn’t hang out in the bloodstream when it’s latent , so it’s safe to donate blood even if you have latent TB. (“Encapsulated” is what they used to call it, so by today’s terms, your mom had latent TB; she tested positive, but had no symptoms. Not uncommon, and not a public health risk. I’m in the same boat, and they let me be a nurse.) Red Cross will exclude you for donation for active, symptomatic TB and while you’re on TB treatment. It’s also safe to breastfeed if you have latent TB or TB that’s been treated for 2 weeks. I will grant you that they may not have known that in the 70’s, but now we do. [Cite 1](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2095084/) [Cite 2](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breastfeeding_difficulties) (sorry, I don’t know how to make that link right to the section in question - scroll down about halfway and you’ll find it.) But yeah, if the doctor said she shouldn’t breastfeed because of risk of infection, then that’s a perfectly cromulent \*medical \*reason to use formula in my book. No judgey-judgey. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/14 "2012-01-20T14:07:00Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > TB doesn’t hang out in the bloodstream when it’s latent , so it’s safe to donate blood even if you have latent TB. So where does it stay then? The lung? I know some diseases stay in the bone marrow, but most I think of as being inside the blood as well as cells. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/15 "2012-01-20T14:20:34Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > So where does it stay then? The lung? I know some diseases stay in the bone marrow, but most I think of as being inside the blood as well as cells. Lungs, bones, other organs. It forms capsules (hence the old term “encapsulated”) inside body tissues, but isn’t flowing freely inside the bloodstream most of the time. Eventually, these capsules pop open and release TB viruses into the tissues and blood, and that’s when you develop symptoms and we call it “active TB”. That’s why TB is so freakin’ hard to treat. It’s very difficult to get antibiotics inside those capsules. They’re like TB armor. So it takes 6 months or more of antibiotic therapy to find and eradicate all those capsules as they each rupture. Even then, we don’t consider you “cured” of TB. There are probably some capsules still hiding out, even though they’re not causing symptoms. You’ll need yearly or biyearly x-rays to make sure you’re not going into the active phase of TB again, and you’ll always test positive to the PPD skin test. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/16 "2012-01-20T16:47:18Z")
> [@bardos](#): > > So for 1946 I can guess that I was fed with evaporated milk and sugar… or maybe normal pasteurized bottled cow milk with sugar added? My link says the odds were about 50/50 between evaporated milk formulas and commercial formulas. I don’t know if this was more lopsided for certain income or region or ethnic heritage or whatever. I’m not sure how you should best call it. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/17 "2012-01-21T01:57:01Z")
Evaporated milk and Karo syrup! Blue label! And bottles and nipples and the caps (the little round things so you had to turn the nipples upside down inside the bottles for storage) all had to be STERILIZED! Great vats of boiling water in the kitchen when Mommy “made bottles.” ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/18 "2012-01-21T18:24:00Z")
According to what my mother said, she did try breastfeeding me in 1937, but got no encouragement from her doctor. My wife breastfed two of our kids for about a year and third until he started drawing blood (at about 9 months) to the constant ridicule of her stepfather (late 60s and early 70s). My DIL’s sister absolutely refused to even consider it. The idea revolted her. She had gone to college in S. Carolina and stayed there, marrying eventually. I wonder if that is where she got that attitude. At any rate, she never got the chance, highly metastasized melanoma was discovered when she was in her fifth month, the baby was induced 3 months later and she died three months after that. So the baby was raised entirely on formula and seems none the worse for it. My DIL herself breastfed until her son lost interest at about age 2. ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/19 "2012-01-21T18:28:03Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > My link says the odds were about 50/50 between evaporated milk formulas and commercial formulas. I don’t know if this was more lopsided for certain income or region or ethnic heritage or whatever. I’m not sure how you should best call it. So there was a complete commercial formula available? At the local grocery store I imagine? The contents of this package is what I would like to know. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002/20 "2012-01-21T22:06:35Z")
IIRC, Similac was the one of the first formulas for sale in the supermarket. It came in a can and was a powder that had to be mixed with water. The stuff was damned near impossible to dissolve, and only a blender could accomplish the task. This was late 'fifties. ~VOW [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bootle-fed-baby-milk-formula/610002.md?page=2)