Born in 1945, I was a bottle baby. There were no commercial formula products.

[MineralMan]

My mother made her own, following the recipes exactly. She sterilized bottles, heated the formula according to instructions, and let it cool down before giving it to me, my sister, and my brother.

That was standard practice in those days. Breastfeeding wasn't popular at the time, for whatever reason.

We all did fine on the homemade formula. Most mothers at that time made their own formula. It worked fine. A couple of kids I knew got goat milk formulas, due to allergies to cows milk.

Now, I don't know what went into my formula, but it sure didn't come ready to mix from the store.

I'll bet it was a lot cheaper, too, than the costly manufactured formulas.

The formula was probably much like this one:

[spooky3]

1. Did your mother work outside the home?

I’m glad this worked for you and others, but many mothers today have too little time.

[MineralMan]

6. No, she did not.

Not until we went off to school daily. But, we didn't need formula any longer then.

Breastfeeding also takes a lot of time, eh?

[spooky3]

7. Yes, and both take less time than preparing formula.

Mothers should not be judged negatively for whatever choices they make.

[MineralMan]

12. I'm not judging anyone for anything.

I am describing how I was fed as an infant.

Where did I judge anyone?

[ggma]

44. You did not judge.I didn't feel that at all.

Except for the Tea, that looks exactly like the instructions mothers got in the fifties; slightly different for us because we were a Carnation family. I breastfed all three of my daughters in the seventies and this was the formula given to me by my doctors for formula when I was away from my child.

Just sayin'...

ggma

[PatSeg]

57. That was the recipe my sisters and their friends

used for their babies' formula as well. I breastfed mine. I'm sure as a baby, I was probably on similar formula as well, though I know I was breastfed initially. I remember my sisters sterilizing all those bottles, it was very time consuming and stressful.

Edit to add: I never heard of the tea either. Sounds rather strange.

[demigoddess]

61. I made formula for my first one or two kids also. this is an alternative, not judging.

why are alternatives jumped on these days. With baby formulas not available, an alternative is help, not judgement.

[MineralMan]

77. Yeah, I don't understand that either.

I saw a young woman on the CBS morning news today. She said she drove 100 miles because she heard some store had formula. When she got there, it was sold out. But someone in this thread said women didn't have time 5o mix their own formula.

Most baby boomers were fed homemade formula. They're still here. Can't be that dangerous, I think.

[demigoddess]

109. In the 80s pediatricians recommended that women feed babies, low fat milk

immediately after weaning from the bottle, usually 6 months or so. This was found to be a REALLY BAD IDEA. Babies that young, up to 2 years or so need the fat in milk to help their brains develop. So please, do not cut down on fat from the milk that babies drink.

[Hoyt]

2. Yeah, and look what it did to us.

[walkingman]

3. That explains a lot 😁 I always wondered what happened?

[MineralMan]

4. I know. It made us grow and thrive.

Amazing, huh?

[Ferrets are Cool]

38. +1

[Mariana]

5. Breastfeeding wasn't popular at the time, for whatever reason.

Probably because women would be arrested for indecent exposure if they breastfed in public.

[MineralMan]

9. Oh, for sure.

Breastfeeding was for poor women at the time. If you were middle class, you fed babies formula, from whatever recipe you got from the doctor. Were those formulas idea? Probably not. My mother also gave us vitamins from an eyedropper. I can still remember the taste.

[Biophilic]

16. Well that brought an unhappy memory back. I hated those vitamins and had completely forgotten them.

[MineralMan]

30. Yes. They were nasty, for sure.

To this day, the taste of Vitamin A makes me cringe. My Mom was also a fan of cod liver oil. Blech!

[EYESORE 9001]

34. My mother tried peppermint-flavored cod liver oil once

I retched. She didn’t try giving it to me again.

[LeftInTX]

8. Orange juice at six weeks?? 1 - 2 ounces of tea per day???

Sometimes the good ole days aren't that good!

[MineralMan]

10. Well, I don't know about that.

I don't remember my formula days. I grew up into a very healthy kid, though.

I'm not recommending that people feed their babies like that. I'm just describing how I was fed as an infant.

[LeftInTX]

17. Commercial formula is superior to home made

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/may/13/facebook-posts/no-making-your-own-homemade-baby-formula-not-safe-/


“Formula has a certain proportional quantity and percentage of proteins, carbohydrates and fats that are digestible and tolerable for infants,” Vernovsky tells TODAY Parents. “[It also has important] vitamins and electrolytes like sodium, potassium and chloride.”
https://www.today.com/parents/parents/homemade-baby-formula-unsafe-rcna28771

https://archive.ph/fBnlj

I would do the evaporated/karo thing only if I couldn't find formula.

Who knows what our grandparents parents had? My grandmother had no bottles (this was in the Ottoman Empire) and they would drop the baby at a relative's house after they got tired breast feeding. I guess they were fed unpasteurized whole milk from whatever creature they milked, probably mixed with flour...No immunizations either...

[MineralMan]

27. Yes, I'm sure today's commercial formulas are superior.

As long as you can find them and afford them, they are a better alternative to breastfeeding than homemade formula. However, properly done, homemade formulas were how almost all older baby boomers were fed as infants. So, apparently, they work, too.

[Mosby]

78. Today health experts say that babies and toddlers

Should not consume ANY added sugars like OJ.

Sugar is basically poison for humans.

Sugar Is a Poison, Says UCSF Obesity Expert

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2009/06/104177/sugar-poison-says-ucsf-obesity-expert

[Ferrets are Cool]

39. Not if you can't get them

And, they probably have all kinds of preservatives in them.

[ProfessorGAC]

54. Not All Kinds Of Them

The 2 most common shelf-life additives are beta carotene and ascorbyl palmitate.
The former is an extract from things like carrots, spinach, or sweet potatoes. The latter is an ester of vitamin C.
I did some work in the 80s on a process to create structured lipids used in premature infant formulas. (Premies can't digest fats due to their underdeveloped liver, so they became lower GI lubricants, which can cause dehydration. Structured lipids, if small enough, can be metabolized like a saccharide, so the undigested fats don't end up passing through.)
Even "organic" formulas use those naturally occurring preservatives/antioxidants.

[Ferrets are Cool]

89. Thanks

[Lochloosa]

11. I always enjoyed the whiskey on my gums for teething

[SouthernDem4ever]

84. LOL

Great remedy!

[Lars39]

13. Babies will grow, given food.

The quality of the food and nutrients can make a huge difference, though. A lot more is known about breast milk than was known in those days. That recipe should be a very temporary stop-gap.
I’m afraid there’s going to be quite a few tragedies from this shortage…People watering down formulas in order to stretch supplies.
There’s a boy in my extended family who is mentally challenged. His doctors think it occurred because of watered down formula by the daycare/babysitter. His brain wasn’t receiving enough nutrients.

[MineralMan]

18. Well, breastfeeding is always the best way to go.

However, not all women can do that. Some don't want to. Today's infant formulas, no doubt, are better for babies than what I was fed at that time. But a heckuva lot of baby boomers got a formula pretty much like the one in my OP. They seem to have done pretty well with that, it seems.

The evaporated milk was sterile. The water was supposed to be boiled before mixing. I'm sure tap water was used, though, by many women.

I'm not suggesting that homemade formula is better than commercial formula that is being sold today. There have been books written, though, about the danger of relying on commercial infant formulas, and some that indicate that the promotion of it in many countries has caused huge problems by replacing breastfeeding in places where supplies of formulas are sketchy at best. Nestle, for example, has been condemned for promoting the use if its products in the third world.

That said, I'm sure the infant formulas being sold in the United States are just fine for feeding infants, as long as the supply chain doesn't fail to make certain enough of it is available, and at a price people can afford to pay. That's not always true, apparently.

[Mr.Bill]

23. It would probably be wise to use distilled water. n/t

[MineralMan]

26. Distilled or boiled. My mother boiled the water used in our formula.

Either way, there were no microbes alive in it by the time she mixed it. Bottles got sterilized, as well.

[BlackSkimmer]

33. Same here, though I'm a bit younger than you. Mom couldn't breastfeed.

Mom made the formula. Boiled the bottles.

As a baby 6 weeks old, my parents took me to Wales to be christened and to meet the grandparents. As my mom began her elaborate preparations of the boiling process, my granny, no nonsense always, exclaimed and laughed at her. Saying she’d never bothered with all that silliness, and her six children all thrived. All lived to ripe old ages, my mother’s youngest sister is still living.

Mom never boiled another bottle. I grew up quite healthy, still am. It was one of her favorite stories.

[pnwmom]

35. That granny's logic is exactly the same as all the

smokers who used to laugh at health concerns, saying they'd never gotten sick.

Not everyone who smokes gets cancer.
Not every infant who drinks contaminated formula gets sick or dies.

That isn't a good excuse to smoke, or to feed a young infant homemade formula in bottles that haven't been sterilized.

Most people don't consider it "silliness" to take care of their baby's health -- and that generation of babies raised by grannies like yours had a much higher infant mortality rate than today.

[BlackSkimmer]

45. Lol, ok.

I reckon you told me!

[druidity33]

83. I wear a mask...

because i don't want to endanger my small child. Why wouldn't i boil a bottle to sterilize it? I am still trying not to endanger my kid. To some of us with little kids, this isn't actually a laughing matter. Especially parents of children with allergies. Or who don't have a kitchen where sterilizing equipment is possible. Or really for any number of reasons this is actually not something to be taken lightly. In some cases this has actually been a life and death issue. There is an urgent appeal in my community for stored or shared breast milk right now... i am actually kind of shocked at the light heartedness of this post right now.

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/infant-mortality-rate

[burrowowl]

50. Distilled water does no have any

minerals (electrolytes) not for drinking.
Water stores in plastic bottle which are porous and admit bacteria and not to mention the VOEs given off by the bottles themselves.

[Trailrider1951]

14. Same here, Mineral Man

I was born in late 1951. My mom tried to breastfeed my older sister and failed. The baby lost weight instead of gaining it, so the doctor told her to feed my sister that exact formula. I came next, and again, breastfeeding failed so I got the formula. By the time my younger sister and brother arrived, it was formula all the way around. Some women cannot breastfeed, and must rely on formula. And, today's modern formula contains the same nutrients as breastmilk, unlike the old fashioned evaporated milk/karo syrup formula. That's why those vitamins were prescribed for formula babies back then. The vitamins were a liquid in a small bottle with at dropper that had the correct dosage inscribed on it. I remember tasting my brother's vitamins. It tasted like concentrated orange juice. Oh the things I still remember!

[jmbar2]

15. I was wondering last nite how babies got fed before formula. Thanks for filling in that gap.

Last edited Sat May 14, 2022, 03:25 PM - Edit history (1)

Came across another interesting piece of history.

Elizabeth Meador Hanson, a Quaker woman in Colonial New Hampshire, was abducted in 1725 with several children by native tribes that were warring with the settlers. She had just given birth two weeks before. She lived to write an account of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Hanson_(captive_of_Native_Americans)

She went through terrible hardship on a forced march, and lost her milk. A tribal woman showed her how to make formula from ground up nuts and cornmeal, which saved her baby.

By this Time, what with fatigue of Spirits, hard Labour, mean Diet, and often
Want of Natural Rest, I was brought so low, that my Milk was dried up, my Baby
very poor and weak, just Skin and Bone; for I could perceive all its Joints from
one End of the Babe’s Back to the other; and how to get what would suit its weak
Appetite, I was at a Loss; on which one of the Indian Squaws perceiving my
Uneasiness about my Child, began some Discourse with me, in which she advised
me to take the Kernels of Walnuts, and clean them, and beat them with a little
Water, which I did, and when I had so done, the Water look’d like Milk; then she
advised me to add to this Water, a little of the finest of the Indian Corn Meal,
and boil it a little together.

I did so, and it became palatable, and was very nourishing to the Babe, so that it began to thrive and look well; which was before more like to die than live. I found that with this kind of Diet the Indians did often nurse their Infants. This was no small Comfort to me

.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130708184001/http://english.byu.edu/facultysyllabi/KLawrence/HANSON.pdf (page 8)

[MineralMan]

22. That's an interesting account from a time even farther back.

Thanks for sharing that.

[packman]

47. Interesting - thanks for posting

[Freddie]

19. Most boomers like myself did fine on that recipe

My brother was allergic to milk and had to have “real” formula (Nutramagin, it’s still made) I can remember my dad complaining about the cost. We were 50s babies and I don’t think mom even considered breastfeeding, it just “wasn’t done” then. Today I would think, especially older infants (9+ months) would do fine with it unless they had a milk allergy.
My son and DIL are expecting their first in July and if they don’t have this figured out by then I’ll do whatever it takes to get him fed. DIL is going to try to breastfeed but she’s well aware that it doesn’t always work and she’ll do what’s best for her and my grandson. Fed is best.

[MineralMan]

25. That recipe or one that was very similar, anyhow.

I remember seeing the bottle sterilizer thing in my mom's kitchen for years as a child. Instead of formula, she bought glass baby bottles, rubber nipples and caps to hold them on the bottle. I'm sure she used the same stuff for all three of her children.

The Karo syrup (corn syrup) added carbohydrates to the formula and the baby vitamins, dispensed from a dropper, filled in some of the missing elements in the formula. The evaporated milk helped to make sure that the formula started out with a sterile milk base.

You see in old movies a mother shaking the bottle so a few drops fall on her forearm. That was to test the temperature and make sure the heated formula wasn't too hot for the baby. My mom was very careful to make sure we didn't get any unwanted microbes in our diet, I suppose.

By the time I was an adult, pretty much everyone who wasn't breastfeeding was giving their infants a commercial formula product.

[Freddie]

28. My DIL got a bottle sterilizer at her baby shower

Really not needed anymore, I just put my kids’ bottles in the dishwasher. It doubles as a bottle warmer which can be needed as microwaving is not recommended due to possible “hot spots.” With my other grandkids, my daughter just mixed the powder formula with warm tap water.

[MineralMan]

29. Well, Moms are always very, very careful with their first baby.

The second one gets a more relaxed regimen, in most cases. If there's a third child, well, pretty much anything goes, it seems.

There's a joke that talks about baby pacifiers. If the first baby drops a pacifier on the floor, Mom throws it away and gets a brand new one out. If the second baby drops the pacifier, Mom rinses it off at the kitchen sink and sticks it back in baby's mouth. For the third and any later babies, Mom just picks it up off the floor, wipes it on her clothes and puts it back in the baby's mouth.

My Mom, in 1945, had a book on caring for a baby. She studied it, and followed the instructions exactly. By the time my sister was born, a year later, the book was back on the shelf and never consulted. Five years later, when my younger brother was born, I doubt if she could have found that book at all. I remember reading it, though, when I was about 10 years old. By that age, I was reading everything I could get my hands on. It was very detailed and offered a very regimented way of treating a baby. Things got more relaxed over the years, for sure.

[scarletlib]

79. My son drank this in the 70's as an infant.

The commercial formulas gave him diarrhea so the Doctor put him on homemade formula.

[MineralMan]

80. Yup.

[MineralMan]

99. Yes. Such formula recipes continued to be used

for a long time. While there were some commercial formulas available, even in the mid 40s when I was born, most mothers made their own, using a recipe similar to the one on the pamphlet I illustrated in the original post. That one came from Gerber, which manufactured much of the baby food that was fed to children after weaning. The picture is the trademark Gerber baby. Women got such pamphlets from their doctors after their babies were born.

[liberal_mama]

20. I remember reading Dianetics many years ago and there was a recipe for homemade baby formula in the

book. I'm not a Scientologist, I was just curious after hearing about it from a customer that came into the diner where I was a waitress. The recipe involved barley water, milk, and corn syrup. I found an article about it online. I never used to this for my babies, but I considered using it. I decided not to because the method to make the barley water took too much time and I was a working mother with 3 kids.

https://www.scientologyparent.com/regarding-barley-formula/

[KentuckyWoman]

21. Great find !

We had cows and goats. A farm nearby raised sheep. I got milk from all 3 mixed with molasses. She mostly breast fed so the "formula" was a backup mostly. They also gave us a little apple cider vinegar mixed with water from boiled potatoes. (Vitamin C)

Pretty much everyone from that part of the world in that time period had the same start. I can't say it affected any of us with greater or poorer health or longevity. We all seemed to follow whatever genetics we inherited in that regard. Modern medicine has helped.

Certainly, we were all perfectly healthy children in spite of getting a big gash in my arm sewn up with quilting thread soaked in bourbon. Something I'm glad is generally no more thanks to better access to modern medicine.

[MineralMan]

24. Thanks for your information.

The past has lessons we can learn from. Clearly, it is possible to raise healthy infants in many different ways. We have become reliant on commercial products for many things, and have pretty much forgotten how things were done before such products existed. While not optimal, it is certainly possible to survive without commercial products, even as infants.

[KentuckyWoman]

32. I hadn't thought of that.

Multi generation households are almost gone in the US. I guess the interwebs are now the way the grey hairs help in much the same way the old ladies helped Mom in the 40's amidst shortages of everything. Something I've never thought of before.

[Hekate]

31. That's it exactly. Mom had the big pot with racks for the glass bottles & sterilized everything...

Last edited Sat May 14, 2022, 03:39 PM - Edit history (1)

… to a fare-thee-well. We thrived on that formula.

Now I’m reading about women too poor to afford commercial formula, who have to work, and there’s none to be had — and docs squawking that this old recipe is to be used only in case of dire emergency.
If the current situation isn’t an emergency, what is?

[MineralMan]

37. We're so far removed from the time when most babies

were fed formula made at home that we have completely forgotten those days. The mothers who fed their babies that way are great-grandmothers now, or gone completely.

The commercial formula manufacturers have succeeded in selling the idea that nothing but their products are even safe for infants.

Obviously, that's not true, given the long, successful history of formulas like the one in my OP. BTW, the baby picture on that formula is the Gerber baby. Gerber baby foods were the next step, so the commercialization of baby nutrition was already well underway. I got Gerber baby food when I went off the bottle. I do remember that.

The medical profession also doesn't remember those days any longer. So, we get warnings, rather than informed information on how to deal with shortage of commercial infant formula products. That's stupid. Instead, detailed instructions on how to prepare a healthful infant formula should be in the news. But, that's not happening.

We are less able to survive these days when we can't get the things we need. We've forgotten how to survive, really. We've forgotten that things were not always like they are now and that people survived just fine, for the most part.

That is a shame.

A few years ago, we had an outdoor party for a bunch of my wife's relatives. I was the designated food preparer, so I decided to do something different. For about a week before the party, I went fishing for a couple of hours each day. I easily caught enough fish to feed the whole group. Everything else for the meal came from the local farmer's market. So, as the party came closer to meal time, I started dipping filets of the fish I had caught in seasoned flour and fried them all up in a big cast iron pan on the charcoal grill. I grilled corn on the cob in their husks, we had a huge salad from the farmer's market, with tomatoes from my little garden, along with some bread also from the market. I also made about five gallons of lemonade and filled up pitchers with it and ice.

I made a big batch of tartar sauce from my own very simple recipe.

The whole thing was a big hit. It was also very, very simple. Easy, too. Fun times, and simple times. Those folks were used to my normal cooking, which was a lot more fancy, but I decided to do something simple and basic that time. Old style outdoor cooking.

[Kali]

36. breastfed both of mine

but the younger one got canned milk when I couldn't be there. he LOVED it and the bottle, got a little iffy at one point when he was getting too much and didn't want to go back to working harder (LOL)

now as an adult, he doesn't like any kind of liquid milk other than an ice cream shake.

[MineralMan]

40. Yup!

[moonscape]

68. I was a 1950 baby and my

mother breast-fed me until I could eat solids, as she had done for my sister 6 years earlier. But, they weren’t American, escaped Eastern Europe and had just finally arrived in the US in 1949.

When Mom went to the hosp they wanted to give her drugs but she looked at them alarmed and said, “I’m only having a baby!” She fought to have natural childbirth and won.

Things were surely different in Europe.

[hunter]

41. My mom and my wife were militant breastfeeders.

They probably would have killed or maimed any man that got between their hungry babies and their breasts.

They promote breastfeeding as well, but not with any sort of militancy. Both of them worked to end the automatic free distribution of formula to new mothers in their local hospitals, making lactation consultants part of the discharge process.

If a new mom doesn't want to or simply can't breastfeed their baby it's dangerous to send them home with free formula if they can't afford more. Discharge planners have to make sure they are set up with WIC and other social services so they can continue to receive formula.

The Bad Old Days of the twentieth century were damned bad. Babies died or suffered lifelong health problems because they were malnourished and more susceptible to serious infections.

Affluent white U.S. Americans have a lot of trouble seeing beyond their own limited perspectives.

WIC currently serves about half of all infants born in the United States.

[IronLionZion]

42. I would consult a pediatrician

Since news keeps reporting that people should not use the many recipes posted online because of safety concerns.

[inthewind21]

124. Imagine that

The news broadcasting dire warnings about NOT using anything but mass produce sold for profit formula. Huh, kind of like a free sales ad. And just exactly what are these "health concerns?"

[IronLionZion]

128. Delicate balance of nutrient proportions

https://www.newsweek.com/baby-formula-shortage-expert-warns-homemade-recipes-real-risk-1705264

She told Newsweek: "Infant formula is a controlled food created to meet the specific nutritional needs of babies. Trying to get the right balance of all those nutrients at home would be impossible.

"Too much protein could affect a baby's kidneys or too little calcium and vitamin D will affect their bones, for example.

"I'd be really concerned about the level of different salts that could be present, or lacking, meaning that babies could become dehydrated quickly."

Among other concerns like bacteria or pathogens.

[alphafemale]

43. Formula today is ridiculously overpriced because there are only a couple of manufacturers

And people are fear-factored into believing an industry has their infants' health as a priority.

[inthewind21]

125. Bingo

[kskiska]

46. I was, too, in 1944.

Lots of shortages then, but no pre-mixed baby formula.

[piddyprints]

48. That's what I was fed.

Well, as far as the formula. I'm pretty sure I didn't get tea and have no idea about the orange juice. I do remember my mom telling me that we had formula made from evaporated milk and karo syrup.

If I had a baby who needed formula now and couldn't buy any, I'd use that recipe.

Funny, though ... to this day, I LOVE evaporated milk, but without the syrup.

[kskiska]

49. I was, too, in 1944.

Lots of shortages then, but no pre-mixed baby formula. I just dug out my doctor's prescribed formula after the birth of my daughter in 1962 - still no pre-mixed formula.

[HAB911]

51. 1 MILLION YEARS

and now we can't survive without it?

[Silent3]

56. Infant mortality was incredibly high in the past

We can easily survive as a species without infant formula. Many individual babies, however, with special nutritional needs, or with mothers who can't produce enough milk, cannot survive without a good formula.

[Mariana]

63. The same way "we" survived without vaccines.

Some didn't survive. In my area, in the old death records, they would list the cause of death as "inanition", when a baby died of starvation. It wasn't all that uncommon.

[txwhitedove]

52. Thank you for this post. That is the tried and true recipe I helped my mother

make in the 1950's. She worked outside the home, but it was something you did in life to feed babies. A recipe is basically like other cooking. Even today's formula often has to be mixed with clean water. I was told that the lady who watched me during the day, once fed me a small jar of chopped black olives. I was only 6 months old, apparently loved them and still do. Just a note about doctors. I called mine in the middle of the night because 1st baby had screaming fits every night for hours, exhausting both of us. Doctor actually wailed, "I don't know what to do!" That kind of left it up to me, right? Finally hit on Colic, gave her watered down 7-Up. She burped profusely, really smiled and we were happy from there on. A little something out of the norm at a tender age and we both thrived.

[Hekate]

71. OMG I wish I had thought of that. My first had colic for-freaking-ever. I held her, rocked her,...

…patted her back, and finally cried myself at one point. All this on breast milk.

[Ms. Toad]

110. Mine only had colic when I ate fresh tomatoes.

We moved the summer before she was born too late to plant a garden, so I was really hungry for fresh tomatoes - and then had to skip them for a second summer.

[Polybius]

53. You think Gen Z can do all that?

[LeftInTX]

65. I'm a boomer (born in 1956) and never owned a bottle sterilizer...Gen Z is hopeless..LOL

Or you can get really old timey and let the baby suck on a cow's teat...
That's what they used to do in orphanages apparently!

[Silent3]

55. Is there a more nutritionally up-to-date recipe that mothers could safely use today...

...using inexpensive and easily available ingredients?

[Hekate]

74. Maybe. Several days ago I hunted for the old one that MinMan produced -- and couldn't find...

…exactly what I remembered. I was born in 1947 and am the big sister (I was pressed into diaper service at age 6, and was proud of being thought so responsible) meaning I remember a lot of things first hand.

Anyhow, I couldn't find the “real” recipe, and am glad MinMan did. What I did find was people tweaking the recipe to reduce the sweetener (wrong — mother’s milk is sweet because babies need the sugars) and scolding comments from wet-behind-the-ears doctors who thought homemade was actively dangerous and that the only acceptable substitute for mother’s milk was something expensive produced in a factory.

I understand the desire to have something nutritionally perfect. My gods do I understand that. I also understand the desire to go natural and breast feed — I did LaMaze births and I nursed my two kids for 13 months each.

But here’s the dirty little secret about the wave of going natural in the 1970s: we can’t all do it, and if I had had any kind of supportive advice whatsoever I could have been spared 2 years of mostly agony from cracked nipples and clogged ducts. I was determined as hell to do the right thing — and it never got better for long.

My babies grew plump and healthy and came out smart as anything — but I am here to tell you that my Mom’s babies also grew plump and healthy and came out smart as anything on the homemade formula from canned milk she used, after she was actively discouraged from doing what came so naturally to her, which was breastfeed.

There are indeed babies who can’t digest cow’s milk, and there are other gut conditions and medical conditions as well — they need the factory-made formulas all the time, and god bless them.

But I would say the majority of infants will be more than adequately nourished by the very same recipe in the OP. Boil the water, use clean bottles and nipples — store in the refrigerator at once. Give the baby pediatric liquid vitamin supplements. And for gods’ sake don’t think you are harming your child permanently.

When I answered “maybe” to your question it’s because I really don’t know what alternatives folks are coming up with these days to try to cheaply achieve something as complicated as the expensive brand name items. A chemistry set, right? Or the (expensive) items in a “health food store.” I just know fads come and go and I’d be wary.

Resume what you’re comfortable with when the shortage eases, and all the best to you and your little one.

[LeftInTX]

58. Concise History of Infant Formulas Twists and Turns

The good old days: https://www.contemporarypediatrics.com/view/concise-history-infant-formula-twists-and-turns-included

The really good old days: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2684040/

Don't try this at home!

Orphanages kept herds of lactating donkeys or goats, and babies would feed directly from their teats

Modern formulas: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/pursuit-better-baby-formula-180973388/

[yardwork]

59. These instructions are dangerous.

Giving tea to a newborn? Orange juice at three weeks? That would be toxic to newborns.

[Mariana]

64. Link, please, to a source that says those things are poisonous to newborns. nt.

[toesonthenose]

69. Toxic? Not sure about that. Maybe fussy babies and messy diapers. But toxic?

Do you have any information to support that claim? I will be the first to admit that I am wrong if so, but toxic seems a pretty far reach.

[Hekate]

75. Never heard of the tea recommendation. OJ gives some babies a rash on their bottom (acidic)...

OJ is for the vitamin C, obviously.

But toxic? No.

[Samrob]

62. That's what I was fed too. Except it was Carnation milk.

And what i with this new infant care that doesn't allow water until babies can almost talk?

[LeftInTX]

66. Breastfed babies don't need water and it's not recommended in the first several months

[Samrob]

101. Why?

[LeftInTX]

102. All of the hydration needs are supplied with breast milk

[Ms. Toad]

111. Also the mom's body is geared to provide baby with exactly what baby needs at the time.

The milk mom produces changes over the nursing period. If you mess with that balance by feeding baby water it decreases the demand (since baby can't necessarily distinguish between water and milk) - and mom's body adapts to the decreased demand (by changing both quantity and content of the milk produced).

[haele]

67. My mom never produced enough milk.

She was a depression baby so she had been breastfed. My parents didn't make a lot of money when we were young, so she was going to try to breastfeed me and later my brother, but she never made enough milk, so both of us grew up on homemade formula. And those nasty dropper kids vitamins. Bleach.

Haele

[Emile]

70. Same here born 1951, no store bought disposable diapers. I wore

reusable cloth diapers hung out to dry on a clothesline to dry.

[Mr.Bill]

72. I remember women in the 50s boiling baby bottles.

Do they even make glass baby bottles anymore?

[Meowmee]

73. Yes

Last edited Sun May 15, 2022, 07:04 PM - Edit history (1)

People can make their own and it may be better than whatever is in the manufactured ones. At least to get you through this shortage this seems like the best solution for now.

My father used to give me a tiny bit of whiskey when I had colic for the first six months and screamed all night, he also used to wheel me in a pram all night while writing his lectures to calm me as well. It worked for us 😹


I noticed a while back, maybe 15 years ago, all the baby formula was locked in cabinets. Apparently it is used to cut with illegal drugs, I am not sure that is true anymore.


* we were breastfed, I am not sure if we ever had any formula. And then transitioned to homemade solid foods in mushed forms which can start at 4- 6 months.

Yet it did not stop me from having some severe inherited chronic health issues in later life.

[samnsara]

76. yep thats the formula i remember!!

[Lars39]

90. Was 13 ounces to 1 can back then?

Evaporated milk now comes in 12 ounce cans.

[Wednesdays]

94. Bet ya they were originally a full pint (16 ounces).

Edit: by 1960 they had already reduced the can size to 13 ounces.

[Lars39]

96. Figures...shrink-flation strikes again!

And probably always has.

[Silent3]

81. Actually, as early as 1860 commercial formula became available

It started in Europe. I don't know how quickly it grew in popularity, affordabily, or got to the US, but it's been available to some degree for a very long time now.

The first version was made with good intentions, and the best nutritional understanding German chemist Justus von Leibig could muster. Unfortunately many cheap imitators followed afterward that were nutritionally awful.

[Mosby]

82. A History of Infant Feeding

....

Many other commercial products and formulas were rapidly introduced after the marketing of Liebig's infant food and the invention of evaporated milk (Radbill, 1981). By 1883, there were 27 patented brands of infant food (Fomon, 2001). These commercial products came in powdered form and consisted of carbohydrates such as sugars, starches, and dextrins that were to be added to milk. Name brands for the products included “Nestlé’s Food®, Horlick's Malted Milk®, Hill's Malted Biscuit Powder®, Mellin's Food®, Eskay's Food®, Imperial Granum®, and Robinson's Patent Barley®” (Radbill, 1981, p. 619). The foods were fattening but lacked valuable nutrients like protein, vitamins, and minerals. Over time, the nutrients were individually added (Radbill, 1981).

The use of artificial formula was associated with many summertime infant deaths (Wickes, 1953d) due to the spoilage of milk left in bottles (Weinberg, 1993). This association was not understood, however, until the public accepted germ theory. Between 1890 and 1910, emphasis was placed on cleanliness and the improvement in the quality of milk supplies. Improvements included providing better care for dairy cattle and forming infant milk clinics to disburse clean milk to the public (Greer & Apple, 1991). By 1912, rubber nipples that were easy to clean became available, and many homes were able to store milk safely in an icebox (Fomon, 2001).

In the 1920s, scientists also began developing nonmilk-based formulas for infants allergic to cow's milk. The first nonmilk formula was based on soy flour and became available to the public in 1929. Like the first formulas introduced in the late 19th century, soy formula lacked vital nutrients, particularly vitamins. Eventually, the problem was resolved with vitamin fortification (Fomon, 2001).

As formulas evolved and research supported their efficacy, manufacturers began to advertise directly to physicians. By 1929, the American Medical Association (AMA) formed the Committee on Foods to approve the safety and quality of formula composition, forcing many infant food companies to seek AMA approval or the organization's “Seal of Acceptance.” Three years later, advertising became regulated so that manufacturers could not solicit information to nonmedical personnel, which facilitated a positive relationship between physicians and the formula companies. By the 1940s and 1950s, physicians and consumers regarded the use of formula as a well known, popular, and safe substitute for breastmilk. Consequently, breastfeeding experienced a steady decline until the 1970s (Fomon, 2001).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2684040/#:~:text=In%201865%2C%20chemist%20Justus%20von,food%20

[Hekate]

86. The invention of both canned evaporated milk and pasteurized milk was a great advance because

… of the fact that in both cases bacteria were killed in cow’s milk. Canned milk was excellent because it was sterilized and shelf-stable until opened.

Mothers who had the means to refrigerate milk supplies and/or who understood the necessity of boiling water and sterilizing baby bottles were miles ahead of their mothers and grandmothers in the cause of reducing infant mortality.

Contaminated milk and contaminated water were both leading causes of infant illness and mortality long ago in this country — as is still the case in undeveloped countries today.

[CrackityJones75]

85. Health experts saying to not do this

Health experts saying to not do this but ya can’t say that to the boomers cuz it worked for them!

[Hekate]

87. Well then spend a fortune on lab-produced formula and let the baby cry when it gets recalled...

… and the shelves are bare.

Or, recognize there’s an alternative to use as a stop-gap and don’t let anyone make you feel guilty about it.

It’s the stories about parents “panicking” that provoke our memories. “Boomers” used Enfamil and such, or breast fed and hunted around for a public restroom with a chair when on the road. Pumped milk in the workplace restroom. Boomers worked damn hard to make it better for the next generation — thank you so very much. We didn’t hang out and gripe that our mothers let us go hungry — we tried to do better if we could. But like I said — “panicking”? Spare me.

[CrackityJones75]

104. Or don't pay attention to the health experts.

I am just saying thats what they are saying. But maybe they are in the pockets of Bug Formula.

[CrackityJones75]

120. Hey I am just relaying the message here.

People should do what they have to do.

[Mariana]

91. What do the health experts recommend to do

when the baby is hungry and there's no breast milk or commercial formula to be had?

[CrackityJones75]

105. I guess you'll have to look it up?

[Ms. Toad]

112. Then those health experts had better provide safe alternatives which people can make at home.

It's all well and good to say it is unsafe - but it is not at all helpful to say "Don't do it," when the alternative is starvation.

[Hekate]

113. Amazing, isn't it? Some of the comments here, but especially the comments by doctors who are...

…supposedly freaking experts, are monumentally unhelpful. If a mother is not producing milk and the laboratory-developed stuff is unavailable, THEN WHAT?

The expert docs ain’t sayin’ and the posters here who have mocked me ain’t sayin’ either. Gods help the desperate parents of howling hungry babes.

. :

[inthewind21]

126. It's been

posted right here in this thread. There have ben alternatives given. Maybe not what you WANT to hear, but the alternatives are there. For the world world to see.

[CrackityJones75]

119. Ok I will tell them immediately.

[MustLoveBeagles]

88. My grandma bottle fed for all 4 of her sons

It wasn't a choice. She tried breastfeeding my dad who's the oldest (1946)but it made him ill. For some reason her milk was no good. My grandfather tried making baby formula for on of my uncles to save grandma the trouble of doing it. It didn't end well. My dad said the house smelled like burnt milk for 2 weeks. This was in the early 50's. After this incident and a few grease fires when he tried to fry chicken he was forbidden to touch the stove unless he was boiling water for coffee or tea.

[Emile]

92. LOL, I like your grandpa!

[sl8]

93. Politifact: Experts warn against homemade baby formula

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/may/13/facebook-posts/experts-warn-against-homemade-baby-formula/

Experts warn against homemade baby formula

By Monique Curet
May 13, 2022

IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT

• The U.S. Food & Drug Administration advises against making homemade formula and says consuming it can result in adverse health effects for infants.

• The American Academy of Pediatrics also strongly advises against homemade formula, saying it isn't safe and does not meet babies’ nutritional needs.

See the sources for this fact-check

The Facebook post makes it sound deceptively simple: To circumvent a nationwide shortage of baby formula, just make your own. But experts strongly disagree.

The May 11 post says people can follow a 1960 recipe for homemade baby formula as a workaround during the current shortage. It shows a photo of the recipe, with ingredients that include evaporated milk and Karo syrup.

[....]

[RobinA]

121. So What Do

"experts" suggest? If you can't buy formula, and you can't produce milk for whatever reason, the only alternative is to use the available resources. I'm seeing very little advice coming from "experts."

[AllyCat]

95. Infant nutrition is a science.

We know so much more now and this is not acceptable for babies. We need to fix the politics and massive holes in our manufacturing system that have brought us here.

[MineralMan]

98. Well, I wasn't suggesting that people feed their babies

like most baby boomers were fed. I was pointing out that commercial formulas have not always been used. Since there is a shortage right now of those commercial formulas, no doubt mothers are looking for alternatives.

If you look at the image in the OP, it says to follow the preparation instructions on subsequent pages. That image is the first page of a pamphlet given to new mothers by their doctors. The instructions that follow that front page detail the process of sterilizing bottles, boiling the water mixed with the evaporated milk and Karo syrup, which is simple corn syrup.

Is it an ideal formula? No, it is not, but it is an example of what millions of living Americans were fed as infants. Breast feeding was not popular in the 40s through the 60s. For whatever reason, new mothers did not want to breastfeed. So, that recipe is typical of the formulas used at that time. There were some commercial formulas out there, but they were not used by most mothers who bottle fed their infants.

So, the question is: If you cannot buy the commercial formula you normally feed your infant, what are you to do? If it is unavailable, do you simply not feed the infant? I don't think so. Those old formulas worked back then, and produced healthy children who grew up to be adults. I suspect there will be mothers of infants who will follow those old recipes so their children are fed. Not optimal, but better than no food at all, I'd think. Of course, they need to follow the rest of the instructions, like my mother and millions of other mothers did, back in those days.

I'm not suggesting, though, that anyone do so. People will, though, I guarantee, if the formula shortage continues. Because you can't start breastfeeding if you didn't start it when the infant was born.

[Sympthsical]

97. Doctors used to recommend cigarettes in the 1940s, too

There's usually a reason we don't do things the same ways we used to. We are more educated about infant health and nutrition.

Also, this whole "Back in my day (with an onion on my belt)" seems intended to minimize the problems people are currently having.

[MineralMan]

100. Not for infants, they didn't.

I'm not minimizing anything. Women are finding it very difficult to get the formula products they need. That's a reality. All I did was to describe how I was fed as an infant between 1945 and 1947. That's not "wearing an onion on my belt," as you put it. I remember someone else using that phrase from the Simpsons when replying to me. Very odd. I suppose it's supposed to be an insult of some kind.

I'm not insulted. I'm just an old man who remembers things.

[Sympthsical]

103. "We all did fine without the polio vaccine"

Imagine telling people that one. That went on in the 1940s as well.

What you mean to say is you did fine. Others less so. However, survivorship bias always wins.

And this is just a theme around here. I was fine, so I don't see what the problem is. Pick any topic and watch that reasoning fly from every end, but usually straight downhill.

Must be thrilling for those at the bottom.

[MineralMan]

107. Oh, dear. You know, I said nothing about polio.

That is a disease. My brother-in-law had it. I lined up in 1955 for the Salk shot, along with everyone in my grammar school.

The fact is that in the 40s and 50s, most infants were fed an evaporated milk formula, much like the recipe I posted in the opening post. That image was the front of a pamphlet handed to a new mother by her doctor. The rest of it described the process of preparing that formula to prevent contamination and eliminate bacteria. I didn't post the instruction pages.

During those years, very few women breastfed their babies. It just "wasn't done." So, that type of home-made formula was what nourished most infants in that period. Commercial formulas weren't that popular with new mothers at that time, and formulas like that one were recommended by doctors to their patients.

Breastfeeding was better, of course. However, for mothers who followed the instructions for sterilization and didn't cut any corners generally had healthy babies on that formula. The babies still got sick sometimes. The babies and later children got the childhood illnesses. I can't tell you how excited parents were when the polio vaccine became available. There was a real panic about polio around 1950. I was 5 years old then, and remember getting rushed to the hospital because I had an upset stomach. My mother was afraid I had polio. I didn't, of course, but some kids got polio.

We're not talking about a deadly virus. We're talking about infant formula. The thing I posted came from a doctor in 1960. I didn't invent it, but I got something virtually identical as my formula. And here I still am, soon to be 77 years old. Babies are apparently pretty sturdy, for the most part.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

106. See? And you turned out ok!

[MineralMan]

108. Hmm...more or less, anyhow.

Just like all the other kids I grew up with. We mostly all got fed the same thing as infants. That's what the doctors recommended.

[herding cats]

114. It has far too little iron for a forming baby.

Can it be supplemented? Yes. But, it's still lacking in iron and other vitamins and minerals.

So, it alone isn't a neat fix for the current shortage. Doctors don't have a handy supply of the proper supplements to toss out to modern day mothers. Which we later learned where a full list of what the babies needed to be in peak health. Now the doctors rely on fortified baby formulas for the infants first 6 months to supply their proper nutrition, including all the vitamins and minerals we've learned they need to thrive and develop properly. Could a supplement be produced to fortify condensed milk? I'm sure it could but there's been no need before now in modern times.

Please, I'm not being snarky, I swear. But, back then teething toys were painted with lead paint. Vaccinations were just DPT and small pox and later on polio. We've learned a few things since then. Which isn't a bad thing. Let's not wax nostalgic to the point of regressing on the simple things we've learned. For example, we know non organic milk products are filled with hormones (a modern problem) and it can potentially lead to premature puberty in young girls. Science is a nifty thing.

[LeftInTX]

115. My mother in law once said, "We didn't have all this breastfeeding stuff, we had Pet Milk"...

[herding cats]

116. And, she wasn't wrong.

It was the best damn thing at the time. I fault not a single persons back then for using it.

We just know more now. That's no fault of the parents back then. Anemia used to be a big issue in infants, it's not anymore. Yay! We learned and adapted.

[LeftInTX]

118. She said it to shame me

Like, "It was good enough for me, it's good enough for you"...She also wanted us to start cereal at age three weeks because that's what she did.

[inthewind21]

127. You're aware

you can go to the baby isle at any CVS, Walgreens, Walmart etc. and get baby vitamins yes? Iron too. And it's been there all along.

[MineralMan]

123. The liquid vitamin supplement they used back then had iron, along

with all of the other recognized vitamins that were known to be needed.

[Raine]

117. I was allergic to cow's milk

my mother replaced that with goat's milk formula. 🍼

[MineralMan]

122. Kept the goat farmers in business.

Many kids were on a goat milk formula, which fixed reactions to cow's milk.