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

[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

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