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

[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.