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

[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.